Salted Yeast Rolls

These rolls are very easy to make and have many uses. After you make them the first time you will not want to buy pre-made dinner rolls again. This recipe makes a minimal mess and uses minimal cookware, but it does make use of a particular easy technique; that is, stretching the dough around from the top of the dough ball to the bottom. This is important to get a very smooth, shiny top to the rolls. If you don't do this, no big deal, the rolls will taste the same.

In a large resealable bag (e.g., Ziploc) put 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 package rapid rise yeast, 1 Tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp salt. Put 2 Tbsp butting in 1 cup hot tap water and stir until melted. Add to the bag, seal it up, and squeeze the bag with your hands until everything is mixed together. Add another 1 1/2 cups flour to the bag. Seal and repeat the squeezing until well mixed. If the dough sticks to the bag, add a little more flour and knead again until it falls away from the sides. Open the bag and let it sit for 20 minutes in a warm place to rise.

Punch the dough down and remove it from the bag. Place on a floured board and cut the dough into equal sized pieces, 8 or 12 depending on how large a roll you want. Shape each piece into a ball, hold it with both hands, and then using your thumbs, stretch the top of the dough around to the sides in both directions. Turn the ball 1/4 turn and repeat so that the top of the dough is stretched all the way around. Place the ball on a baking sheet on parchment, so that the bottoms are down and the newly stretched tops are up. Paint each top with a little beaten egg or egg white and sprinkle with your highest quality salt. Allow the dough balls to sit in a warm place for about a half hour or longer, until they have noticeably increased in size.

Bake on the parchment at 375 F for 15-20 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned.