Homemade Rolls for Easter Dinner?

The Bread machine does the hard work - making these homemade rolls a cinch for company dinners.

Mix the following ingredients, then put them into the bread maker:

1 1/2 cups of warm water. Not HOT, not cold, but warm
2 packets or 5 teaspoons of yeast
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup (heaping) of sugar
3 eggs
3 taspoons of salt


Now add 4 1/2 cups of flour, turn the bread maker on, set to the "dough" setting. When the mixture starts to look like a blob, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time. After each addition, test to see if it's still sticky. If it is, add another tablespoon. When it no longer feels sticky, stop adding flour and leave it alone.

Now you can go do something else for 1 1/2 hours while the bread mixer does its work.

When the dough is ready you'll need a large baking pan - like a lasagna pan or flat cake pan. Grease the bottom and sides well.

When the time is up, sprinkle some flour on a cutting board or well-scrubbed section of counter-top, then turn the dough out onto it.

Start kneading - which means you push it down, fold it over, and push it down again several times. If it gets too sticky, sprinkle on a little flour. When the dough starts to feel like it's pushing back, it's ready.

Pull it apart into chunks about halfway between the size of a golf ball and a baseball, smooth out each piece, and put it in the pan. Keep going until the pan is full. You might have to adjust the pieces a little as you go to try to get them all about the same size and make them cover the pan evenly.

Now grease the tops so they can't dry out, cover the whole thing with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel (NOT a heavy one), and set it in a warm (NOT hot) place for between 45 and 90 minutes - or until the dough is twice as big as it was when you put it in the pan. After about a half hour, turn the oven to 350 degrees so it will be hot when you're ready for it.

Now... put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. When it rings, check to see that your rolls are a nice golden brown. If they don't look quite done, give them another 3 minutes.