homemade rolls – Bake This Bread!

It’s the time of year for cooking fresh and homemade. Company’s a comin! And you KNOW that starting off from scratch is the real deal. And NOTHING says LOVE more than a kitchen-crafted loaf of soft country bread. Like, what could be nicer when the weather’s cold than a warm slice of homemade pumpkin bread.This bread is glorious! Its made from a simple country white bread recipe with an added dollop of home-roasted pumpkin puree (or even a scoop of organic canned pumpkin puree).

Less than half of a mini cantelope-sized pumpkin’ll do ya for this bread if you’ll be cooking it up the slow food method. But it’s okay to use canned organic pumpkin puree (no sugar added) cause that also works well.

So if you’re making pumpkin pie (like my sister did) using fresh pumpkin for the holidays, save a little for this awesome little bread recipe and you’ll be amazed how delighted your guests will be. This bread doesn’t have a pumpkin pie flavor (because pumpkin recipes usually have cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg — this doesn’t). So the result is just bright and moist and countrified. Oh, and the orange color is pretty dang cute, did I mention that?

We left the city for the river house to join with family and friends — and to count our blessings.

The Merced River this time of year is cold. The salmon are starting to spawn and there’ll be no fishing on the river soon as the river closes down for the winter to let the salmon run.

We’re gathered around the fireplace, reading good books, chatting and cooking up some fun food events for the fam. Since we prep the food on the bar in front of the fire, the whole house grabs a bar stool to watch the action – and maybe to snatch a taste or two of the food action. Won’t you join us for a nice slice or two of this incredible easy-to-prepare homemade pumpkin bread? I think you’re going to love it, I really do.

Click HERE to check out our easy instructions on how to roast a mini pumpkin for pumpkin puree. Basically, just clean a mini pumpkin and throw it in the oven at 350 until it becomes fork tender (like a baked potato), then scrape out the pumpkin and puree it in a food processor or blender until it becomes a thick paste.

Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 teaspoons yeast (we used bread machine yeast in a jar)
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree (or fresh roasted room temperature pumpkin puree)

How to made homemade pumpkin bread:

1.) Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until it holds together.

2.) Sprinkle it with a little flour and work with your hands until the tacky or sticky feeling disappears. When the tacky feeling disappears, move it to the countertop.

3.) Set a timer and knead the dough, pressing firmly with the heels of your hands, for 10 minutes.

4.) Shape the dough into smooth disc and place it in large buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

5.) Let the covered dough rise for 1 hour in a warm spot (like the oven with just a light on inside).

Here’s what it looks like when it has risen for 1 hour…

6.) Remove the dough from the rising bowl and knead it for 1 minute and shape it for final baking shape. Place the shaped dough into a buttered bread pan.

7.) Let the dough rise uncovered for 1 hour or until the bread just starts to rise over the top of the bread pan. I like to spray it with a light spray of water a few times to keep it moist.

8.) Bake it in pre-heated 350 oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown (internal temperature shoud be about 185 degrees).

Now you’ve got yourself a country soft servin bread, whoo hoo!

Serve it warm with honey butter. yum! Store the bread wrapped in wax paper or in a brown paper bag or wrapped in parchment.

Thank you for joining me on this homemade bread making journey! Check out our vintage cake recipes at Bake This Cake! and we’ll have some history fun in the kitchen together.

Let me know how it goes if you choose this bread recipe for your holiday table (and remember I love photos)! 😀

Leslie

Photo Graphics Homemade Yeast Rolls (bakethisbread.com)
Homemade Roasted Pumpkin Spice Cake (bakethiscake.com)
Vintage Sour Cream Pound Cake (bakethiscake.com)
Quick Vintage Chocolate Crazy Cake (bakethiscake.com)
Mary Todd Lincoln’s Vanilla Almond Pound Cake (bakethiscake.com)
Food Bloggers LA Celebrate Pumpkin! (shockinglydelicious.com)
Pumpkin Mousse with Toffee Crunch (shepausedforthought.com)

Welcome to easy step-by-step old-fashioned bread-making Right on your counter-top! No fancy bread machines required! (And if you have a machine, just put that thing away!) Just lock and load the dough on a lightly floured counter top and pull out a tiny bit of muscle power and you’re off. Don’t forget to haul your friends or your kids to the kitchen to watch or help. And kick up the music ’cause it’s cool and fun to make your own lovely homemade scratch bread or rolls just like great-grandma used to do.

Here’s how to make lovely homemade yeast rolls…

Plop the ingredients into a large bowl.

Tip: A yeast packet is about 2-1/2 teaspoons of yeast. You can use rapid rise or bread machine yeast or 1 refrigerated cake or just about any other type of yeast for this recipe.

Double tip: Bread flour or all-purpose flour will do the trick and unsalted butter is best but not required.

Triple tip: In the photos, t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon.

Stir the bread batter it with a wooden spoon…

Stir it until it forms a nice ball…

Dust a little flour on the counter-top and knuckle into the dough, flapping it over and pushing with the heel of your hand. Set the timer and turn on your favorite music…

After 10 minutes of bread kneading magic (aka bread meditation time), your dough will look like this…

Let’s make nice dinner rolls with it using a 4″ circle cutter (even an upside down glass or wide-mouth jar will do).

Roll the circle lightly…

Roll it on the counter-top (see the stages of flat to curled to rolled on the right sidee of the tray in the photo below) and shape it like this…

Rest the rolled dough on a cookie sheet (or other pan) that is lightly sprayed with cooking spray or rubbed with butter. Let them hang in a warm place (like the oven with the light on) for one hour.

Check on your little dough babies, maybe spray them with a little water and let them continue to rise for another hour…

When the second hour has elapsed, they will look something like this…

Bake them in a hot 350 oven on a buttered cookie sheet pan for about 20 minutes until golden brown…

They will look like this (and they will smell heavenly!)…

Different shapes are good ’cause that means they’re homemade…

Brush them with a little melted butter…

Okay, yum!

Your little baby bread rolls are going to go fast at the table, I can assure you!

When the butter soaks into the rolls, they look like this, all decked out in a cut handkerchief-lined basket for your holiday dinner table…

Slice them open and find soft, white country style homemade bread rolls for supper.

Spread them with a little butter (or not) and you’ve got yourself some history in the making…

Thank you for joining me on this little photo adventure through bread baking land. 😀

I hope you’ll leave comments for me and follow us on Facebook where we show test recipes in progress. And check out our homemade vintage cakes using recipes from way back in the day.