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When I recall church potlucks and holiday family gatherings from childhood, the memories aren\u2019t complete without a festive plate of sausage bread<\/a>. My mom is a fantastic cook; she makes a mean meatloaf<\/a> and the best pork chops<\/a> I\u2019ve ever had, but baking was always my territory. Sausage bread is her one unbeatable, tastes-totally-homemade (but isn\u2019t) MVP.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Her recipe for the meat- and cheese-filled dough actually begins with a box of Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, an item that too often gets overlooked in the baking aisle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m known to scoff at boxed baking mixes. Why pay (sometimes more) money for a lower-quality version of something that isn\u2019t really that difficult or time-consuming to make from scratch? My grandmother, who is a cake mix aficionado, recognized this in me on my 12th birthday when she gifted me a copy of Anne Byrne\u2019s The Cake Mix Doctor Returns<\/a><\/em>. To this day, when I find myself using a box of brownie mix, I still face an insatiable urge to add ingredients or tweak components to make it my own (a sprinkle of espresso powder never hurts!).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pillsbury\u2019s Hot Roll Mix is the one I\u2019ve never felt the need to mess with. It\u2019s straightforward and, dare I say, foolproof \u2014\u00a0even for those who are newer to baking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The mix comes with a flour blend and a separate packet of yeast, with instructions to add hot water, butter, and an egg. The standard recipe on the back of the box yields delightful dinner rolls when followed to a T. The cinnamon roll recipe (detailed on the side), which my mom routinely makes on Christmas morning, is also solid. I cannot in good faith say they\u2019re the greatest cinnamon rolls in the world, but they\u2019re sweet, cinnamon-y, and satisfying. However, where the hot roll mix really shines is in sausage bread. Once baked, this simple yeast dough becomes soft and pillowy, with a slight crunch on the exterior.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The beauty of sausage bread lies in its simplicity. As the original recipe card in my mother\u2019s recipe book explains, it all begins with the hot roll mix. I follow the recipe on the box through the first rise. After rolling out the dough into two large rectangles \u2014 thin enough to almost tear \u2014 I spread two pounds of cooked ground sausage mixed with mozzarella, some dry oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and two eggs. I roll the dough into a log (in a similar fashion to cinnamon rolls), dot with butter, and bake at 350\u00b0F for 20 minutes. There will appear to be more filling than is reasonable for the amount of dough; hold steady and roll the dough thin, the bread will puff up nicely to hold the filling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Allow the bread 10 or so minutes to cool to allow the filling to stay put when sliced, and prepare to astonish your guests. Out of all the things I make and bring to potlucks, this one is my most-requested recipe. Sausage bread is a perfect dance of soft and gooey, crunchy and yeasty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Recently, I even tried making the sausage bread dough totally from scratch. I thought it would be brilliant to not have to seek out the mix at a store. I can find it in exactly two places in my mid-size Midwestern town these days: Walmart and Menards (a fantastic regional home improvement chain, for the uninitiated). But it just wasn\u2019t the same. Sausage bread isn\u2019t sausage bread without the hot roll mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What store-bought holiday mixes do you swear by? Tell us about it in the comments below.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat\u2019s So Great About Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What\u2019s the Best Way to Use Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n