Sweet Dinner Crescent Rolls

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. Ursula K. Le Guin

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cup of warm milk

1 egg

1/4 cup of butter, softened and chopped into 1/2" squares

1/3 cup of white sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast

1/4 cup of butter, softened

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large bowl whisk together sugar, salt, flour, and yeast until well combined and create a well in the center of flour mixture. In a small bowl whisk egg. Add water, milk, whisked egg, and 1/4 cup of butter to flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon or spatula mix ingredients together until a shaggy dough begins to form.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until it passes the poke test.* Put dough back in large bowl, cover, and let rise until it doubles in size or about one hour. 

Punch dough down. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise util doubled or one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

*The Poke Test: Give dough a firm poke with your finger. If the indentation fills back quickly, you’re good to go. If it stays looking like a deep dimple, continue kneading.

Cleva Douglas' Yeast Rolls (no milk)

Dissolve 1 package of dry yeast in 1/2 c of warm water.

Cream 1/2 cup shortening and 1/4 c sugar and add 1/2 c boiling water; then cool.

Beat together 1 egg, 1/2 t salt, the yeast mixture, and 1 c flour.

Add 2 more cups of flour one cup at a time.

Place in oiled bowl, cover, refrigerate until use.

Roll into desired shapes, rise, and bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Yield 12-30, depending on the size.

Elaine Smith's Yeast Rolls (with milk)

Proof 1 T yeast in 1/4 c warm water and 1/2 t sugar.

Scald 1 c milk & melt into it 1/4 c butter (or any shortening).
Dissolve into that 1/4 sugar and 1/2 t salt. Add two c flour and mix.

Add yeast mixture to dough.

Beat in 1 egg.

Add 1 more cup of flour.

Rise. Punch down. Shape (a cake pan works nicely if you want the edges to be pull aparts).

Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Pecan French Toast

My friend, Doris Mason, served this to my mother in law and me back in 2006. The next morning the lovely Wendy James at the Kate Shepard House Bed & Breakfast served us another version: Praline Pecan French Toast. 

4 large eggs (she used six)
1 cup milk (she used 1/2 and 1/2)
1/4 sugar (she used Splenda)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg
vegetable oil spray (which she used) or melted butter
1 loaf (8 oz) French bread, cut into 1" thick slices
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp. butter melted

Place eggs, milk, sugar, spice and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Mist the bottom of a 12" by 8" glass casserole with vegetable spray or melted butter. Place the bread slices in a single layer in the pan. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, distributing it evenly. Turn the bread slices once. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove the pan from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Sprinkle the bread slices with pecans and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the bread slices puff up and pecans are deep brown, but not burned. Serve warm with syrup. Makes 6 servings.

Yorkshire Pudding

Shamelessly lifted from my tattered wedding gift copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook this is a necessary item for our Christmas roast beef, shared here with all my offspring and the rest of you readers. This is basically a big cream puff flavored with meat drippings.

“Thirty minutes before rib or boneless rib roast is done, prepare Yorkshire Pudding. Heat square pan, 9x9x2 inches, in oven. Remove roast from oven; spoon off drippings and add melted shortening, if needed, to measure ½ cup.

“Increase oven temp to 425 degrees. Return roast to oven.

“Place hot drippings in heated square pan; pour in Yorkshire Pudding batter. Bake 10 mintues. Remove roast; continue baking pudding 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cut pudding into squares, serving with roast.”

6 to 9 servings.

Mix together just until smooth:

1 c all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 c milk

2 eggs

Caramelized Apple and Goat Cheese Tartines

This is a little snack perfect for afternoon tea or a very informal dessert. I concocted it on a cloudy Sunday evening for Paul and me to share. It will have been the first of many times it appears in my snack rotation. I used lavender (which my neighbor grows whole bushes of) and thyme with the apples, and although you could substitute different herbs or spices, I highly recommend this combination. So go get yourself some lavender and goat cheese and make this right now.

• baguette
• soft goat cheese
• 2 large apples
• <1/4 t lavender
• <1/4 t thyme
• 1 T butter
• 2 T sugar
• 1 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 450º with the rack in the top third of the oven.

Slice 6 diagonal pieces of the baguette (I used French, but I think whole grain bread would be nicer) and spread each slice with a generous smear of goat cheese. Set aside.

Peel, core, and finely chop the apples. The herbs should be finely chopped as well. Heat the butter in a medium skillet until browning, then add the apples and herbs. Toss over medium-high heat until the apples begin to brown.

At this point, place the bread in the oven, either on a baking sheet or directly on the rack. Keep an eye on it, but it should take about 10 minutes to toast and for the cheese to melt.

Add the sugar and cider vinegar to the apples and turn the heat down to medium-low. Toss occasionally until the vinegar is cooked off, the sugar is melted, and some of the apples have a dark brown edge.

When the toast is done, remove from the oven and top each slice with a spoonful of the apples. Serve warm.

Makes 6 tartines.

