Bread and Butter

One of the very few memories that I have from kindergarten is making butter.  I remember being so proud when my mom came to our class Thanksgiving celebration and we buttered our bread rolls from the little glass container (that held baby food in its previous life) that contained the butter that I made myself.  Mostly, I was just amazed that I made it.  Though five year old me may not have grasped the exact science of the butter-making process, it definitely got me interested in cooking and introduced me to the relationship between food and science.

The above story came to mind while I was making homemade rolls on Thanksgiving.  I'm a fairly experienced baker, but baking with yeast is not something that I do super regularly.  I feel like it's mysterious and magical and finicky and I can never predict when it's going to come out well.  It either does its thing or it doesn't.  But when it does work out, I feel a little bit of that "Wooowwww, I did that!" feeling that I got from making butter.  However, I am not five anymore, and I thought that it was probably time to investigate just why my rolls this year were successful (Yes!).

The first proof was a little...underwhelming.  I was worried that my my loved ones would be forced to gnaw on doughy rocks while politely nodding with a forced smile.  The second proof however, was the bomb.  Those little suckers doubled in size and then some!  I brushed them with some honey butter and popped them in the oven.  Fifteen minutes later I had golden brown carb-y glory.  But why?  I did some sciencing and I'll spare you the full report, but essentially:  the second rise was more successful because I had the dough vessel sitting on top of the warm oven!  Apparently yeast is most active (feeding on sugar and releasing carbon dioxide) around 80 degrees and the extra heat from the oven helped out a lot.

So I now feel super confident moving into my next bread-baking experience.  I apologize for the lack of photos, but to be fair I was cooking like 7 things at once.  I feel like I should get a pass!  Here's the recipe that I used, though:  http://www.melissassouthernstylekitchen.com/honey-yeast-rolls/