Most families have their own traditions, as does ours.  Their significance may or may not be recognizable to others, but they are still important.

One of our traditions centers around our birthday celebrations.  When someone in our family has a birthday they get to choose the dinner menu for their special day.  The rest of us work as a team to make that dinner for the celebrant.  Our labor is part of the gift that we give them.

Inflation, the Trump tariff taxes, and other factors have made beef prices skyrocket through the roof and now we think twice when considering hamburgers for dinner.  Steak has become a rare luxury item in our home, so it is no surprise that it is a frequently requested item for a birthday dinner.

We recently celebrated my daughter’s birthday.  This was her chosen menu:

Steak, salad, broccoli, real mashed potatoes, cut up strawberries, yeast rolls and Rainbow cake.  

What is Rainbow cake? When my kids were very young my wife had a major operation that left her bed bound for many weeks.  I took off time from work to not only take care of her, but also our small children, one who was still in diapers. I wanted things to be as normal as possible for our children, and I came up with activities that we could do ranging from going to the zoo to having picnics at our local park.  I did all of the cooking during that time and one day I came up with the idea of making a rainbow cake. I added a magical descriptions about the cake concerning the power of the rainbow, and the cake became a hit.  In fact, some of my kids request that I still make Rainbow cake for their birthdays to this very day.

All of the above is just background for the reason of this post, which is another writing to encourage you to save money by using a bread maker.

I  have done several posts showing how easy and inexpensive it is to make bakery quality bread using a bread maker.  Today, I’ll write about using the dough function to make other yeasted products.  In this case, dinner rolls.

I don’t think that I have made dinner rolls in over a decade, so don’t expect perfection.  The bread maker easily makes a perfect dough, but dinner rolls are still more work than pressing a button as you have to form them, and bake them in the oven.

I found a traditional recipe from an author named “Sally” that looked good, so I went with that.  Honestly, they turned out delicious.  They were exponentially better than commercial dinner rolls and significantly better than those from the grocery store bakery.  Rich, yet light, they had a slightly sweet and eggy flavor and were a dynamite addition to our birthday feast. For me, they were extremely nostalgic, as they reminded me of the wonderful rolls that my mom made so many years ago. 

I was too lazy to cost out this recipe, but I know that they these rolls are significantly less expensive than comparable ones purchased from a good bakery.  The level of work is a bit more than the “press and forget” bread from a bread maker.  But since the machine does all of the heavy lifting, it is a pleasure to make them.  

Consider giving this recipe a try, and you will elevate a simple dinner into something special. Let’s take a look at the recipe.

This recipe is for a traditional bake. To convert the recipe for a bread maker remember to add your liquid ingredients first, followed by the dry ingredients and the yeast last.

I measured the milk and added the butter to it. I microwaved the mixture for around 15 seconds until the milk was warm to touch but not hot.

Into the baking pan it went.

In went an egg and then the salt.

Next, I added the sugar.

I weighed the flour, as that is the most accurate way to measure it.

Lastly, in went the yeast.

I selected the basic dough course and pressed start.

This is an extra step, but do it if you have time. After the dough was kneading for 5-10 minutes I checked it. It was looking a bit slack. There was still dough that wasn’t incorporating into the dough ball. This can happen even with careful measuring for a variety of reasons ranging from humidity, to variations in the brand of flour, to the size of the egg. If I did nothing the dough would probably be OK, but fixing it is easy.

I added about one tablespoon of flour and waited about 30 seconds to see if I needed to add more. That one tablespoon was enough, all was good.

Now the machine was on its own. I would come back when it beeped that it was done making the dough.

Here is the dough all puffy and beautiful.

I placed the dough on a lightly floured surface and allowed it to rest for around 10 minutes. This makes it more “cooperative” with shaping.

The next step involved a pastry scraper. This is a very inexpensive gadget with many uses. If you don’t have one you can just use a knife.

The dough was divided into 12 pieces. You can use a scale to be precises, but I just eyeballed it.

The edges of each piece was pinched together, and then I rolled the dough in my hand to form a nice ball.

The dough balls were placed in a 9 x 13 pan that I had sprayed with some cooking spray. Yes, not professionally shaped, but good enough. Don’t let perfectionism prevent you from bread making!

I covered the pan and placed it in a draft-free location and allowed the buns to double in size. I think it took between 30-40 minutes (I lost track of time).

I then baked them at 350F (175C) for 20-25 minutes. My oven may vary from yours so keep an eye on your rolls.

The rolls were a hit at dinner. The amount of work was more than making a bread maker loaf, but it was still very easy. The biggest drawback was that I had to be around when the dough was rising and then baking. Neither was a big deal.

Happy Baking

Mike