Recipe: Logan' s Roadhouse Rolls

Logan's dinner rolls, prepared in huge quantities using commercial products, are difficult to duplicate, so taste and texture may vary slightly in this scaled-down recipe adapted for home cooks. Still, this recipe is speed-scratch fabulous. Buttery dinner rolls
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 (1/4 -ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
11/4 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 large egg, slightly beaten
8 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons butter-flavored vegetable shortening

Place 2 cups flour in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast, salt, sugar and dry milk. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine water and egg and stir to blend. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour water mixture into well. Mix by hand, beating 150 strokes and frequently scraping bottom and sides of bowl. Add 1/2 the melted butter and beat to incorporate. Add remaining flour, about 1/3 cup at a time, beating to incorporate each addition. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Set dough in a warm, draft-free place such as oven with pan of hottest tap water on rack below.

Allow batter to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Coat cups, bottoms and sides of a 12-cup muffin pan (or two small round pans) with butter-flavored vegetable shortening. Punch down batter (batter will be extremely soft and sticky). Drop by hand or spoonful into prepared muffin pan cups to make 12 rolls (if in pan, each roll touching the next). Brush dough with 1/2 remaining melted butter. Let rise, uncovered, in warm, draft-free place until almost doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. In preheated 400-degree oven, bake rolls on middle rack 16-18 minutes. Brush tops of cooked rolls with remaining melted butter. Serve immediately. Yield: 12 large rolls.