Take your risen dough and turn it out onto your lightly floured surface. Use a knife or a bench scraper to divide the dough in half, then divide each half into six even pieces, for a total of 12. You can shape these pieces into any shape you like. Rounded balls are probably the simplest, but it is even easier to drop them into lightly greased muffin tins. To make knots, roll each piece of dough into a rope and tie it. (Yes, that is my hand. No, it is not easy to shape a dinner roll and take a photo at the same time. ) Shaping the dinner rolls is a great time to get your kids involved in baking, even if they can only manage snake-like breadsticks or less-than-circular rolls.
Place all your formed rolls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or one that has been lightly greased. Cover the baking sheet with a large, clean dish towel and let the rolls rise for about 20 minutes.
Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 400F, then you can finish preparing the rolls.
[Photo by Nicole Weston]
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