Lambert's Cafe's Throwed Rolls

 

I could have sworn I posted about Lambert’s Cafe before… In a post where I talked about restaurants we’ve been enjoying on our summer road trip for the past few years, along with Payne’s and Naaman’s. But anyway, Lambert’s Café serves Southern comfort food and is most famous for its “throwed” rolls: waiters periodically come along with carts and, if you want bread, they will throw it at you! Those still-warm rolls are absolutely delicious, so it occurred to me that there must be a copycat recipe somewhere online, and I found this one. These are great! But make sure to serve them warm from the oven.

1 tsp. sugar
1 (¼-oz.) package dry active yeast
¼ cup tepid water (105-110 °F)
1 cup warm lactose-free milk
¼ cup melted lactose-free butter
¼ cup sugar
1 egg, beaten (at room temp)
1 tsp. salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Combine sugar and yeast in tepid water. Let stand 5-10 minutes until yeast begins to foam.

Thoroughly mix milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt in large bowl (I used a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment).

Stir in the yeast mixture and 3 ½ cups of flour, adding a bit more if necessary to make a soft, pliable dough.

(For the following part, note that I did my kneading directly with the stand mixer and transferred the dough to an oiled bowl for it to rise.) Turn dough out on floured board and let rest while you clean and butter bowl. Knead dough gently 4-5 minutes, adding flour if necessary, until dough is smooth and silky. Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in warm place until doubled in size (1 ½ hours approximately).

Butter a 12-cup muffin tin.

(As for this part, I couldn’t remember exactly how Lambert’s rolls looked, but the photos showed rolls with three lumps instead of two, so that’s what I did – adjust accordingly.) Punch down dough. Pinch off pieces that are about 1 ½ inches in diameter (enough to fill one-half of muffin cup) and roll into smooth spheres. Place two such pieces in each prepared muffin cup – it will be a tight fit. Cover dough loosely with plastic wrap for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes, or until light brown. Serve as soon as they are cool enough to throw.