French Bread Rolls

When we first moved into our new apartment, I was more than ready to start cooking. Especially since cooking is my favorite stress reliever. Unfortunately, our "new" kitchen did not cater to this need of mine. You see, even though the oven looked brand new, whenever I turned it on to start cooking/baking, it would smoke...and then an awful smell would fill the kitchen. I cleaned it, I scrubbed it, I tried to let it burn out but no...nothing worked. So after about a week or two, we finally called our landlord to see if he had any suggestions/wanted to buy us a new stove. And guess what? An additional week and a half later, viola! New stove! Granted, it's not some high class, fancy pants stove but it's the nicest one that I have ever had in my life, though it would still be considered "basic". Needless to say, I'm stoked!

Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is because it was during this depressing 3 or 4 weeks without an oven that I kept coming across a bunch of new recipes that I desperately wanted to try to cook my stress away (from moving, unpacking, job searching etc) but couldn't. It was during this time that I came across a recipe for Garlic Knots on My Kitchen Cafe. I could not wait to try them. I found that the recipe was pretty easy, but unfortunately our rolls did not turn out all buttery and garlicy as expected. You see, I mixed my butter and garlic as directed and let it set on our oven to stay melted while the rolls finished rising and then baking. Well when I went to go brush on the butter, I looked and the garlic had turned a bluish-green color. Not wanting to come down with a case of botulism, I decided to forgo the garlic butter and just brush with regular butter. Since then though, I looked online to see what was up with my blue garlic and turns out it would have been okay to eat. Something about the garlic reacting to an acid..yada yada yada. However, before I try that mixture again, I think I'm goign to do a little more research. I would hate to get anyone sick...

Anyway, the rolls by themselves were pretty good. I think I would have liked them a bit sweeter. Perhaps with a honey butter? I'm not sure. Also, I used my Kitchen Aid and let the dough hook do some of the kneading work for a while before I kneaded it myself a few times. I also found that I had to add an additional 1/2 cup of flour or so to make it dough not so sticky. I'll probably play around with the recipe at some later day but for now, here ya go!

French Bread Rolls
by My Kitchen Cafe-adapted from allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12-14 equal pieces, and form into round balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth (or greased saran wrap), and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake for 12-13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.