"Cheater" Park House Rolls with a bread machine

I first made these rolls by hand, kneading, punching down, rising....and I was a making a big family dinner at the same time. They were absolutely delicious, but it was a pain to keep track of the steps as I managed multiple timers for the main, side dishes, and desserts. However, they were such a big hit that I thought, Surely I can simplify this!

Am I the only person still using a bread machine? I know when we got married 80 years ago- ahem, sorry, 24 years ago- it was all the rage to give bread machines as gifts. I wasn't lucky enough to get one, but asked for one several years later as a Christmas present. A little before the holiday my baby boy, about four at the time, came running breathlessly up. He declared in a rush, "I'm not supposed to tell, but we got you a bread machine!" And just managed to get it all out before his brothers leapt on him. It still makes me laugh... But I will admit, I only use the machine to make dough. Loaves cooked in one are a strange shape and just look horridly, well, machine-made. For dough making they are AMAZING. Throw in whatever kind you like and let it remember to knead, rise, heat, etc. And then you get all the fun of shaping and baking. 

This is actually my second Oster bread machine. The first lasted 12 years and when it died, I had to find the same one!!

This recipe is the first one where I ever ran into trouble with my habit of only using salted butter. Salted butter is all I buy, folks, get used to it. This recipe had so much added salt that the rolls were a bit too much. I mean, you salted the dough, put a chunk of butter inside, and brushed it before and after baking. That's a lot of salt. 

Then I realized the texture and taste was almost identical to my favorite "French" loaf recipe for the bread machine. I simply added additional sugar to mimic the Parker House flavor and these are now a super speedy and luscious roll I can churn out for any meal!
I will give you the dough ingredients at the bottom. For now I'm going to show you how to make them Parker House rolls, versus regular rolls. All that mean is liberal applications of butter, and at the right times.

First you run your ingredients through the dough setting on your machine. When it is done, remove the dough and punch down. Cut four Tablespoons of COLD butter into 16 or 20 pieces. It depends on the amount and size of rolls you desire. The original recipe said 20, and that is what I show in the pictures. But I have since found that I like doing four rows of four and having slightly bigger buns- ha!;)

You can lay out the dough and cut with a sharp knife into four equal chunks and then cut each of those into four, or you can just pick up wads of it and squeeze similar sized bits off like I'm doing above. I do whatever suits my mood at the moment. Some days it's relaxing to squeeze the heck out of some dough. Place one of your butter cubes(you want it cold and firm) onto the roll-sized blob of dough and fold the dough around it, wrapping till smooth and the butter is covered.  It may work to the top and you can see the cube pressing at the top of the roll. That's fine. It's going to melt away in the oven. It's like a secret little package of wonderfulness, and no one has to know unless you tell them.

Place them on a rimmed cookie sheet, this is to catch all that delicious butter you will be slathering on them. Cover them with a light cloth and let them rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Then brush them with melted butter and pop into a 375 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes. I usually cook them for ten minutes, and turn the pan. Then I set the timer for 5 more minutes and check to make sure they are done.

When done, they should be nicely browned and if you pull one open it should be flaky inside, not wet. Brush them with melted butter again, and I like to sprinkle with some Fleur de Sel, or French sea salt. Even a touch of coarse Kosher salt would be nice. Below, half have been buttered and salted. Don't they look so much more irresistible??

And here they are, glistening and ready to tear apart and throw on a plate or in your mouth. If you tear one in half you can sometimes see the small hollow where the butter melted away and left a tiny cavern of yumminess...

I have to say, these are delicious any way you eat them, but all that salty butter lends itself really well to the musky sweetness of my honey.

Holidays, celebrations, Wednesday nights...these rolls are delicious and so quick to make using a bread machine. Do you still have one laying around, unused? Or are you tempted to find one now? I use mine constantly and we can have fresh bread, rolls, cinnamon buns, focaccia...any kind of bread, any night of the week ;)

Parker House Roll Dough
combine in order in bread machine pan:
 
12 oz water
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp active dry yeast 

Set machine on the "dough" setting. When the dough is ready, take out and punch down. Divide, shape, and add butter as in directions above. Raise the shaped rolls for 30 minutes, brush with butter, then bake in a 375 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes. Brush with melted butter again  and sprinkle with coarse salt.

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If you are glaring at the screen right now and saying, "Bread machine, schmed machine! I want to get my hands in that dough!" Then you can use this link HERE to go to the Parker House Roll recipe that started it all, at Bake From Scratch. Be aware that their recipe will make double the amount of rolls. I had to half this so that it would work for a bread machine. However you decide to do it, I hope you try them for some buttery goodness!