Olive Oil Fantail Rolls

To be honest, I really am not in the mood to be writing some cheesy story about why I made these rolls. So I'm not going to. All anyone needs to know, or really cares about, is how they turned out. The verdict is that they were good, of course, because I'm a self proclaimed domestic goddess and I can fucking bake. Flaky, buttery, and extra fun because you can pull it apart piece by piece. The initial recipe needed a bit of tweaking so I made them again adding more butter, salt, herbs and loads of fontina cheese. So much better the second time. I didn't bother to take glamour shots of the second batch because I was probably on a time crunch and running around like a frazzled psycho, as usual. Super easy recipe but takes up about half your day with all the rising. They only keep for a day or two but are best hot and fresh out da oven. Who doesn't love to burn your mouth inhaling steamy, hot bread? Worth it!

All ingredients mixed together. Sooo easy!

Cute lil dough ball ready to nap

Risen until doubled in size, then punch that bitch down!

1/4 of dough rolled, oiled (or buttered!), and cut into 12 pieces

Stack pieces as well as you can and prop up with a rolling pin so that they don't fall and make you want to have a frustration breakdown

Cut into lil pieces. Mine kept falling but it truly doesn't really matter, stuff them in the tins anyways

Attempt to "fan" out the pieces, mine were jammed in to tight there wasn't much room

Only picture of the 2nd cheesy, delicious batch I managed to take. Cheeeeez

Glam shot, nestled ever so gently on a kitchen towel. Flaky, buttery, salty, oniony, pull-apart heaven in my mouth.

Olive Oil Fantail Rolls: Recipe adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients:
Makes 2 dozen

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (warm to the touch, but not hot)
2 tablespoons sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
3 cups bread flour
3 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cup yogurt
1 cup chives, finely chopped
1 cup olive oil, divided (or butter)

Herbed Cheesy variation filling:

2 cups grated fontina cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped

*Note: Recipe was originally doubled, makes A LOT of rolls. Good for the holidays! (or freezer leftovers)

Directions:

1. Whisk together the yeast, warm water, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let it stand until the mixture looks foamy and bubbled up on top — about 5 minutes. (If the mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.)
2.  Stir the flour, salt, yogurt, chives, and 3/4 cup olive oil into the yeast mixture with a wooden spoon or the stand mixer paddle just until a soft dough forms. Switch to the dough hook and knead until the dough is smooth (or turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, the perfect stress reliever). The dough will still look and feel slightly shaggy, from the oil; it won't have the perfectly smooth, taut feel of a more traditional yeast dough.
3.  Form dough into a ball and coat lightly with olive oil. Turn it over in the bowl and cover the bowl with a towel. Let rise until doubled — 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Oil or butter muffin tins and set aside.
5. Punch down dough, turn out onto a floured board, and cut into four equal pieces with a sharp bench scraper or knife. Put three pieces back into the bowl and keep covered with a towel while you roll out one piece of dough into a large, thin rectangle (slightly short of 12x18 inches). 
6. Brush dough lightly with olive oil or melted butter and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. ***For Herbed Cheesy rolls: Mix together fontina, parmesan, garlic, and parsley in a small bowl. Sprinkle cheese mixture over dough as well. Pat down slightly to avoid fallout.
7. Cut the dough crossways into 12 equal strips. Stack the strips, oiled side up, into a tall stack. (It is helpful to prop the stack against the rolling pin while doing this!) Cut the stack into 6 pieces.
8.  Turn each piece on its side, so the cut layers face up, and place in the prepared muffin tins. Separate the layers slightly so they fan outward (somewhat difficult with so many layers) Repeat with the rest of the dough.
9.  Cover the muffin tins with a kitchen towel and let the rolls rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled and dough fills cups, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
10.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the rolls until barely golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Once out of the oven brush rolls with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
11. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.