Pioneer Woman's Buttered Rosemary Rolls

It's been a while since I've looked at my collection of Ree Drummond's recipes from her wildly popular food blog "The Pioneer Woman Cook's".  I've been a fan of hers for over a year, and I've posted a few of her recipes. While they're not necessarily low-carb, low-fat, that's not the point! Ree lives on a ranch. She feeds hard working cowboys. I have a horse.  So, I guess I can justify enjoying her recipes?  When I spotted this recipe on her blog, I started to fixate on the flavor combination of rosemary and seasalt-- and I had never tried making bread in a cast iron skillet. I love my cast iron skillet.

I was surprised, though, to read that Ree's recipe included frozen bread dough.  Really?  I have  a recipe for bread rolls that is so easy to make. I swear. Truly.  With a Kitchen Aid Stand mixer, I can have the dough mixed together and rising in the oven (as an incubator) in fifteen minutes! For real.   I didn't photograph how to make the dough, because...well, I was so intent on surprising my husband with these dinner rolls that I didn't want to stop to photograph. I started these at 4:00pm.  I literally mixed the yeast, added the rest of the flour and let the dough hook mix all of this together in five minutes.  I have a trick that works well for me-- I turn the oven on to WARM and preheat to 200 F. Then I turn it off.   45 minutes later, my dough has doubled.  I also like this "dough doubler". I bought on King Arthur Flour's website. Since then, I've seen them at restaurant supply stores. Otherwise, an oiled bowl and plastic wrap works well, too. My recipe is part white flour and part whole wheat. It's delicious and, so far, it's my favorite bread roll.

So, here's where I pick up to Ree's recipe.  I formed the dough into nine equal rolls...

and let them double for another thirty minutes--

Yeah... like that...

These took less than 20 minutes to double, after the first rise.  For the next step...

I have lots of rosemary in our yard.  You need a sprig or two. You also want sea salt. Not table salt. Kosher salt will do, but this sea salt is perfect.

Pull off the rosemary, from each stem,  and chop it...

I melted half a stick of butter and brushed it on. Gently! You don't want to deflate the dough!

Oh yeah. See the puddle of melted butter? This is gettin' good.  It's now a little after 5pm. Husband is home. Soup's on and this is going to be the perfect way to enjoy it.

So, now, the chopped rosemary is evenly sprinkled on top...

Now, for some salt... nice and even. Not too much!

I think that Ree is on to something...

I'm not going to argue with PW's recipe. So one more step...

Just a little more butter gets dabbed onto the rosemary. I preheat my oven to 375F, rather than 400F. Sorry, Ree... it just felt right to me.

20 minutes later, these were golden and smelling so good!  I had to brush more butter on top. That just seemed right to me.

Come to mama!

 Oh, these are going to be something I make on a regular basis. 5:30pm arrived and the bread was ready to be tasted...

I love the Pioneer Woman...

She's a clever gal. These are genius!  The sea salt took me over the edge...

My husband gave these five stars. He doesn't do that so easily. I could eat these every day. Maybe I will! These are so easy to make. Honest.

I have been busy baking and making all kinds of great recipes. I'm feeling better. I made another bread, today, and I photographed how to conquer the fear of working with yeast. It's easy, I tell ya!
NOTE:  I buy my vital wheat gluten online at King Arthur Flour. It helps whole grain based dough to rise better. 

Make this. You don't need frozen dough. But, if you buy the dough anyway, at least pick up where Ree transfors frozen bread dough into the rolls. You will thank me for sharing them. If you don't have a cast iron skillet-- use a regular pan.  As for me... I have my sights set on a bigger cast iron skillet...so I can make more rolls like these!

The recipe is at the bottom of this page. If you are subscribing via Feedburner, you will need to JUMP to my blog site to view/print the recipe.  I am submitting this fabulous recipe to YeastSpotting.  I drool over all the beautiful bread photos!

Dreaming of meeting The Pioneer Woman,