Holiday Favorites: Home-made Clover (Pull-apart) Rolls

I don't know anyone who doesn't love the smell of baking bread. I bake it as often as my toddler will let me, and while it can be time consuming, it isn't hard. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of the best excuses to make breads, and even though easy brown-and-serve rolls are readily abundant in the grocery stores these days, I get a certain sense of pride from making it from scratch. My Meme was the one who made the rolls till I was in high school. By then, she had nerve damage in her hands that made kneading the dough painful, so she would stand over me and make sure that I did it to her standard. Here is her recipe.



YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 Tbsp butter (room temperature)
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 to 4 1/4 cups all-purpose bleached flour
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
• melted butter
• softened butter

THEN:

1. Heat the milk to 120-130 degrees F; add the butter and set aside to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add cooked milk (which has been allowed to return to room temperature), eggs, and sugar ro dissolved yeast and stir to blend. With a wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups of the flour, as well as the salt,; stir until smooth. Add 2 cups of remaining flour, one cup at a time, stirring vigorously for 3 to 5 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and only slightly sticky. 
2. Cover the surface of the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and cover the top of the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, dry place, until the dough has doubled in size (about 1-2 hours.) For extra-light rolls, gently punch the dough down and allow it to rise a second time before shaping.
3. Lightly butter 2 12-cup muffin tins. Punch the dough down gently (not pummeling, just using a fist to press out the air). With lightly buttered hands, pinch off generous 1-inch pieces of dough. With your fingertips, pull the dough into a ball shape. Don't roll it between your palms! Pull the dough smooth and tuck it under, pinching the seal tightly closed at the bottom of the ball. dip the ball in melted butter and arrange three in each muffin cup (seams down).Allow them to rise in the cups until they have doubled in size (about 1 hour).
   
4. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, or until well-browned. If they aren't quite cooked, but seem to be getting too brown, cover the tops loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side out). When browned, remove from oven and brush with softened butter. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes. 
5. Remove rolls immediately from cups to a wire cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before serving.

Some tips for you: use a good, old-fashioned wooden spoon to stir the dough. Don't use an electric mixer of any kind, because it will destroy the gluten and give you dense, tough, nasty bread. If the bread absolutely refuses to smooth, and remains sticky, add the extra 1/4 cup of flour to it, one teaspoon at a time. Too much flour will make your bread dry and crusty.