This recipe comes from several months of experimentation while on an extended business trip. The little town I was staying in was so small that the only entertainment was a WalMart and two bars. So I decided to learn to bake bread. It seemed perfectly logical at the time.

The recipe for my Light Shed rolls...

Ingredients:

5 cups light flour - all purpose.
3 packages fast rise yeast.
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 large egg

In a bowl combine warm water and milk. Heat to *slightly* warm to the touch (approximately 105 - 115 degrees f).

Add the yeast and sugar. Stir gently until the yeast is mostly dissolved.

Warm the butter and add it to the mixture. Add the salt. Stir.

Add the egg to the mixture, break and stir. The egg and butter won't mix completely. DON'T beat the mixture with a beater. Stirring is enough.

Pour the mixture into a large mixer designed to accommodate dough, such as a KitchenAid or into a very large bowl for hand mixing. I don't recommend the type of mixer used for beating eggs and such, better to mix by hand in that case.

Add 2 cups flour and stir gently until mostly mixed. Add two additional cups and repeat. When the mixture is mostly smooth, add the last cup and stir. Note: Don't over do here. The mixture doesn't have to be perfectly smooth and doing so may wreck your creation.

Knead by hand or on the lowest mixer setting until the mixture is fairly sticky. You will know when it is sticky. If it doesn't get sticky, too much flour was used, add a *little* milk and continue. If it is runny, try a *little* more flour, about an eighth to a quarter of cup. You probably won't have to do this, the quantities above work well.

Place the dough into a *large* greased bowl, cover with a towel (the bowl, not the dough), and place on a warm surface (about 85 degrees f). A good place to put the mixture is on top of a warm oven. Just turn the oven (not the range top) on the lowest setting when you start making the dough. It will make a nice warmer for the dough.

Let the dough rise for about an hour. Punch it down and fold it a couple of times. Let it rest for about 10 minutes while you grease up the flat pans for the rolls. Use Crisco or some other "hard" cooking grease. Don't use PAM, oil or butter.

Grab a wide shallow bowl or use a plate to hold some flour for your hands while you roll out the rolls. Grease your hands some Crisco, add some flour and pull off enough dough to make a ball about an inch and half in diameter. Place the balls the same distance apart as their diameter (they will double in size if you did everything right). Repeat until you are done. You should have somewhere around 36 rolls.

You will have to add flour to your hands often to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands. Don't add so much as to dry the rolls. You will get the hang of this with practice.

Cover the rolls with *light weight* kitchen towels and place them in a warm place (probably the warm oven top) for about 45 minutes. They should double in size. Do NOT coat the top of the rolls with butter oil or water.

Bake the rolls in a 400 degree f oven for about 8 minutes until medium tan. Don't over brown them. Remember, they don't have any coating on them other than a fine powder of flour from when you rolled them up, so they may not look as dark as you might think.

Remove the rolls and slide them off on a wire rack for cooling. Butter the top of the rolls while hot. They will take on the dark brown color.

Substitutions:

Use 2 cups soft winter whole wheat flour in place of two cups regular flour. Allow 2 hours for the dough to rise in this case.

Use two tablespoons sour cream in place of the same amount of milk for an interesting flavor twist.

Butter note: If using real butter, use salted rather than unsalted.