Friday, May 13, 2011

Armenian Dinner Rolls

Dinner rolls can change in texture and size, depending on where they originate from.  The typical dinner roll in the US is usually as high or higher than its width.  This particular recipe stems from Armenia and the recipe turns out rolls that are three times wider than their height.

As you can see by the picture, even though made with white flour, they have a tan exterior.  The rolls have a light crust with a soft,chewy inside. They have a taste similar to Portuguese sweet rolls. Quite a delicious change of pace from the standard dinner rolls.

If you do make these, be aware that the dough is very gloppy and sticky.  The dough is not kneaded, so it will not be close to the standard dough that you may be used to.  This recipe makes 2 dz rolls.

Armenian Dinner Rolls
courtesy of recipelink.com 

Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm milk
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 beaten eggs
1 beaten egg with 1 tsp water (for egg wash)
1 stick or 1/2 cup butter
6 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 packets of yeast
2 tbs bread topping or sesame seeds

In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over lukewarm water and mix until blended.  Set aside for 15 minutes to form bubbles.

Whisk (do not sift) the flour, salt and baking powder together.  Set this aside also.

Take a large bowl or Pyrex measuring cup (must be able to hold 4 cups), add the stick of butter and microwave for 45 seconds or until completely melted.  Grab another bowl and pour in milk.  Place bowl of milk inside the microwave and heat until lukewarm.  Then pour milk into melted butter and whisk together.  Blend the sugar in with the butter mixture.

 Mix the beaten eggs into the batter, continuing to whisk. Pour the yeast liquid into the batter.  After all has been blended together, add the flour mixture.  Stir with a wooden spoon until no more flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.

Cover bowl of dough and put in a warm place to rise for 2-3 hours or until doubled. During the rising time, oil the surface of 2 baking sheets.

Once rising time is complete, uncover dough.  Then, with greased/oiled hands, carefully scoop out about 1/4 of a cup of batter and place on cookie sheet.  As stated before, dough will be very wet, gloppy and sticky.  Continue to fill up baking sheet, placing each ball 2-4 inches apart from the other.

After all the dough has been placed on the sheets, let rise for another hour to 1 1/2 hours (or until doubled in size).  This is the last rising session. At the halfway point in rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Note that the size of the rolls (after rising) will be about 3 inches across and 1 inch tall.

At the end of the second session of rising, take out the egg wash and bread topping.  Lightly brush on the egg mixture, covering the tops of the rolls.  Then sprinkle with topping.  Place each pan in oven to bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove baking sheets from oven and transfer rolls to rolls to cooling rack.  Serve warm.