Aloha Rolls - yeast

Method

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water.
• Not so hot you can't touch it, just tepid warm, cover and leave for about 10 minutes.
• In a stand mixer, beat the yeast mixture, eggs, pineapple juice, 1/4 cup water, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter.
• When all combined, gradually stir in salt/flour mixture until a stiff batter like dough is formed.
• ***If your dough is too wet, don't be afraid to add more flour, a tablespoon at a time until it is dry enough to handle.
• It should come away from the mixing bowl in a 'ball' after kneading.
• Knead for 10 minutes using the dough hook or by hand if you don't have a stand mixer, again use more flour if kneading by hand if the dough is too sticky or wet to handle.
• Cover with a clean cloth and place somewhere warm to let rise for 1 hour or more, until the dough is doubled in size (or more than doubled for extra airy, light rolls).
• Punch the air out of the dough and turn it onto a well floured surface.
• Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and then divide each of those 2 pieces into 8 individual little balls, seam side down to form the rolls, so you get 16 rolls total.
• Use 2, 2 X 9 inch baking pans, grease and flour both pans.
• Put 9 balls (rolls), seam side down, into each pan.
• For a total of 18 rolls in 2 pans.
• After the balls are places in the pans, there will be quite a bit of room in the pans.
• That's okay, because they need to rise.
• Cover and let rise again until the rolls are doubled in size and taking up most, if not all of the pan.
• This process of rising could take 40 minutes, or more.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a nice golden brown on top of the rolls.
• The author of the recipe says to test if the rolls are cooked through, tip them out of the pan (use a cloth!)
• and tap the center of the base of the rolls.
• If it sounds hollow, they're done.
• If not, return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
• Every oven is different but now you know the trick to see if they're done.
• Note: I did not test the rolls like this to see if they were done.
• They were nicely browned, when I took mine out of the oven (I've made three batches of these rolls now) and they were perfectly cooked after 20 minutes in a 350 F oven in my house.
• After you have removed the rolls from the oven, brush the tops with melted butter.