Lion House Rolls and Cinnamon Rolls
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Lion House Rolls are my favorite rolls; hands down. They are light and fluffy and buttery and delicious. I make them every Easter and every Christmas or, whenever I serve an important meal. It is a very trustworthy recipe. The end product is guaranteed.
Imagine my surprise when I was minding my own business at Costco and I saw this beauty out of the corner of my eye!
World Famous Lion House roll mix! I heard the angels singing. Have my dreams come true? This Easter I thought I'd give this box mix a try to see if it even compared to the LHR from scratch.
They were every bit as light and heavenly as I was hoping for. So, I thought I'd take it a step further in the comparison between mix and homemade. This time I wanted to make some cinnamon rolls with a different box of LHR mix (Costco sold the mixes in a set of three). So I made another batch, let it raise, and rolled it into a rectangle about 9x13 inches.
I mixed about a cup of granulated sugar and 3 Tbs. cinnamon.
I sprinkled the cinnamon mixture on the dough, followed by about a quarter cup of brown sugar. Because my kids aren't big fans of raisins, I left them out. Feel free to add them.
Roll dough tightly from the long end. Cut off the ends of the rolled dough.
Cut the dough every two inches with a serrated knife.
Place in a greased dish with room to rise.
After 45 minutes of rising in a draft-free location, the dough looked like this...very promising.
Baked for approximately 15 minutes, these cinnamon rolls look perfect. Let's top the warm rolls with cream cheese frosting, shall we?
Finished product looks great. And tastes fantastic. I am super happy at the finished product. I give these "homemade" cinnamon rolls an enthusiastic "thumbs up".
I hope there's enough for seconds *wink*. If you want to make Lion House Rolls from scratch, the recipe is below. I'm adding a great link to watch when you make your Lion House Rolls. Their unique shape comes from flipping the dough before letting them rise. Here is the link. Enjoy.
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk 2 Tablespoons dry yeast (2 packages)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
5-5 1/2 cups all purpose flour (bread flour can be used if you have it on hand and will make for a lighter roll)
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the water and the milk powder and stir so the milk dissolves.
Add the yeast to this mixture while water and milk is still warm. I let the yeast proof (dissolve and start to react) for a couple of minutes then add the sugar, salt, butter, egg and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed of mixer until ingredients are wet, then turn to medium speed and mix for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add 2 more cups of flour then mix on low speed until the ingredients are wet, then turn mixer on medium speed and mix for 2 minutes. The dough will be getting stiff and you may need to remove the bowl from the mixer and mix in the remaining flour by hand (mine is still wet here).
Add approximately 1/2 cup of flour and mix again. (This can be done by hand or mixer). The dough should be soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff. (It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour). Scrape the dough off the sides of the bowl and pour approximately on tablespoon of vegetable oil all around the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough over in the bowl so it is covered with the oil. (This helps prevent the dough from drying out.) Cover with plastic and allow to rise in a warm place until double in size.
Sprinkle a cutting board or counter with flour and put the dough on the flour. You want to put enough flour on the dough so that it is workable and not sticky.
You can roll these into crescent rolls or do it the traditional Lion House way. Here is a video showing how to roll them the Lion House way. Roll into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick and brush with melted butter. You want to cut the rectangle into smaller rectangles that are 2"X4" (a little smaller than a dollar bill). If you make and "L" with your thumb and pointer finger that will show you how wide and tall to cut your rectangles.
Then you roll them (or flip them like in the video) and place them on a greased (or parchment lined) baking pans with the end of the roll resting on the pan. Clear as mud?
Let rise in a warm place until the rolls are double in size (approx. 1-1 1/2 hours). Bake in a 375-degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are browned to your satisfaction. Brush with melted butter while hot. Yields 2 to 2 1/2 dozen.
Let rise in a warm place until the rolls are double in size (approx. 1-1 1/2 hours). Bake in a 375-degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are browned to your satisfaction. Brush with melted butter while hot. Yields 2 to 2 1/2 dozen.
i wonder if they also sell that mix at deseret book.
I just don't get it! I've seen several different recipes for Lion House Rolls, and each one says, " 2 packets of yeast, or 2 tablespoons of yeast ". A pack of yeast only has 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast, so 2 packs would have a total of 4 1/2 teaspoons. Well, 2 tablespoons of yeast is 6 teaspoons! What is the deal? Does nobody else see/catch this? I want to make these correctly and use the correct amount of yeast.