A true American classic, buttery, tender Parker House rolls have graced dinner tables for more than 100 years. How do you keep them relevant?
Most recipes produce Parker House rolls that are close to breakfast goods—fairly rich and loaded with milk, eggs, butter, and sugar.
We wanted a hot, buttery roll that, while still a bit sweet, was appropriate for the dinner table. And we wanted to deliver the warm rolls to the table in a reasonable period of time.
We fiddled with ingredient proportions until we attained a more balanced flavor, but found the kneading technique to be a challenge. The dough required enough stretching to give it strength to retain its shape, but not so much that it developed a chewy interior. Kneading for six minutes in a standing mixer brought structure and a tender crumb. We wanted to minimize rising time to just about two hours, which we accomplished by adding a sufficient amount of yeast (one package) and incubating the dough for a few minutes in an oven that that been heated to 200 degrees. We also found that after initially rounding all 24 balls of dough, we didn’t need to add a resting period; once the last dough ball was rounded, we found the first ones had relaxed enough to be given the traditional Parker House shape.
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