Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls

Sorry that I have been M.I.A. lately. With the holidays, I did not have time to write any new posts but I have been baking and cooking up a storm so I will be posting those recipes during the upcoming week. For "Foto Friday" I did a picture of my grandparents (Cash's great grandparents) and Cash. I love pictures that show the different generations like this!

Anyways, I made these rolls for Thanksgiving and everyone was telling me how light and fluffy they were. DELICIOUS! It makes 24, so you may want to half the recipe if you only want 12. I know that I have been posting numerous rolls lately. They are all so good but have slight differences. I love to make different rolls for different occasions. This is a great dinner roll for Thanksgiving/Christmas, etc... I will definitely be making these for Christmas.

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk (use part heavy cream and part 1%/skim if you are in a pinch)
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1/3 cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons), preferably bread machine yeast
2/3 cup warm water
8-9 cups flour, divided
3 eggs, beaten

Directions
1. Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the butter melts (do not let the milk boil). Remove from heat and allow to cool to lukewarm (if it is too hot, then it will kill your yeast).
2. While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes (the yeast should be bubbly).
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
4. Add yeast mixture to the milk/flour mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.
5. Add the beaten eggs.
6. Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. This dough should be very soft- it will be coming away from the sides of the bowl, but still sticky to the touch.
7. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel. Allow to rise 1 hour (or until doubled in size).
8. Spray 2 9x13 pans with cooking spray. Split the dough into two equal parts. Divided each of those pieces into 12 equal pieces. Roll each into a ball and place them into the prepared pans.
9. Cover the pans with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
10. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.
11. When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of col butter over the tops of the rolls.

Tips: Do not think that you have to have super warm/hot water to use with your yeast. When the recipe calls for WARM yeast, it should just barely be warm. Not boiling and not hot. If it is too warm, your dough will not rise because it kills the yeast. This goes for any recipes dealing with yeast.