Chinese Steamed Skillet Bread

Make a simple bread dough, maybe 3 cups of flour, a tablespoon of yeast, and 1 or 1-1/4 c warm water. Let it rise, punch down. Roll out to a large (12 inch?) circle. Brush lightly with cooking oil. If you have a few drops of sesame oil to mix in, all the better. Crack black pepper (chinese black pepper is nicer if you can find it), sprinkle sea salt and chopped green onion. Roll up. Coil roll into another circle and flatten with your rolling pin the size of a large iron skillet. Heat skillet with a tablespoon of oil until it spits. Reduce heat and add bread and cover. It will rise in the heat and steam itself. When bread is nicely golden on underside, flip it and grill the other side. All the cooking takes about 15-20 minutes over low heat, maybe less.

Chili Butter

This just in from Betty Francis. It sounds wonderful, so I'll try it soon. Maybe to be served with a foccacia made with cheddar cheese and mexicany instead of italiany...

Chili Butter: In a small bowl stir together 1/2 cup softened butter; 1/4 cup finely snipped fresh cilantro; 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped; 1 clove garlic, minced; and 1 teaspoon chili powder. Place on waxed paper; form into a log. Wrap well; chill for 1 hour or overnight. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 1 month.

Andrew Janjigian's Better Focaccia

Three pages in Cook's Illustrated September & October 2010 issue is an excellent tutorial on making artisan breads, especially this focaccia recipe. I tried to find a link online, and could not, so just posting here the basic recipe for my daughtie's who want the measurements:

Biga:
1/2 c (2.5 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c (2-2/3 oz)warm water
1/4 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast

Combine in large bowl and stir with wooden spoon until uniform mass forms and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl tightly and let stand at room temp overnight or at least 8 hours.

Dough:
2.5 c (12.5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for shaping
1.25 c (10 oz) warm water (100-110 F)
1 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast
Kosher salt
4 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Stir flour, water, yeast into biga with wooden spoon until no dry flour reamins. Cover and let rise at room temp for 15 minutes. Sprinkle 2 tsp. salt over dough; stir into dough until thoroughly incorporated. Cover and let rise at room temp 30 minutes. Spray rubber spatula with nonstick cooking spray; fold partially risen dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again: a total of 8 turns. Cover and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding, turning, rising 2 more times, for 3 30 minute rises. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter. Etc...using olive oil to coat 2 cake pans, etc. Call me, Susan for the rest of the technique details if you like.

Bake 450 degrees 25 minutes.

Sandwich bread

From Susan's blog.

Easy Little Bread Recipe

This just in from Susan: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/easy-little-bread-recipe.html

Six Three Three Thirteen Bread

Dinner guest, Cindy Schmatjen shared an amazing recipe with us yesterday. Here's what she does to have bread dough at the ready for pizza or a hot loaf for dinner:

Acquire a large covered bin for the refrigerator.

Mix together

6 c warm water
3 T yeast
3 T rock salt
13 c unbleached flour

in your bin and let it rise in the refrigerator or on your warm porch, depending on when you first want to use it. You need to let it proof for at least two hours before use, but then it, or portions of it, can store in your refrigerator for up to a week or two. Busy mommy that she is, she figured out that 13 c of unbleached flour is one 5# bag MINUS 2.5 cups. So she just opens a new bag, takes out 2.5 cups of flour, and dumps the rest of the bag into her concoction. It is not even necessary to have it fully smoothly mixed before setting to rise, as if it is somewhat mixed, it will continue to do its work before you have to grab a chunk out (with flour-y hands!) to shape for baking. She bakes this on a baking stone at 450 degrees.

Making just one batch of bread? Then divide by three and use:

2 c warm water
1 T yeast
1 T salt
4.333 c flour

We had this bread with Sunday dinner which she threw together at six that morning and the flavor and texture were the best!

Basic Spoonbread

When Grace finishes the piano lesson she's giving, I'm going to teach her to make this recipe, one I found in the May/June 1983 COOKS Magazine that we enjoyed a number of times as newlyweds; a good supper meal.

6 T butter

3 c milk

1 c cornmeal

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

4 large room temp eggs, separated

pinch salt

In preheated (350) oven, melt 1 T butter in a 2 qt. casserole for 2--3 minutes. Brush the sides and bottom of the casserole with the melted butter and set aside.

Pour milk into a heavy-bottomed 5 qt. saucepan and bring to almost a boil over medium heat. Gradually stir in the cornmeal with a wooden spoon or whisk. Stir until dissolved. Continue stirring over reduced heat for 2 minutes or until thick. Add remaining butter, salt, and pepper. Mix well and cook 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add lightly beaten egg yolks; mix to incorporate all ingredients.

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Fold into yolk/meal mixture. Pour batter into casserole, spreading it evenly and smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until puffed and browned. Serve at once with butter, fresh tomato sauce, or a green chili sauce.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Not sure, but I think I got this recipe from Jeni or Heather. Why the card is floating around my computer desk, I don't know, but maybe one of you will like to have it. If it is what I remember, they were very high calorie to die for muffins. Enjoy.

