To make the dough, you’ll need a pint of whole milk, some sugar, and some vegetable oil.
Combine the milk, sugar, and oil In a large (at least 4-quart) pot or saucepan. Heat just to boiling, stirring occasionally, and then remove from heat. If you’ve got lots of ice handy, dump all that you have into a clean sink and then place the pan of scalded milk over the ice. This way, the milk mixture cools quickly and the melted ice just drips down the drain. When the milk is warm (around 105-115 degrees), remove from ice and sprinkle a packet (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) yeast over the milk mixture.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes–it should look like this at first…
And this after 10 minutes.
Stir. If you’d like, you can transfer everything to a large mixing bowl (it’s less annoying in the fridge.) Add four cups of flour…
Mix…
and cover. This can be done with a wooden spoon; the dough is VERY soft, more like a batter. Allow to stand for 1 hour. Mix remaining 1/2 c. flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Sprinkle over the dough and then mix it in with the wooden spoon. If you don’t want to make these right away, place a sheet of plastic wrap over the bowl and refrigerate for a few hours and up to a few days. You can also allow it to rise at room temperature for about an hour if you want to make these right away. When you’re ready to make the rolls, lightly spray a work surface with non-stick cooking spray and roll the dough out into a rectangle that’s about 6×18″. If you’d like to peel the pears, you can…I did. But pear skins are so thin that they’re pretty unobtrusive. To peel them super easily, bring a pot of water to a boil and fill another bowl with ice water. When the water is boiling, drop the pears in it for 20 seconds, then plunge them into the ice water and their skins slide right off. Then you can just cut out the core and chop them up! You’ll need about 1 1/2 cups of chopped pears, which is about 3 medium pears. In a medium bowl, mix the pears, the juice of half of a small lemon (about 1 teaspoon), ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt and set aside. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter, white sugar, and brown sugar Spread the butter mixture over the dough
and then top with the pear mixture.
Roll up tightly, making a log about 18″ long. With a very sharp knife or dental floss, trim off about 2 inches on either side. Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9×13″ pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. Using dental floss or a sharp knife, mark the dough into 12 equal pieces. Use the dental floss to cut the dough along the spots that you marked (grab about 8 inches of floss and slip it under the log. Cross the top pieces and pull, so it cuts the dough.) Place the dough pieces, cut side up, in the pan.
Cover and rise for 30 minutes. Bake the rolls for 15-22 minutes or until golden brown and the innermost rolls are cooked through.
If the edge pieces are getting too brown, lightly place a sheet of aluminum foil over the pan to prevent further browning. When done, remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool. While the rolls are cooling, prepare the frosting. For cream cheese frosting, click here; for brown butter frosting, click here. When the rolls have cooled, spread the frosting over the rolls. Makes 12 rolls.
