Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls

Have you ever been to the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse? When the first one opened in my hometown (hey, Buffalo!!), our family headed over to check it out. It was a hit for our family with three kids because they gave us peanuts to eat while we waited for our food, and we could throw the peanut shells on the floor. Yes, you heard me right. Peanut shells straight on the floor. It was the best ever.

Until you started eating the Texas Roadhouse rolls. Then you realized that the rolls were even better than the thrill of peanut throwing.

Soft, tender, buttery, with a touch of sweetness, these rolls were the stuff my carb-loving dreams were made of. You could imagine how thrilled I was when a couple decades later (geez, I'm old) I stumbled across a copycat recipe for Texas Roadhouse Rolls.

You know what? They were even better than I remembered.

Get to your kitchen post haste. Bake up a batch of Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls. Schmear them with honey butter and eat four or twelve in one sitting. Then bask in the glory of homemade rolls. You're welcome.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

P.S. This recipe has a lot of instructions, but don't be daunted! At the bottom of the post, I documented the baking process with some lousy cell phone pics to (hopefully) help remove the fear factor.

Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls
From Like Mother Like Daughter
Makes about 3 dozen rolls

2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup warm (110 degrees) water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup honey
About 8 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons salt
Oil for greasing the bowl
Extra butter for brushing tops of rolls
Honey Butter for serving, recipe below

**SEE BELOW THE RECIPE FOR STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS.**

Heat milk in a small saucepan. As soon as little bubbles form and milk starts to simmer, remove from the heat. Set aside to cool until milk is just warm (about 110 degrees.)

Meanwhile combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let the mixture rest until the yeast gets bubbly and frothy, about 5 minutes. Add remaining sugar, honey, 3 1/2 cups flour, and warm milk to the yeast mixture. Mix together on low until combined, about 2 minutes. Stir in eggs, butter, and salt. At this point, your dough will be quite runny.

Add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough separates from the sides of the bowl. (I added an additional 4 1/2 cups flour at this point, for a total of 8 cups.) The dough will still be pretty sticky, but it will pull away from the sides of the bowl as the mixer spins. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead dough for 5 minutes. If the dough starts to get sticky, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time. (I added about 3 additional tablespoons of flour as I kneaded the dough.)

Place dough in an oiled bowl. Turn the dough so the top and sides are coated with the oil. Loosely cover bowl with greased plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise in a warm place until it's doubled in size, about 1 hour. (I like to turn my oven on for a minute, then turn it off and allow the dough to rise in the OFF oven. I also experimented with allowing the dough to rise in the laundry room while I was drying some clothes. The dough rose more quickly in the briefly warmed oven.)

Punch down the dough for about 30 seconds. Lightly flour your counter and use a rolling pin to roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2" thick. Fold rectangle in half so it's 1" thick. Pinch edges and roll them under so the two halves are sealed.

Use a pizza cutter to cut dough into 2" squares. Place rolls on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets and cover with greased plastic wrap. Allow rolls to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Rub the tops of warm rolls with butter. (I like to peel back the wrapper from a stick of butter and just use the whole stick to spread on top of the rolls.) Serve warm with Honey Butter.

Honey Butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1/8 teaspoon salt

Whisk together all of the ingredients. Store in the fridge if you're not serving right away.


Instructions for Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls WITH PICTURES

2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup warm (110 degrees) water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup honey
About 8 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons salt
Oil for greasing the bowl
Extra butter for brushing tops of rolls
Honey Butter for serving

Heat milk in a small saucepan. As soon as little bubbles form and milk starts to simmer, remove from the heat. Set aside to cool until milk is just warm (about 110 degrees.)

Meanwhile combine water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let the mixture rest until the yeast gets bubbly and frothy, about 5 minutes. (See picture below.)

Add remaining sugar, honey, 3 1/2 cups flour, and warm milk to the yeast mixture. Mix together on low until combined, about 2 minutes. Stir in eggs, butter, and salt. At this point, your dough will be quite runny. (See picture below.)

Add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough separates from the sides of the bowl. (I added an additional 4 1/2 cups flour at this point, for a total of 8 cups.) The dough will still be pretty sticky, but it will pull away from the sides of the bowl as the mixer spins. (See picture below.) Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead dough for 5 minutes. If the dough starts to get sticky, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time. (I added about 3 additional tablespoons of flour as I kneaded the dough. See picture below.)

Place dough in an oiled bowl. Turn the dough so the top and sides are coated with the oil. Loosely cover bowl with greased plastic wrap. (See before picture below.)

Allow dough to rise in a warm place until it's doubled in size, about 1 hour. (I like to turn my oven on for a minute, then turn it off and allow the dough to rise in the OFF oven. I also experimented with allowing the dough to rise in the laundry room while I was drying some clothes. The dough rose more quickly in the briefly warmed oven. See after-rise picture below. The dough is big and puffy!)

Punch down the dough for about 30 seconds. Lightly flour your counter and use a rolling pin to roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2" thick. Fold rectangle in half so it's 1" thick. Pinch edges and roll them under so the two halves are sealed. Use a pizza cutter to cut dough into 2" squares. (See picture below.)

Place rolls on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets and cover with greased plastic wrap. Allow rolls to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (See picture below.)

Meanwhile preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Rub the tops of warm rolls with butter. (I like to peel back the wrapper from a stick of butter and just use the whole stick to spread on top of the rolls. See picture below.) Serve warm with Honey Butter.

Sour Dough Coffee Cake

When a friend gave me a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter earlier this year, I had no choice but to experiment.

To me, that's really what these bags of goo are all about. If you have kids (especially boys!) they will love squeezing and 'burping' the bags of starter as the yeast ferments with the milk, flour and sugar. And you can teach them a little science along the way. In fact, I've caught Sam several times sneaking into the dining room to squeeze the starter bags.

My sour dough starter is still going strong since I received it in March. And I've learned quite a bit, as Erin did when she received some starter a few years back.

If you haven't been gifted a bag, I encourage you to make your own. The recipe is here. When you (and your friends) get tired of using the starter, I'm happy to report that the freezing method does work. I made this coffee cake with a bag of starter slush that I thawed and re-started after it spent about two months in cold storage. Those little yeast molecules picked up fermenting right where they left off.

Once you make the traditional Amish Friendship Bread, it's easy to use starter for other things, including cakes, brownies, cookies, pancakes, biscuits and pie crust. If you need ideas be sure to visit the online bible of friendship bread recipes at the Friendship Bread Kitchen.

I'm not a huge fan of the instant pudding mix and loads of sugar that many starter recipes use. Luckily for me, when Robin T.  delivered my first starter bag, she included pudding-free recipes developed by her co-worker Claudia T. This coffee cake recipe is a spin off. And it is the best coffee cake. Ever. The day after my recipe tinkering I had to give away batches of cake to my neighbors because we could not stop eating it.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Sour Dough Coffee Cake

For the cake batter
2 cups of sour dough starter
1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the topping
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg or ginger, or 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (experiment!)
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray or grease with butter or shortening.

Using a plastic or wooden bowl and spoon, mix together all ingredients for the cake batter. (Do not use metal. It reacts with the yeast in the starter and gives it a funny taste.) Pour mixture into pan and spread out evenly.

Place all topping ingredients in a second bowl. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, incorporate butter into other ingredients until crumbs begin to form. Sprinkle topping generously over cake batter. You might have some left over. (You can freeze the extra topping and use it when you make this coffee cake again — because there will be a next time.)

Place pan in oven and bake for 30 minutes to 40 minutes, until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool. Then cut yourself a piece and indulge. And keep your starter going so that you can make this again.

Here's Max holding one of our starter bags.