Lion House Rolls in advance

I am always trying to make things ahead of time to make parties easier. Instead of baking rolls ahead of time, or dealing with the mess the day of, I decided to try to freeze the dough, already shaped, and then let it rise and bake the day of a party. Here's what I did:

After letting the dough rise until it doubled, I took 3 oz of dough and shaped it into a 4"x2" rectangle. Then I brushed it with softened butter (I actually used my fingers most of the time to just spread it on the dough)



and rolled it up



Then place directly into your freezer on a cookie sheet or cutting board lined with parchment paper:



When the are pretty much frozen (sorry I didn't time them, I was making six different things this day including marshmallows, and opening a coconut), I took them off of the parchment and placed them in a plastic bag. Go ahead and fold up your parchment paper and stick it in the bag, too. You can reuse it when you bake them. Ain't I a genius???




I would probably put this bag into another heavy duty bag to keep it extra fresh. I usually keep a few in my freezer just for this purpose. You can use them over and over again.




The day of your party (or Christmas, or Thanksgiving). Take them out of the freezer about 3 hours before you want fresh rolls. (I took them out at about 8:00 and stuck them in the oven about 10:30 or 11:00.)

Place them on the parchment paper that you had in the freezer, on a cookie sheet (you should face the rolls in the same direction on the pan...)



cover with plastic wrap sprayed with PAM...As I looked at the picture I took I had an Amelia Bedelia moment. I sprayed it like in the photo, and then flipped it over so the PAM is touching the rolls. But I know that you knew that...



and let them thaw and rise for 2 1/2 hours (or so, you know how bread baking can be) until they look doubled in size.



Then simply bake as usual! Oh, and you can throw away the parchment paper when you are done this time - you won't even need to wash a cookie sheet! Again, I'm a genius :) And they are yummy...honey butter, plain butter...whatever you want. But they smell soooo good!



Here is the recipe: Lion House Dinner Rolls