Your Best Dinner Rolls

Monkeymom's ingredient list: molasses, egg, yeast, flour, milk, butter, brown sugar and rolled oats.

First, you proof the yeast in a little lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar.

We used a mixer with a dough hook to make the dough, but you can easily do it by hand, as monkeymom suggests.

Molasses: black as tar, and great for flavor.

Our yeast proofed beautifully.

Once the rest of the ingredients have been incorporated, it's time to add the flour. We found that we needed a tiny bit more than the recipe called for, but you may not -- bread requires flexibility!

It reminded us of gingerbread dough at this stage.

A quick knead, and Amanda shaped it into a smooth ball for its first rise.

We put it in the fridge for a few hours in an oiled bowl.

Once it had risen (not too much), we punched it down and divided the dough into 12 equal pieces.

We followed monkeymom's technique of flattening each piece of dough and then tucking the edges under to form smooth balls.

We nestled them into a cake pan, with a little breathing room for the second rise.

Some butter...

and a dusting of oats.

After another hour and half or so, this is what they looked like. Time for the oven!

A bevy of starches (AP flour, bread flour, buckwheat flour, potato flakes) joins baking soda, yeast, butter, egg, sour cream and honey.

If you're not using leftover mashed potatoes, you need to first hydrate your potato flakes with boiling water.

Then we added the sour cream, egg, butter and honey, plus a bit of salt.

The yeast and then the other dry ingredients get added -- the flour a little at a time.

We chose the long proofing method, which meant less yeast and less kneading!

We put the dough into an ungreased bowl, which we covered tightly and put in the fridge overnight.

The next day -- evidenced here by new outfits -- Amanda winds up to punch the dough down.

AntoniaJames has you flatten it into a disc and let it rest for a few minutes.

Then, it gets divided into 16 equal pieces.

When you're shaping 16 rolls, it's nice to have four hands!

The dough felt lovely and smooth as we shaped it.

A neat little row of rolls.

We arranged them in a well-buttered cake pan, with some room to grow during their second rise.

A light egg wash gives the rolls a caramel sheen.

Ready for the oven!