Homemade Hawaiian Rolls

An absolute hit in my house is "Hawaiian Rolls" but as most of you know they are terribly expensive!  So I found several recipes online and combined and tweaked them to come up with this one, which is AWESOME!!!

Happy Baking!!

You will need:

1 1/4 cups pineapple juice
2 packages instant dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon Coconut Extract (optional) 
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour

Melted Butter/Margarine (for brushing tops of rolls)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter.  Beat in the yeast coconut extract and pineapple juice.  Beat in 3 eggs, vanilla, salt and ginger until combined.  Add 3 cups flour and beat until smooth.  Stir in by hand, enough of the remaining flour (2 1/2 cups or so) to make the consistency of bread dough.

2.  Using a hook attachment for stand mixer (if you have one, if not knead by hand) knead dough about 3 minutes, use more flour if necessary to achieve the right consistency (about 1/2 cup).  Pour about 1 tsp vegetable oil in the bottom of a bowl and spread with paper towel, place dough in the bowl then turn upside down (making sure both sides of the dough ball are coated with oil).  Cover bowl with a towel and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3.  Deflate the dough and divide 2 equal parts.  Divide each half of dough into about 9 pieces, form each piece into a ball (to make them more of a square shape simply tuck the "corners" under the bottom of the ball).  Put dough balls into a greased round baking dish (like a cake pan).  Cover again with a towel and let rise another hour.  Don't worry if they don't seem to rise as much as typical dough does, they will rise in the oven!
In small bowl, beat the remaining egg, brush over the rolls and sprinkle with sugar.

4.  Preheat oven to 350.    Bake 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Immediately brush with melted butter when taken out of the oven.