Hawaiian Rolls

I fear yeast. When I come across a recipe that calls for yeast I skip over it. I don't know why, I know it's just another ingredient, but it adds a lot of steps to a recipe and tends to intimidate me. I decided it's time to get over my irrational fear and decided to make Hawaiian rolls.

The process was not as intimidating as I thought it would be! It is time consuming and it does take some effort, but it is not scary. I did make one error though that resulted in the rolls being a little bit denser than they should be. Since I know what I did wrong I am going to definitely make them again because I can tell they would be even more awesome when made correctly. So if you are reading this and you too fear yeast, I promise you there is nothing to fear- give it a shot!



Ingredients
1 1/4 cups pineapple juice
2 packages instant dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour

Directions
1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and butter. Beat in the yeast packages and the pineapple juice. Beat in 3 of the eggs, the vanilla, salt and ginger until well combined. Add 3 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour (about 2 1/2 cups) to make the dough easy to handle.
2. Using the hook attachment on your stand mixer, knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 3 minutes, using up to 1/2 cup more if necessary. Place the dough in a greased bowl and turn greased side up. Loosely cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Dough is ready if you poke it and the indentation remains.)
3. Punch down the dough and divide in half. Divide one half of the dough into nine equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball and pull the surface taut by tucking the dough in at the bottom of the ball. Place in a greased 9-inch round cake pan, tucked side down. Continue until the pan is filled. Repeat with the other dough half. Cover the rolls and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, lightly bat the remaining egg. Brush over the rolls and sprinkle with a couple of pinches of sugar. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown.