It’s possible I had overly ambitious plans for Christmas Dinner, considering we were traveling cross-country the day before, but it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time: rolls, stuffing, turkey, potatoes, the other things taken care of by other people. It’s also possible I should have chosen a roll recipe that I’d made before. It’s possible I should have drunk my coffee and then started the rolls.* I didn’t though, and thus I made what were beautiful, almost awesome rolls for my mothers-in-law & family for Christmas dinner. Almost awesome even though I forgot the salt.**
Professional kitchen ethos: “Don’t serve anything you’re not proud of.”***
Home dinner party ethos: “Never apologize, never explain.”****
After crying a bit on my spouse’s shoulder over the lost opportunity of making really delicious rolls for Christmas, I went with the second guideline and served the rolls anyway. Next time! they’ll be even better.
Kindred’s Milk Bread Rolls, slightly adapted from Food52
Makes 24-30 rolls
- 5 1/3 cups bread flour, divided
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup mild honey
- 3 T nonfat dry milk powder
- 2 T active dry yeast
- 2 T kosher salt (don’t forget it!!)
- 3 large eggs, divided
- 4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature, plus more for coating the pans
- Flaky sea salt
- Cook 1/3 cup flour and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a thick paste forms (almost like a roux but looser), about 5 minutes. Add cream and honey and cook, whisking to blend, until honey dissolves.
- Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add milk powder, yeast, kosher salt, 2 eggs, and 5 remaining cups flour. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. Add butter, a piece at a time, fully incorporating into dough before adding the next piece, until dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 4 minutes.
- Form into a smooth ball and leave in the mixer bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Butter 24 muffin tins. Turn out dough and divide into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a cylinder, approximately 1 inch in diameter, and cut into 1 inch sections. They don’t need to be exact. Form each section into a ball and place 4 pieces of dough side-by-side in each muffin cup. If you have extra dough and extra muffin tins, make more rolls. If not, just free-form the rest and use them to taste test.
- Let shaped dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size (dough should be just puffing over top of pan), about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375° F. Beat remaining egg with 1 teaspoon. water in a small bowl to blend. Brush top of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until bread is deep golden brown, starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, and is baked through, 17 to 20 minutes for rolls. Let cool slightly in pan on a wire rack before turning out. Serve with a smile.
* The moment when I had both my coffee cup and a cup of flour next to the kneading mixer and, instead of adding a bit more flour when the dough was sticky, I poured in some of my coffee was a good indicator that I wasn’t yet at my Christmas Day best.
** Dear self, you know this one – always, always taste your dough.
*** Quote from Duskie Estes, for whom I had the privilege of working, once upon a time. This idea is also covered really well in what I think of as “the chef speech” in Chef, the movie. I love that movie.
**** Quote which a dear friend of mine attributes to Julia Child (and gently reminds me of every time I apologize at a dinner party). The internet now tells me the actual Julia Child quote is “No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize.” That works too.
there is no perfect 
I’m keeping that dinner party line, even if it isn’t a direct quote. It’s great. I’m glad you put them out, too.
A story that comes to mind:
My mother always put out an insane spread for thanksgiving, ending with multiple kinds of pie (and sweet potato pudding, which was actually our favorite anyway). One year, she completely failed to add the sugar to the pumpkin pie and (not liking pumpkin b/c boring) didn’t figure this out until she saw a guest struggling through it a bit and she tried it…
…I think this may be one of the only times I ever heard her swear, or (nearly) apologize for food. She jumped out of her seat, said, “Oh, shit!!!”, and picked up the pie and hurtled it into the kitchen (but not the guest’s dish). She then returned to the dining room, entirely composed, and said, “it seems that one of the pies has no sugar in it. There are extra dessert plates if you’d like to try something else instead, and I wouldn’t blame you.”
This story still makes me laugh; luckily, it made her laugh too, so I don’t even feel guilty. Maybe you had to be there. 🙂 I try to keep myself from apologizing for food I make if it passes the extremely low bar of the “oh shit!!!!” test.
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OMG, I’ve DONE that! Minus the hurtling and swearing. (I love that, though.) I’ve also served the same recipe with an unbroken yolk in it, which my partner received. To her everlasting credit, she told only me. On neither occasion did I have multiple other desserts to offer.
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My Christmas contribution was pie. For the crust, I used the 1-2-3 method referred to in this very blog, with half butter, half shortening as the fat. I tried hard to follow the “don’t fret” advice when almost NO liquid was needed. (Perhaps shortening, which I don’t usually use, just doesn’t require much liquid?) I tasted it. It tasted…OK. I even baked a little with cinnamon sugar as a test. This didn’t taste great, but since 1) I was deeply tired, didn’t WANT to start over, and was nearly out of white flour, and 2) I had slightly burned the test pieces….I went ahead and filled it with delicious apples, cinnamon, sugar, and butter, and topped it with a lovely crumble.
It was lovely. The filling was delicious. And the crust made us ill.
Turns out shortening has an extremely long, but not infinite, shelf life.
Back to all butter, I think. Or at least fresher shortening…
And next time I shall strive to remember that apple crisp is a perfectly viable option.
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Oh no! (And yes, to apple crisp! I’ll keep that one in my toolkit as well.)
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These rolls look awesome. Can’t beat home baked bread.
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And now I have a new test to add to my mental dinner party toolkit. Thank you! (Also a new graceful host goal – just go into the kitchen, breathe, then come out and calmly offer alternatives. I’m a bit in awe of your mom.)
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