50th Anniversary Recipes

Pure Gay Lea butter positively shines through these sumptuous rolls that are as easy as your bread machine and great ingredients. The raves you get will egg you on for your next batch. This special recipe takes both salted and unsalted Gay Lea butter for its buttery impact.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and stack inside another baking sheet. (You will have four sheets altogether, each double stacked).

In a large mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook (or use bread machine), whisk together the yeast and water and let stand 1 minute. Then whisk two cups bread flour, and then the sugar, egg and softened butter. Stir in cream and milk and most of the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to make a soft dough. Attach dough hook (or knead by hand) and make a soft, supple dough, adding more flour as required (8-10 minutes). Remove the dough hook, spray the dough with non-stick cooking spray and cover entire mixer, dough and all, with a large plastic bag. Let rise 45-60 minutes until almost doubled in size (or refrigerate overnight).

Gentle deflate the dough and divide in two. On a lightly floured work surface, roll one section at a time to a circle of 16 inches. Using a cheese slicer or potato peeler, scatter 1 cup of butter slivers over surface of dough. Using a pastry wheel, cut the dough in 8-12 wedges (depending on how big you want the rolls; larger is better but smaller is better for dinner size rolls). Roll each wedge into a croissant shape. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat with second section of dough.

Place the crescents on the baking sheets. Brush each very generously with egg wash. Lightly cover with a large plastic sheet or bag and let rise until almost doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place in oven and after 30 minutes, lower temperature to 350°F and continue baking until rolls are deeply browned. Remove from the oven and brush each roll several times with melted, salted butter.

Makes 16-24, depending on size.