Monday's Moment: Humpty Dumpty

 

Monday's Moment: Do you know the Muffin Woman?

Dinner Rolls

Growing up, every year at Thanksgiving (and possibly Christmas and Easter), my Aunt Shirley would make dinner rolls. So light, yummy, and easy to go back for seconds. Before Shirley passed away to ovarian cancer, she taught me how to make the rolls. The recipe was one of a few that my grandmother, Mae, had taught her. Sadly, I never met Mae as she too lost her battle with cancer when my mom was only 15.

Here is a photo of Mae and her 4 youngest kids (she had 11 kids). Shirley is the younger girl and my mom is the older girl. What's scary - I know there is a photo of me around my mom's age here where I'm making the exact same face!! Strong genes!

Now that you can put a face to the legends. Here's how to make their yummy Yeast Rolls!

Ingredients:

In large bowl:                                                                               In 2 cup measuring cup or small bowl:

2 cups boiling water                                                                     1/4 cup warm water

6 tablespoons butter                                                                     1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt                                                                          2 packages Rapid Rise Yeast

1/3 cup of sugar                                                                    

Save for later:

                                                                      2 eggs, beaten                                                                      

                                                                     ~5 cups All-Purpose Flour

Directions:

Mix the items in the respective bowls per ingredient list. When water is cool and yeast is to top of cup (or tripled in size - see photo). 

To the large bowl, add 2 slightly beaten eggs, yeast mixture, and 5 cups all-purpose flour, gradually. You may need slightly more/slightly less flour. You want the dough to be sticky not gummy. Cover and set in fridge for at least 3 hours. Use as you as need, dough will be good for up to 1 week. (This was the dough after sitting in the fridge for two days).

Knead 1/2 dough at a time adding flour until you can roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut out biscuit-size and place 1/2 inch apart in a greased pan. Let rise until twice their size on a warm surface (usually 1 to 1.5 hours).

Bake for about 15 minutes at 375°F. Can freeze for later use.

I only make these occasionally because it makes such a huge quantity, this year I sent three pans worth in with Clarissa for her class party. The rest were perfect for Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers.

Nana's Apple Crisp

With apple season upon us, here is a yummy treat you can make with the apples. Since the fruit cobbler was named after my father-in-law, this one goes out to my mother-in-law (who actually sent me both recipes).

Ingredients:
4 cups peeled and sliced apples
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (113.4g) butter

Place apple slices in an ungreased 9x9 or 8x13 casserole dish. Mix topping ingredients thoroughly. Sprinkle over apples.

Bake at 375℉ for about 45 minutes (or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown).

Enjoy!

Next time, I am thinking about adding some oats to make it a tad healthier.....

Bajoo's Easy Cobbler

My father-in-law (Bajoo as the kids call him) makes a super yummy, insanely easy cobbler (he picked it up from a roadside peach stand in NC back in the late 70s). You can use what ever fruit is in season (or has been frozen at the peak of freshness).

Ingredients:
3 cups fruit (suggestions that are always super tasty: peaches, strawberries, blueberries)
1 1/4 cups sugar (divided)
1 stick (113.4 g) butter
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk

Take 3 cups of fruit and mix with 3/4 cup of sugar. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350℉.

Put the butter in a deep baking dish (I use a 9x9 pan that has a lid to store any leftovers) and melt the butter in the oven as it preheats.

In a separate bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar, flour, baking powder and milk together.

When the butter is melted, remove from the oven, pour batter on top of butter. Place sugared fruit on top of the batter.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Bread and Butter

So while in DC I took a bread making class with the Arlington County Adult Education program (I strongly recommend it! So much fun and I think Richard loved the samples I brought home). The things I learned to make in class that I have already made multiple times include: buttermilk biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and focaccia bread. I have also made the french baguettes once and plan to make the sweet quick bread sometime. The class also gave me some confidence to try some other homemade bread based cooking....homemade pizza dough and tortillas, though neither of these have ever turn out quite circular....but maybe I'm onto something with rectangular soft tacos!

A very common ingredient in most of these tasty treats is butter. My recipes typically call for tablespoons of butter. Given pretty much only the US uses the 'standard' system of measurements, the butter I buy here is not marked in pretty little tablespoons but by 25g (or 50g) increments. So on a tip from my bread class instructor I bought a kitchen scale before we moved. So I whip out my little scale now and weigh my butter (I'm actually starting to get pretty good eyeballing the amount I need). Every time I cook though, I have to go online (I've been going to traditional ovens website) to convert my tablespoons to grams. For the above mentioned recipes I have just written in the amount I need...but every time I use a different recipe I have to go look it up. So to solve this problem, I made this nifty little chart. I have printed it out and put it on my fridge. Hmmm, now what should I bake today......