Dinner and Cinnamon Rolls
Literally every Black person has a recipe for these. Why would I be any different?
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 packets yeast
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
4 1/2 all purpose flour (You can use up to 1 cup additional to keep it from sticking too much.)
1/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
In a large bowl, pour the warm water. Add the yeast and let sit for 5 minutes. Don’t stir it.
Mix the eggs, salt, oil, and sugar in vigorously.
Mix in the flour and knead on a floured surface. If you don’t know how to knead, honestly, just look up a video on YouTube. It’s like an intense massage. Really get in there. The point of kneading is to develop the gluten (the stuff that makes bread bind together). You can stop in about 7 minutes when the dough gets elastic-y.
Put the dough back into the bowl, cover the bowl with saran wrap, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours.
Once the dough is risen, preheat the oven to 375F.
Pull off a bit of dough about the size of your thumb. Dip the bit into butter and use the lubrication to smooth the dough into oblong shape. Put two of the oblongs in each muffin tin.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Optional directions to make cinnamon rolls:
6. Do steps 1-5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface.
7. Brush with the melted butter.
8. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. I usually do about a 1/2 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon.
9. Roll up the dough. Slice it into disks about 2 inches wide.
10. Arrange the rolls in a baking dish.
11. Bake at 375F for about 15 minutes.