These addictively delicious Cast Iron Yeast Rolls are soft with a golden, buttery top, and baked in a cast iron skillet.
Yeast Roll Mistakes
I have made many yeast breads in my time, and given that I’ve never had substantial problems with any, I assumed I was some sort of yeast bread pro. Last week though, I found out I was wrong. I wanted yeast rolls for dinner one night, and figured I’d throw some together with what I had laying around the kitchen. I had milk, flour, and yeast, so I figured I was golden.
However, I got a little impatient as I was making the dough and ended up with rolls that didn’t rise. I decided to bake them anyway. They were like mini, dense yeast biscuits. Day one, they were tolerable. Day two, if thrown, they could’ve harmed someone.
Friends’ Dinner
I was not about to let some yeast get the best of me. So, I decided to give it another go. We invited some friends and their kids over for dinner, and I wanted to have perfect yeast rolls to serve them. I had learned from my recent mistakes, and developed some patience while prepping this time. The results were phenomenal.
Between the four adults and four preschool aged children, we ate almost the entire skillet of rolls. They were delicious. I still can’t believe these tasty things came out of my oven. They tasted like they should be in a bakery.
Since yeast can be finicky and I want you to learn from my mistakes, here are some tips:
- Make sure that your milk is between 100-110 degrees when you stir in the yeast. If you go too hot, the yeast will die.
- Yeast rises best around 80-90 degrees. I have found that in the winter, it can be tough for bread to rise in my house, so here are a few tips:
- Turn the oven on the lowest temp, around 150-170 degrees. Once it reaches temperature, turn it off and wait a few minutes. Then put your dough in a heat safe bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap. Next, place the bowl in the oven.
- If you happen to be using your stove top or oven to bake something other than the rolls, keep the bowl, wrapped in plastic on the stove top (obviously on a burner that is turned off). The heat will keep the bowl quite warm. I will sometimes soften butter this way, too.
- Run the microwave for 1-2 minutes on high temp. Then, place your heat safe bowl, with the top covered in plastic wrap in the microwave. Again, keep the microwave off.
Cast Iron Yeast Rolls
Ingredients
- 1, .25 ounce packet Active Dry Yeast NOT instant yeast
- 1/2 cup milk I use whole milk, but any dairy milk will work
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 cups plus 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 2 tbsp plus 1 tbsp butter melted, divided
- 1 large egg
- kosher salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the 1/2 cup of milk to 100-110 degrees. Mix with packet of yeast and let sit for ten minutes.
- In base of a mixer fit with dough attachment, mix together buttermilk, flour, salt, sugar, 1/4 cup of softened butter, and egg. Once well mixed, stir in the yeast/milk mixture. Continue mixing until a ball of dough forms.
- Spray a bowl with cooking spray and place dough in bowl, then flip dough so that both sides of dough are covered with spray. Cover bowl with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place, without a draft, and rise until doubled in size, about 75-90 minutes.
- Gently pat down dough. Spread dough in a long rectangle on a working surface. Cut into 16 equal parts and form each chunk of dough into a ball.
- Melt 2 of the remaining tbsp of butter. Brush the inside of a 12″ cast iron skillet with some of the butter. Place dough in skillet, evenly spaced.
- Brush the top of each dough ball with the remaining melted butter. Cover with a dish towel and allow bread to rise until almost doubled in size, about 60 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake rolls until golden on top, about 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven. Melt remaining tbsp of butter and brush over top of rolls. Lightly sprinkle the top of each roll with kosher salt, to taste.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed these Cast Iron Yeast Rolls, you might enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
North Carolina Sourdough Bread
Buttermilk Biscuits
Skillet Brookie
Skillet Cornbread
Links to items used to make this recipe:
[…] via Cast Iron Yeast Rolls — Sugar Spices Life […]
So nobody ends up burning up their microwave running it with nothing inside, I thought I should inform you and anyone else reading that they are not designed to operate that way, and will not heat air. If you want to do this, you should put a bowl of water in the microwave while it is heating, and carefully remove the very hot water before placing the covered bowl inside. If your microwave has a rack, you could leave the hot water in the microwave above the covered bowl to help maintain the temperature. Note that a microwave isn’t really… Read more »