This is a good homemade roll recipe to include for a holiday meal. They are easiest to make if you have a stand mixer, but you can knead by hand too if you don’t mind getting messy. Though there are a few “rising” steps involved, the actual time involved in making these olive oil and rosemary rolls is pretty minimal.
How to make Olive Oil and Rosemary Rolls:
Combine olive oil and fresh rosemary. The longer you can let the rosemary infuse the olive oil, the better. This will be so yummy mixed into the dough.
Mix yeast and warm water and give them a few minutes to interact. Foaming and bubbling is good. If it doesn’t foam and bubble, your yeast is not active and needs to be tossed. Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer and add a little bit of your flour and salt.
Switch to the dough hook and pour in the rosemary-infused olive oil. Let the hook do its kneading work for a couple of minutes. (You can do this by hand too… just knead the dough in a bowl so you don’t get olive oil all over the place).
Take the dough out of the bowl and place it onto a lightly floured board. Form a nice round blob (I take the sides of the dough and kind of fold it underneath so the top looks nice and neat).
Lightly dust the blob with flour and place it in a large zip bag. Press the air out and seal. Let rise in a warm place for about an hour. I don’t ever seem to have a warm place so I use my oven. I turn it on very briefly and then turn it off and leave the light on. It’s then warm enough to let my bread rise. I place the bag on a wooden board and then just place it on an oven rack.
Punch down the dough and then let it sit to rise in the zip bag for another hour.
Take it out of the bag and punch the dough to deflate. Let it rest for a few minutes.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Form them into 12 rolls. You can roll them into balls or take the dough and tuck it underneath to form a smooth, round top.
Brush the tops with melted butter, cover with plastic wrap and let them rise at room temperature for about an hour. You can create somewhat of a holding pattern here if you’d like. Bake them right away, or refrigerate them at this point and take them out to rise when you’re ready. Or you can let them sit for a bit longer than an hour. They shouldn’t get too crazy-out-of-control with their rising unless you’ve got some crazy-out-of-control active yeast 🙂 They need about 20 minutes in the oven. Tuck them into a cloth-lined basket to keep them warm for dinner. They’re tender rolls with the oh-so-subtle flavor of rosemary. Though there’s butter brushed on top, a good dab of butter on a warm roll is a really good thing too. Enjoy!
