Butterless Buttermilk Dinner Rolls (For Debbie-My-Egg-Lady #1, 2012*)

Ingredients

 7/8 oz fresh cake yeast
2 1/2 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/3 c warm water for yeast
1/2 c sugar
2 t salt
about 6 c. bread flour

Method, Mixing, Etc.

Used my big stand mixer, put in dry ingredients first, adding all the rest, mixed with beater until well blended, then switched to dough hook for kneading about 3-4 more minutes.  I usually knead  by hand for about a minute before putting the dough in a lightly oiled, lidded plastic tub to rise on top of my stove- usually ready to shaping in about an hour if I am using yeast.

Yield: 3# 12 oz dough, or two pans of  seven 4 oz rolls each and one extra roll in a custard cup.  Baked at 325 for 30 minutes.  Just the right amount of time and the lower temp made for light, high, soft rolls.  Buttermilk added loads of flavor without butter or sugar.

No photos of this one; they look like unglazed Polish Sweet Bread rolls.  (See banner photo, above).  The other tip that I used from baking biscuits is that if you pack them in close to one another, the only place they can rise is UP, which they do!

One more tip:  Use 8" aluminum pie pans from the grocery store. (Or in my case, at Marc's they are 6/$1.00!) The pans are sectioned for six rolls around one center roll to make a "daisy" of rolls.  I remove the rolls from the pan immediately in order for them to cool off.  Once they are at room temp, I cover them with a "shower cap" cover or some plastic wrap and then I can easily give them as gifts or freeze in the pans.

*Becky introduced me to her friend Debbie who runs the Art Studio at Columbus Goodwill.  She has chickens- 20 or so- and we arranged a bread-for-eggs exchange through Becky.  So every week, I receive a gorgeous dozen of extra large-to-jumbo size brown, blush, or pale green eggs.  They have bright orange yolks and are quite delicious.  Debbie gets a loaf of home baked bread or rolls from me in return.  She said that she loves to be surprised, so I am happy to accommodate her.  I usually aim for a 1#  10 oz loaf or larger.  A lot of the time it is something that I pull together with odds and ends in the fridge such as leftover potatoes,  bean cooking liquid, yogurt, cottage cheese, juice from olives or pickles, or leftover cooked rice, etc. etc.) I try to keep track of what I bake so that if she ever requests a repeat of something I know which bread she is talking about.