Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

I wasn't able to make it to lunch group this month, this is the recipe that I wanted to share. I found this recipe in "The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger. T and I love the finished product and I love that it uses honey, wheat flour, and wheat germ. If you don't have the ability to mix the dough in a bread machine I bet you could mix the ingredients together, knead the dough, and let it rise. I hope you enjoy this!

Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into pieces
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast

1. Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer's instructions. Program for the Dough cycle; press Start.
2. Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper. When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, press Stop and unplug the machine. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half, then roll each half into a 2 to 3 inch cylinder. With a metal scraper or a chef's knife, cut the cylinder into 8 equal portions. Repeat with the second cylinder, making a total of 16 equal portions. Shape each portion like a miniature loaf by patting it into an oval, then rolling up from a short side to make a small compact cylinder about 4 inches long. Place the rolls in two rows of 8 with their long sides touching . Brush some melted butter on the tops of the rolls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. (I roll out the dough and cut it in circles, then I let the dough rise.)
3. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
4. Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the rolls from the pans and let cool on a rack. Serve warm, or cool to room temperature and reheat before serving.

March Lunch Bunch Bread

Welcome to our ward's new lunch bunch blog. I'm excited to post this month's recipes, which were all about BREAD. 

Without further ado, here are the recipes shared on Wednesday:

Amish Friendship Bread

Megan dropped off a delicious Amish Friendship Bread on her way to the airport. I'm sure glad she did; it was delicious! She also left us with three starters to make our own starters out of.

Important Notes: DO NOT use any type of metal bowl or spoon for mixing

DO NOT refrigerate

It is also normal for the batter to rise, bubble, and ferment

It is OK to let any air out of the bag

Day 1: Do nothing (this is the date on the bag)

Day 2: Mush the bag

Day 3: Mush the bag

Day 4: Mush the bag

Day 5: Mush the bag

Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk. Then mush the bag

Day 7: Mush the bag

Day 8: Mush the bag

Day 9: Mush the bag

Day 10: Follow these instructions:

1. Pout entire contents of bag into large, non-metal bowl

2. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 1/2 cups milk. Mix well until blended.

3. Measure out 4 separate 1 cup batters and place each in 1 (1 gallon) Ziploc bag.

4. Keep a starter bag for yourself and give the rest to friends along with this recipe.

Should this not be passed on to your friends on the first day, be sure to let them know which day the starter is on.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

6. To the remaining batter add: 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 cups flour, 1 large box instant vanilla pudding. MIX WELL.

7. Grease 2 large loaf bread pans. Mix additional 1/2 cup sugar with 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with 1/2 of this mixture.

8. Pour the batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

9. Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan. Turn onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold. (If using small loaf pans, bake 50-55 minutes)

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking bread every 10 days. The bread is very good, and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create a "starter." So, if you give them all away, you will have to wait until someone gives you one back.

OPTIONS: add nuts, fruit, candy or chocolate to the batter. Substitute vanilla pudding with other flavors (like CHOCOLATE!!)

Zucchini Bread

I made Zucchini bread, which is one of my favorites and is also one quick bread that I don't feel so guilty eating. This recipe comes from 

Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible

1 1/2 cups plus 3 1/2 T. unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 large eggs

1/2 c. safflower oil (I used canola) (I did half canola oil, half applesauce = less fat)

1 c. sugar

3 c. zuchinni

1 c. coarsely broken or chopped walnuts. (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have an oven shelf on the the rung below the middle level.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flou

r, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, and sugar for 1 minute or until blended. Add the flour mixture and continue stirring or beating on low speed just until incorporated. Add zucchini and continue stirring until incorporated. 

3. Scrape the batter into a GREASED bread pan. Bake for about 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

4. Once baked, set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Then run a knife around the sides of the pan to unmold bread onto a wire rack to continue cooling. 

Corn Muffins

Sarah Waite contributed this yummy recipe along with honey butter

1/2 c. butter

2/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. honey

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. flour

3/4 c. yellow cornmeal

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. milk

3/4 c. frozen yellow corn (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together everything. Grease 12-cup muffin pan and fill with batter. Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top. Yields 12 muf

fins.

Sarah also shared a few websites about Amish Bread. Check them out for some variations on making this yummy bread:

armchair.com/recipe/amish/amishvar.html

armchair.com/recipe/bake004.html

armchair.com/recipe/amish/amishvar2.html

Dinner Rolls

Lisa brought dinner rolls, recipe courtesy of her mom.

1 T. yeast

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. scalded milk

1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs well beaten

3/4 tsp. salt

4-5 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in water (with a little of the sugar), melt butter in milk. Cool to lukewarm. Add to yeast mixture. Add sugar, eggs, and salt. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rise 5-6 hours. (You need at least 2 hours). Turn onto flour board and knead a few times. No more than 10 times. Form into rolls. Spread tops with melted butter. Place on greased baking sheet and let rise until double. Bake at 375-400 degrees for about 11-14 minutes until golden brown.

Cauliflower Soup

In order to balance our carb fest out a little bit, I made a cauliflower soup that I found off of one of my favorite food blogs.

Ingredients: 

Florets from one head of cauliflower

1 quart of water

Salt

Unsalted butter

Chives (I used green onion)

Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Bring 1 quart of water to a rolling boil in a medium-sized pot. Add 2 tsp. of salt to water (if using salted butter in this recipe, use only 1 tsp. of salt). Add the cauliflower florets, and cook until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove florets to a bowl. Reserve cooking water.

2. Working in batches, fill a blender half-way with cooked cauliflower, add enough cooking water to the blender bowl so that it comes up a quarter of the way. Puree until smooth. You want the consistency to be that of soup, so if you need to add more water, do so. For each blender batch, add salt and butter to taste (about 1/2 tsp. salt, and about a tablespoon or more of butter for each blender batch). *I recommend you taste as you go, because I found that this was a little bit too much salt for me the first time I made it.* 

3. Serve immediately into bowls. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with chopped chives.

Serves 4