Parker House Rolls, Two Ways

This is a classic lovable dinner roll recipe, made seasonal by forming fun shapes and flavored with seasoned butter. Make it your own by swapping out your favorite SKORDO blend into the butters and play around with different shapes! I used herby SKORDO Greek Seasoning on my “turkey” rolls and SKORDO Chipotle Maple on my “pumpkin” rolls for a little orange hue and warm, spiced flavor. These rolls are so delicious because they are brushed with butter multiple times throughout the process, so don’t hold back! You can choose to make these all in one day, or set them in the fridge overnight if you’re not rushed. Have fun with it!

Makes 15 rolls

Ingredients:

For dough:

• 4 ½ teaspoons of instant dry yeast (2 envelopes)

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 ⅓ cup milk, warm

• ¼ cup honey

• 1 egg

• 2 egg yolks

• ¼ cup melted butter

• 1 teaspoon SKORDO blend of your choice

• 4 ½ cups AP Flour

• Twine

For brushing:

• 1 stick unsalted butter

• 2 teaspoons SKORDO blend of your choice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, add your warm milk and honey to the bowl, sprinkle over your yeast and stir to combine. Let rest and react for 5 minutes or until yeast dissolves and is slightly bubbly.

2. Add your wet ingredients and top with flour and then salt. Mix on medium low speed for 5 minutes. 

3. Grease a bowl with oil and transfer your dough to the bowl. Cover loosely with plastic and let rise at room temperature for one hour, or in the fridge for 12-24 hours. 

4. Divide your dough into even portions on a lightly floured surface and begin shaping. With each piece of dough, fold the edges of the dough into the center and pinch to close, then turn the dough over and drag the dough across the table on a diagonal to tuck the ends in taught. Then with a cupped hand, roll the dough in small circles on the surface, keeping contact with the table to seal the bottom.

5. For pumpkins: cut 3 pieces of twine long enough to wrap around the dough ball. Lay them across each other, intersecting in the middle and creating 6 sections. Center a ball of dough over the cross section, and begin to loosely secure the twine in sets of 2 with the pairs across each other. You will ultimately have 3 loose knots that you can choose to secure together for ease. All of the twine should be loose to allow room for the dough to rise. 

6. For the turkeys, trim a strip of dough off the dough ball and divide into 4 sections:  small + 2 medium sized. Press and pinch your dough round to be more of a loose triangle shape to mimic a turkey body. Roll each of the 4 sections into small ropes, tapering the ends. Add the smaller two ropes to the thicker end of the turkey body to mimic wings, and the thicker two on the thinner tapered end of the turkey body to mimic legs. The dough should stick to itself but you can add water as “glue” if needed.

7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare a baking dish that fits all of your dough snuggly, with room for rising. 

8. Melt your stick of butter and season with your selected SKORDO blend. Brush butter on the bottom of your baking pan, then transfer dough to pan and coat the surfaces in more butter. Allow rolls to rise again until doubled in size,1 hour at room temperature or 12-24 hours overnight.

9. Bake rolls for 10 minutes, brush with additional butter, and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining butter. 

10. Serve warm + Enjoy! For the pumpkins, it’s easiest to remove the twine by cutting the cross section on the bottom of the rolls. You can even get creative and stick a chive or scallion in the top of the roll to act as a stem!