Buttermilk Rolls

Each year at Thanksgiving dinner I fill my plate with anticipation of all of the dishes I get to taste. Sage stuffing has been one of my favorites since I was little, but what I love the most at Thanksgiving are the buttery rolls.  Soft dinner rolls have a modest way of pulling a plate together.  I like eating one roll with my turkey, and another one with the fixings.  

My affection for rolls isn't just a Thanksgiving thing.  Whenever we visit a bakery I buy a half-dozen rolls and freeze them in packs of two for later; bread is our favorite souvenir.  

Throughout the year when we make special dinners, I like to bake bread to pair with what we are having.  We have great local bread in Seattle, but I think it adds such a nice touch to make our own; it is also much more cost effective. 

I have made these buttermilk rolls many times.  The first time was unceremonious; I had some buttermilk I needed to use.  While I do not recall what else I served that night, I do remember telling myself, “These rolls would be wonderful with turkey and gravy.”  I don’t always have them with turkey and gravy, but I do always have them with butter. 

For a softer, more voluptuous Thanksgiving-style roll bake all twelve in a 9-inch spring-form pan. For sandwiches, or any other occasion, you can bake them in two 9-inch cake pans, as I did in the images you see here.  When baked in the spring-form pan, they rise up together with no space in-between and as a result they retain more moisture in the baking process.  

The recipe was adapted from Saveur.

Ingredients:

¼ ounce active dry yeast

1 ¾ cups buttermilk

5 cups bread flour

½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Unsalted butter or vegetable spray for greasing the pan(s)

1 egg

2 Tbsp poppy seeds

In the bowl of a kitchen-aid mixer combine the buttermilk, yeast, sugar, flour and salt on low speed.  If the dough feels dry, add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough is uniformly moist.  Mix on the medium-low speed (setting 2) until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 6 minutes.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to let the dough rise until it doubles in size, 2-3 hours.  

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 9" cake pans or one spring-form pan with vegetable spray or butter.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball; transfer ball to pan; repeat with remaining dough. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside to let the dough rise for another hour. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with one teaspoon of water. Uncover the dough and brush the egg mixture over the top of each roll; sprinkle rolls with poppy seeds. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Make sure you have plenty of soft butter on hand.