emily's rolls

About 4 times a year I get the baking itch and want to make homemade bread. Then once we've made the huge mess, spent all the time to make the bread and then clean up, I realize that's why I only do this about 4 times a year. But my two favorite recipes to use are Emily's Rolls (which I named after my friend Emily who made these all the time and didn't have a name for them) and the other is Portuguese Sweet Bread (my mom's recipe). But I chose to make Emily's rolls because they make about 2 1/2 dozen and I needed a lot for a pot-luck we were having at church.
It's always good to include all the kiddo's...you know for making fun memories.
The bread always tastes better when you get flour all over your clothes...and face.
And then you make up fun games like "pretend you are a bulldozer and scrape all the dough off the table with spatulas".
So here's the recipe for Emily's Rolls:

Put 3 cups luke-warm water in bowl. Add 1/2-1 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it) and 2 T yeast. Let it stand for about 10-15 minutes until yeast is foaming.

Then add:

2-3 cups flour
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1 t salt
1 can condensed milk (optional)

(I usually don't add the condensed milk because I don't have any on hand but Emily said it adds extra nutrients if you want it)
Mix ingredients together until moist. Then add more flour until dough consistency (about 6-7 cups total). Knead dough until soft ball forms. Put dough ball in bowl to rise for 30min-1 hr. Tear apart dough into balls and put on cookie sheets. Brush with butter and let rise until double in size.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. (I added flax seed and poppy seed to the top of mine because I'm kind of in a flax seed kick lately...and the poppy seed just looked pretty...but they're just as yummy plain).

**Another yummy thing you can make with this recipe (I do this when I am making them just for our family because no family of 4 should consume 2 1/2 dozen rolls by themselves) is split the dough in half. Make rolls with one half and cinnamon rolls with the other half. Just roll out one of the halves into a rectangle shape and brush with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Then roll it up like a jelly roll and slice into 1 inch slices. Lay rolls in a greased pan and let rise until double in size...then bake. Add some icing on top....and my mouth is watering just thinking about it.