Dinner Rolls

Today I got home early enough from work to whip up some dinner rolls.  I often have to resort to biscuits because of lack of planning on my part.  We are going to indulge ourselves with some of my yummy ham and bean soup but we really need some bread to go with it.  These dinner rolls fill the bill.


This recipe takes less than two hours from start to ready to eat which includes  rising time and baking time.

You will need:
3 cups flour (I use 1/2  all purpose and 1/2 cups whole grain flour)
2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
a greased 9 inch round cake pan (a 9x9 inch square pan works too just divide dough into 9 rather than 8 balls)

Add dry ingredients to your mixing bowl and mix. Next add water and oil.  Now it is time to knead.  I prefer to use my stand mixer for this but you can use a bread maker or even knead by hand.  In my stand mixer I knead the dough about 8 minutes.  Remember, if you are using whole grain flour, this type of flour takes longer to adsorb water.  Do not decide you need to add water until after at least four minutes of kneading.

If your dough seems dry and does not come together into a ball, add water a teaspoon at a time.  If your dough seems super sticky, add flour a Tablespoon at a time.  You want a firm ball of dough that is somewhat sticky.

After kneading put your dough onto a heavily floured surface and generously flour your hands.

Divide the dough in half, then divide each half in half.  Then one more time divide each quarter into half until you have eight fairly equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and place into a greased round cake pan, seven around the edge and one in the center.  If you are using a square pan make 9 balls and line them up in 3 rows of 3.

Spritz the top of your dough with olive oil and over the pan with plastic wrap. The oil keeps the plastic wrap from sticking.  Leave the pan on your counter for 40 minutes to an hour or so to rise.

Once you have lovely risen dough, remove the plastic wrap and bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Remove from pan immediately to a drying rack and serve warm. Yummy!

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Banana Pumpkin Bread

It is the season for all things pumpkin and I love pumpkin bread.

 

But this morning I also had some sorry looking bananas that needed immediate attention.  Which got me to thinking, why not banana pumpkin bread?

I took out my banana bread recipe and my pumpkin bread recipe and created this banana pumpkin quick bread recipe. 
 

I was hoping it would turn out well but you never know when re-writing a recipe.

It turned out wonderful!  So here is the recipe.  Enjoy!

Banana Pumpkin Bread

2 1/4 cups flour (I use freshly milled multi-grain flower but all purpose works just fine too)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbls baking power
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup mashed bananas
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk (for sour milk add 1/2 tsp white vinegar to the milk)
1/3 cup softened butter or coconut oil (I use coconut oil)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl add 1 & 1/4 cup of the flour along with the rest of the ingredients.  Mix on slow until combined.  Once combined, beat on high with electric mixer for 2 minutes.  Add remaining flour, mix well.  Pour batter into greased loaf pan (9x5x3 inches).  Put in middle of oven and bake 1 hour plus 10 - 15 minutes (check at 1 hour but expect to need another 10 or 15 minutes).  This is a very wet batter meaning it will take longer to bake than and average quick bread.  Check doneness by inserting a tooth pick or wooden dowel into the center.  If it comes out clean, the bread is done. 

Turn out onto a cooling rack immediately and let cool completely.  For best results, wrap tightly and let sit overnight.  But I can never wait that long!

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Dutch Oven Bread - Only Four Ingredients!

Dutch Oven Bread - So Simple!

I must admit that the first time I came upon this recipe I was skeptical.  Over the years I have learned to read through a recipe and get a feel for whether or not it is worth a try; meaning can I pull it off successfully and will my family eat it?

So when I found this recipe a couple of years ago I was dubious.  I have been baking my own bread (admittedly sporadically) for several years now and, though I know I still have lots to learn, I felt I had a pretty good handle on the basics of bread making.  And this recipe did not look like it had a chance to work.  But after stumbling upon it a few more times in various places I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. 

It worked.  Beautifully.  It actually worked beautifully the first time.  And then I tried it again and it worked beautifully the second time too.  And the third.  And so on. 

This bread is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It makes a good serve-with-dinner bread or an even better serve-with-soup or stew bread. 

For ingredients you will need:

3 cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon yeast

For equipment you will  need:

One large bowl for the dough to rise in
One Dutch Oven
Plastic wrap for the top of the bowl
A big spoon.  One of those spoon-ulas (half spoon, half rubber bowl scraper spatula thingees) works best.

My Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Four simple ingredients!

Into the big bowl put all the ingredients in no particular order. 

Ingredients before mixing

Mix together with the big spoon.  The mixing takes less than a minute.  The mixture will be gooey and messy looking.

All Mixed Up

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave on counter overnight.  In other words, do not put this in the refrigerator. 

Ready to set on the counter all night

You want the dough to have 12 to 18 hours to just sit and rise. 

After sitting on counter about 14 hours

The next day after the dough has risen put the Dutch Oven into a cold oven and heat oven to 450 degrees.  After the oven is preheated, set the timer for 30 minutes and leave the Dutch Oven in your now heated oven.

While the Dutch Oven heats up, turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface and with heavily floured hands shape into a ball.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let set covered on the counter for 30 minutes.

Remove Dutch Oven from the oven, remove the lid and carefully put dough into Dutch Oven, recover with lid and put Dutch Oven back into the 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Be careful! The Dutch oven is 450 degrees and so is the lid.

Ready to Cook

After 30 minutes remove the lid, briefly admire the bread you are baking, then put the now uncovered Dutch Oven back into the 450 degree oven for another 15 minutes. Remember these last 15 minutes are without the lid.

After 30 minutes with lid on

Remember to put the lid somewhere you won't bump into it.  My cast iron lid takes a very long time to cool down.

After the 15 minutes are up, remove the Dutch Oven from the oven, remove the bread from the Dutch Oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. 

All done! Ready to cool on wire rack.

Use pot holders to get the bread out so you don't burn yourself.  Now stand there and admire your work!  I know I always do.

So after I made this awesome bread it was time to cook dinner.  What could I do with a very hot Dutch Oven?  Apparently lots of things.  Scroll down to my next post to see The Dinner After.

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