Hi I’m Kari West, from rural Girard, and I am hijacking Connie Kaye’s Kitchen Blog this week. I am going to share a recipe for some of the most versatile, yet easiest yeast bread dough you will ever make and turn into a family favorite breakfast of homemade sausage and cheese rolls. (This recipe is a copy cat inspired by Johnson’s Daylight Donuts in Fort Scott.)

I met Connie nearly 20 years ago when working in Fort Scott, and she introduced me to these tasty little treats.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
1 Batch of Best Ever Dough
1 lb of Sausage (I like to use Hillshire Farms Polish Sausage or Beef)
Cheese (Velveeta, Pepper Jack, Gouda, all work well)
Milk to baste the rolls.

A little preview of what’s to come:

Bread Dough:
1 c. Warm Milk
1 TBSP Instant Dry Yeast
2 TBSP Sugar
1 TSP Salt
3 TBSP Softened Butter
1 Egg
3 c. All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Vanilla

A couple of pro-tips: Preheat your oven to 125 degrees. (Trust me on this one.) And I use my stand mixer to do the heavy lifting.

So let’s get started:
In the mixer bowl, combine warm milk, yeast, sugar, salt, butter and eggs. Add in the flour and use your dough hook to mix at a low speed. Once the flour starts to incorporate, increase to medium speed.

The dough mixture should be tacky, but not stick to your hands. It should be soft. You can add a little more flour if needed. Transfer the dough to lightly greased mixing bowl. (I use my Grandma Antonetti’s Bread Crock.) Cover loosely with Press & Seal or wax paper. Shut OFF oven. Place covered bowl in warm oven for 1 hour to rise. The dough will double in size.

While it is rising, lightly grease a baking sheet. Use this time to cut sausage into quarters lengthwise, and cheese to match. (Really anything you want to stuff in them.) When your hour is up, take the dough out of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

On a generously floured surface, punch and dump the dough. Use rolling pin to roll into a 12 inch x 18 inch rectangle. Rolled dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into squares (I use a pizza cutter), place cheese, sausage and bring ends together, and then roll the other pinching the seams to keep the cheese in the roll during baking. Place on baking sheet and brush with milk or melted butter. (At this point, you can add jalapeños on top, Everything but Bagel seasoning, etc.)

Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce. (We like Jalapeno Ranch or Spicy Mustard). This same dough can be used to make a basic loaf of bread, chop into small pieces for Monkey Bread, Cinnamon Rolls, or roll thin and par-bake for Pizza Crust.

Thank you to my good friend Kari for dropping by this week. Give these a whirl (printable recipe below) — so amazing, and for more scratch made favorites or life on the farm, follow her on Instagram and Facebook @CustomCreationsbyK

And before you go, follow me for more good food and fun!

~Connie Kaye