1 c chopped pecans

1 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c flour

2 large eggs

1/2 c melted butter

Combine first three ingredients, make a well in center of mixture. Beat eggs until foamy. Stir together eggs & butter, add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Place foil baking cups in muffin pans and coat with cooking spray. Fill 2/3 full. Bake 350 degrees 20-25 minutes or done. Cool in wire racks. Yield: 9 muffins or 30 mini muffins.

Pizza

Tonight it was some of the best ever. (Sorry, Peter.) I made the crust kind of focaccia type: 2 c white flour, 1 c whole wheat flour, 2.25 tsp yeast, 1.5 c warm water. Mix. 30 minutes later blend in 2 tsp. salt. (maybe a little too much). Knead just four or five times every 30 minutes for an hour and a half. Divide in half and roll out with olive oil.

1st pizza: Rest of some vodka tomato sauce (1/3 cup), sprinkle dried basil liberally and some red pepper flakes a little less liberally. Add lots of mozzarella, and top with yesterday's taco's ground beef and chicken leftovers. Bake 15 minutes at 425. Excellent.

2nd pizza: 1/3 c sour cream spread on unbaked pizza crust. Shred some pecorino/romano. Add fresh ground black pepper, mozzarella, parmesan, more pecorino, the rest of the jar of garlic roasted peppers, chopped, and the rest of the can of black olives, sliced. Bake just as long. The crust was incredible: crisp and crunchy and substantial yet thin.

Hope to do more sour cream pizzas. This was awesomeness.

Shannon's sausage cheese muffins

The morning after we dropped Kilby in Yazoo City to live with Mrs. B and kids, Shannon served these delicious muffins to us. If you're hosting Jay Fontanini, make sure to make them. They also serve as great travel food.

3 c Bisquick mix
1 can cream of cheddar soup
1/2 can warm water
1 # browned sausage
1 c shredded cheddar cheese

Mix and spoon in to 20-24 greased muffin cups.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Popovers

This comes from Betty Crocker, but as I'm taking it out of my head at the moment, I'm listing what I remember. It makes a really nice breakfast if you get up early enough to make them. Often the popovers form with holes in the bottom, great for spooning in a teaspoon of butter for melting in the hot popover, or cream cheese or jam...

2 c flour

2 c milk

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp salt

I don't mix the entire portion of milk in until the flour/eggs/half the milk is smooth. If you put all the milk in at once it is hard to blend out the flour lumps without overmixing. Pour into greased muffin cups (or popover cups if you have them; see link above). This recipe will make 12--18 popovers. The oven must have preheated to 450 degrees. Bake these for about 20 minutes at that temp. Then turn the oven down to 350 and bake another 15 minutes. If your oven bakes hot this may be too long or too high. Better undercooked than overcooked. Either way, what a delicious breakfast treat, and nutritious!

Katriona Trice's Baking Powder Biscuits

Katriona made these biscuits for our family when, as a Covenant College freshman, she spent some time in our home. Until then I had never known how to make biscuits. And these flaky ones are especially loved around here.

2 c flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

1/3 c shortening

3/4 c milk

Mix the first three ingredients. Cut the shortening in to the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal. Quickly stir in milk, not overmixing.

I dump this mixture onto a flour covered counter, folding the dough in upon itself about eight times, shaping dough as I go. Roll out dough and cut into biscuits.

The less you can handle the dough, the flakier the biscuits will be.

Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown at 450 degrees.

French Bread

I believe I learned this recipe from the Country Kitchen Cookbook that was published some years ago by Tyndale House Publishers by Wes and Lois Bauman. It is also where I found our favorite cole slaw recipe. Since that day we have used this hundreds and hundreds of times. Early in Susan's second decade of life she was taking orders for this up and down our street and delivering hot bread when people came home from work. She even made hundreds of hard rolls for a wedding one year; the freezer was full of her work until the big day. I use this recipe for pizza crust as well.

3-1/2 c flour

1 T sugar

1-1/2 t salt

1 T oil

1 pkg or 1 T yeast

1-1/4 c warm water

Mix and knead. Let rise. Punch down and shape. Re-rise and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Leave in turned off oven for another ten minutes for crunchier crust. You can also brush the unbaked bread with a wash of egg yolk or egg white or whole egg and water, or with milk.

English Muffin Bread

This is fast bread that is wonderful toasted. Another nice touch is to replace part of your liquid with water from boiled potatoes: gives it more of an English Muffin flavor. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe in the early days of our marriage and it has been an all time favorite. The first time I made it I made a mistake and used 1 T of sugar instead of 1 t with a nice result.

Heat 2 c MILK and 1/2 c WATER until it is as hot as you can touch (120-130 degrees)

Combine 3 c FLOUR, 2 pkgs (1-1/2 Tablespoons) YEAST, 1 t SUGAR, 2 t SALT, 1/2 t BAKING SODA in a big bowl.

Add hot milk mixture to flour mixture and beat well.

Stir in 2 to 3 more cups of FLOUR to make a stiff batter.

Spoon into 2 greased and sprinkled-with-CORNMEAL loaf pans.

Cover. Let rise in warm place about 45 minutes.

Bake 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from pans immediately and cool.