About the cooking blog...

We enjoy a good meal. 99 out of 100 times, this good meal takes place in our kitchen. We don't eat out very often, and when we do, we're rarely "wow-ed" by the food we get. The following are recipes that have passed through our kitchen. They're not always winners, but we'll tell you if they're not, and what should be changed to make them better. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Awesome–O Bread.

Okay… okay… really, this recipe is called “Sweet Dinner Rolls”.. but that doesn’t describe what it makes sufficiently. That’d be like calling Michelangelo's David a yard gnome. You wouldn’t suspect the awesomeness, looking at the ingredient list… it really doesn’t look like anything special….

  • 1/2 Cup Warm Water
  • 1/2 Cup Warm Milk
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/3 Cup Butter, Softened
  • 1/3 Cup White Sugar
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 3-3/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 (.25oz) Pack of Yeast
  • More softened butter.

So, this was actually a bread machine recipe, so the instructions I’m going to give are my own creation. Professional bakers would probably have a stroke looking at my methods, but they’re not in my kitchen.

This is the sugar and the yeast… all happy together in the mixer’s bowl. They are about to meet the milk and water, which are at about 105 degrees.

Then… why not.. go ahead and beat your egg (which should be at room temperature) and add it to the mix…. stir everything up, cover the bowl in plastic wrap, and let it sit in a warm place for about 20-30 minutes to let the yeast “proof”.

So… since the egg was in the mix, making heavy spots, the yeast proofed in different areas… not all over the top like normal…. so… maybe next time, leave the egg out until later….

After it’s proofed, drop everything else into the bowl.

Boom. There’s the flour, salt and butter.. It’s time to put the mixer to work….

Start mixing slowly with the dough hook, until it’s “mostly” mixed, and then kick the speed up a notch. Let it “knead” the dough for 5-6 minutes until it’s nice and smooth. …. Like so.

Ok… that might not look smooth, but pull it out of the bowl and form it up a little….

After you form it into a ball, cut it in half. Then, in half again. Then each of those halves in half. You should get 16 pieces by the time you’ve divided it all up. Or, however many you need to fill your pans.. I like to make this bread in a muffin pan, so I make 12 small balls for the muffin pan, and then the leftover piece goes into a mini-loaf pan. (Spray all pans with floured baking spray)

Coat all of your dough on the top with some softened butter.

Then, cover the dough with plastic wrap and stick it somewhere warm for an hour to rise. When 45 minutes has gone by, preheat the oven to 400. The dough won’t exactly double in size.. but it’ll get bigger… like so:

After it’s been rising for an hour, toss it in the oven for 12-16 minutes, it should get golden brown.

Have some while it’s warm… it’s soooo much better when it’s warm…

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