A couple of weeks ago Judy Hakola in Orono wrote saying: “I have come across a number of good yeast bread recipes in my cooking magazines lately, most of which are for use in bread machines. I don’t have a bread machine, nor do I want one. I prefer kneading dough on my Finnish mother-in-law’s homemade breadboard, which I brought from Montana after her death in 1969.

“Do you have or know of any guidelines for converting bread-machine recipes to ‘regular’ old-fashioned versions?” Judy allowed as how she could experiment but thought it might be smarter to ask than waste ingredients needlessly.

Like Judy, I prefer to knead by hand, too, and I have a half-dozen or so favorite recipes for bread and rolls that I make when I feel like working dough. Judy’s query lined up with one this column picked up sometime back for a nice dinner roll recipe, and since this is a pretty good time of year to be baking bread, right up there in the comfort food department, this seems like a good opportunity to share my roll recipe.

As it turned out, Barbara Stephens in Holden wrote with one solution for Judy: “I have a cookbook that includes recipes for bread and instructions for each recipe for mixing the dough by hand, mixing the dough with a heavy-duty mixer, mixing the dough in the food processor, mixing the dough in the bread machine, mixing and baking the bread in the bread machine, and shaping and baking in the oven.” Whew.

The book, “Whole Grain Breads by Machine or by Hand,” by Beatrice Ojakangas, was published in 1998 by Wiley Publishing Inc. in Hoboken, N.J.

“It includes 200 recipes all in one book and saves having to cut recipes from magazines and storing them somehow,” Barbara said, suggesting it would be easy to obtain the book, new or used, online.

I find bread pretty darn forgiving and flexible. It is possible, you know, to make bread using only flour, water, salt and yeast. No sugar, no butter, no milk, no eggs. It occurred to me that what Judy needed was a few signals for determining when there was enough flour in the dough, and how to tell when it was kneaded enough. I am pretty sure you could experiment with most bread recipes at a fairly low risk of failure.

I had not made these rolls for some time, but they are nifty little items, and go together like a dream. I found the original recipe in Gourmet magazine when I was a newlywed back about 25 years ago, and wanted nice rolls for Christmas dinner. This recipe promised I could turn them into brown-and-serve type rolls, which indeed I could. They are called Whole Wheat Potato Dinner Rolls. The whole wheat is definitely not in the majority, but using it makes one feel a little virtuous. The potatoes make them moist.

It seems to me that the main trick is to add flour gradually and knead the bread well between additions, then to stop adding flour when the bread is smooth and elastic. Someone once told me that the bread should feel smooth like a baby’s bottom, and I always look for the dough springing back when I poke it. If your finger hole just sits there and you don’t see much movement, then it hasn’t had enough flour and-or hasn’t been kneaded enough. My husband, Jamie, was already an accomplished bread baker when I met him, and he advised me to knead bread with as little flour added as possible, especially when working with whole-wheat. Those are my main hints. Plus be brave and confident.

And one more thing. Bread will put up with a lot of abuse. I tried this recipe that Wednesday when the big storm roared through. We lost power before I could bake the rolls. So I punched the dough down after its first rising, put a damp cloth on it and stuck it in the fridge. Before I went to bed, I punched it again. The next morning, I took it out of the fridge, put it on the bread board, let it get back to just under room temperature, formed the rolls, and you know, that dough just rose right up again, and I baked them, and they were lovely.

The original directions for these rolls call for making cloverleaf rolls in standard-size muffin tins. I have two muffin tins with a dozen holes each, which uses up two-thirds of the dough. I always make the rest of the dough into 12 balls, which I flatten somewhat and fold over and bake in a baking pan.

Whole Wheat Potato Dinner Rolls

Makes 3 dozen rolls

2 russet potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed; reserve liquid

2 envelopes dry yeast

1 stick plus three tablespoons softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs beaten

3 teaspoons salt

1 cup milk warmed to body temperature

5 cups unbleached flour

2 cups whole-wheat flour

Measure out one-half cup of the potato cooking liquid and add the yeast to it, and stir to dissolve. Let stand. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then add 1 cup of the mashed potato, eggs and salt. Beat well. Add the milk and yeast. In a separate bowl, blend together the white and whole-wheat flours.

Mix 41/2 cups flour into the potato and yeast mixture, beat well, then add the rest of the flour half a cup at a time, switching from using a spoon to using your hands as soon as a sticky dough forms. Knead the dough in the bowl for about three minutes, then cover with a damp cloth, and set to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume, about an hour. Punch it down, knead again until the dough springs back when you poke it.

Grease three muffin tins and pinch off pieces of dough and roll into balls about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Put three balls in each muffin tin cup and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and bake the rolls until golden, about 20-25 minutes. If you want brown-and-serve rolls, take them out after 10 minutes, cool them and put them in the freezer. To use them, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, put the rolls on a baking sheet, and reheat them for five to 10 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

Looking for …

Scallop recipes. This is another question from Dana Holbrook in Cape Rosier who asked what I did with scallops. Truth be known, not much. For some reason or other, I never think to get any. Talk about ruts. Mainly what I know about scallops is “cook them quickly.” Anybody have a nice stir-fry way of cooking scallops to serve with rice?

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.