King's Hawaiian Rolls

Hi all-

Last week, I wanted to practice making some rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to duplicate King's Hawaiian Rolls, so I searched the site. Most of the pertinent results suggested that Hawaiian rolls were simply a straight Portuguese Sweet bread or a variation of that bread. I've previously made Portuguese Sweet Bread (from the Beard On Bread book) and I knew that that wasn't what I had in mind. So...I turned to our friend Google and made another search.

I came up with 2 very different recipes. The first (from the 350degreeoven.com) was a pineapple and tangzhong mixture that sounded intriguing, and the second (from recipelink.com) was a very simple white bread dough with the peculiar addition of yellow cake mix mixed into the dough. Since the second recipe was the easiest to accomplish, I made that recipe. And it sounded like something corporate America would do to make a 'different' product rather easily.

Due to head/neck cancer, I'm unable to swallow anything right now, so I'm unable to make my own determination as to whether or not this is what I was looking for. But, the first thing out of my brother's mouth after eating one was, "These taste just like those Hawaiian rolls that you buy." That's what my goal was, so I felt pretty successful.

Here are the two links:

http://www.the350degreeoven.com/2011/12/japanese-hawaiian/hawaiian-bread-rolls-kings-hawaiian-bread-copycat-recipe/

http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_31/2005/DEC/35407.html

Here is the recipe that I used, but I halved it.

CLONED KING'S HAWAIIAN SWEET BREAD ROLLS

1 (18 oz) package yellow cake mix
2 packages Fleischmann's active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water (105-110 degrees F)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 Tablespoons melted butter (for tops)

Combine cake mix and yeast. Next, combine water and salt. Add cake mixture to water and salt mixture. Add flour last. Mix well and knead lightly. Let rise 1 hour.

Knead lightly again, pat out and cut for rolls. Place on greased baking sheet or in greased cake pans. Let rise until double.

Bake at 375 degrees F. When brown, brush with melted butter and bake a little longer.

Makes 24 Rolls
Adapted from source: Marbalet

It just so happens that Jiffy makes a 9 ounce box of yellow cake mix, so I just used that.

Let me know if my brother doesn't know what he's talking about. I didn't tell him in advance what I was trying to accomplish, so I feel pretty certain that this might be 'it.'