What's Cookin' Wednesdays- Vanilla Sugar Sweets Rolls

We like to eat bread, there I said it, I think it is the ultimate comfort food. I have been trying a couple recipes out, some have turned out well, and others, well, they just need some work or perhaps I need a bit more practice in making them. I have found that the key to getting any bread to turn out is to make sure that the dough has risen, otherwise you get a dense, soggy, icky, gross lump that is not good for anything. I ran across this recipe the other day and figured I would give it a go, we liked them and the aunt we gave them to said anytime we would like to make some more, they would gladly be eaten. I like pretty much anything with vanilla in it, and since this uses vanilla sugar, I figured, hey can't miss! I did cheat and just added a little extract to the sugar, as opposed to the timely process of actually making it with a vanilla bean. I will definitely have to try that sometime, when I can get my hands on the required ingredients. Anyway, the recipe is from zapbook and adapted by a bread website I frequent.

Vanilla Sugar Sweet Rolls

Dough: 1 Cup Milk

1-2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Butter-melted
1/3 Cup Vanilla Sugar
2 Eggs-lightly beaten
2 Tsp Instant Yeast
1 Tsp Salt
3-4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

Filling: Egg Wash:
1/4 Cup Melted Butter 1 Egg
1/2 Cup Vanilla Sugar 2 Tbsp Milk

Start by warming your milk in a saucepan, add the vanilla extract and bring to a scald, but be careful not to boil the milk.

After the milk has reached a good scald, just before boiling, take your pot off the burner and allow to cool to about 105-110.

Next, add the melted butter and vanilla sugar. Stir you concoction to make sure that the sugar is dissolved and everything is mixed together well.
Add in about one cup of flour and the beaten eggs and mix till smooth. Now, add in the salt and instant yeast. Sprinkle about a half a cup of flour on a flat surface. Pour out the sticky dough and add another half cup of flour on top.
Begin to knead in the flour slowly, add a little at a time till you get a slightly sticky dough but workable. Continue to knead for 8 - 10 minutes. At this point you want to get another bowl, I use glass, but plastic would work fine, I tend to stay away from metal bowls when I am proofing my bread dough, I don't know if the metal would affect it either way.. shrugs... You want to coat the sides of said bowl with butter, oil, or some such, I use cake release that I make from oil and flour or sometimes Pam nonstick cooking spray.

Place the dough into the bowl and flip over so all sides of the dough is lightly coated with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to set for about 1 hour or till double in bulk. After dough has risen, pour out onto a flat surface. I find that turning on the oven light and placing the bowl in the oven, works pretty good, some new ovens have a bread proofing mode on them I hear.... have to look at said feature when I am in the market for a new stove.
After the dough has risen sufficiently, important, can't stress that enough, cut dough in half, place one piece back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Using the piece of dough on the flat surface, cut into 8 equal pieces.

Commence rolling out one piece of dough at a time to roughly a 6 by 4 1/2 rectangle. Mine didn't quite make a 'rectangle' shape, but I got pretty close.
Brush the top with a little butter and add a little vanilla sugar.
Do the same with the next piece of dough. Now place that piece on top of the other one, brush with butter again and add a little vanilla sugar. Do the same with the next two pieces of dough. After you should have 4 pieces of dough stacked on top of each other. Use your rolling pin and roll out the dough into a 6 by 4 1/2 inche rectangle again. I find that it was easier to stack the four pieces together and roll them out, then butter the top.
Starting on the longest end roll up the dough tightly. Pinch the ends and seam closed. Place the dough seam side down and set aside.
Cut each rolled dough into about 6 triangles. Of course continue the process with the rest of your dough, I ended up with roughly 24 triangle of yummy goodness.

Now place your rolls on whatever you intend to bake them on, I once again used my pizza stone, but I am sure a cookie sheet would work just fine. Cover your rolls with plastic wrap and let them rise for about an hour or so, till they have roughly doubled in size.
After they have risen, you want to use a pastry brush and cover the rolls with your egg wash. I however, covered mine before I let them rise, oh well they turned out fine, but next time I will wait until they rise.

Throw those beasts in your oven preheated to 375 Degrees and let them back for about 30 minutes, or until they are starting to turn brown, mine didn't take the full 30 minutes, but my oven is pretty wonky.
Here we are, I made a topping out of honey and a touch of butter, but they are fine plain or sprinkled with a bit of confectioner's sugar.