Excellent Rolls, 1861

I've made these before, but never wrote them up properly. So, to make my future life easier, here's Beeton's "excellent rolls".

EXCELLENT ROLLS.

1723. INGREDIENTS – To every lb. of flour allow 1 oz. of butter, 1/4 pint of milk, 1 large teaspoonful of yeast, a little salt.

Mode.—Warm the butter in the milk, add to it the yeast and salt, and mix these ingredients well together. Put the flour into a pan, stir in the above ingredients, and let the dough rise, covered in a warm place. Knead it well, make it into rolls, let them rise again for a few minutes, and bake in a quick oven. Richer rolls may be made by adding 1 or 2 eggs and a larger proportion of butter, and their appearance improved by brushing the tops over with yolk of egg or a little milk.

Time—1 lb. of flour, divided into 6 rolls, from 15 to 20 minutes.

--Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861

I followed the procedure as above, letting the dough rise for an hour before shaping, and another 5-10 minutes after (shaping + second rise = time to pre-heat oven). I used 4 cups of all-purpose flour ~ 1 pound; 1 oz (unsalted) butter, 1 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 tsp active dry yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 egg. I initially used the called-for 1/2 cup milk, but it was nowhere near enough liquid so I ended up adding another full cup it was meant to be 1/2 cup. This made a wetter dough than I wanted, but it baked up just fine. Mostly, it was just harder to shape nicely.

The texture turned out fine despite the extra milk, and the flavor was rich as always. It was ever so slightly bland, so next time I would use more salt--3/4 tsp or even a whole teaspoon per pound. Or at least use salted butter.

The wet dough was a little hard to shape,
but otherwise these are indeed 'excellent' rolls.