Shelly Rolls

Yesterday Shelly said she felt like baking something, I suggested dinner rolls, today we see the fruits of her labor.

She found this recipe and decided to make them today. She has no experience with bread and I'm not any help because my bread attempts mostly fail. I DID help her when there wasn't enough flour on the counter and her hands were covered in sticky dough, I sprinkled more flour everywhere. But that was the extent of my advise to her. Here we go!

Shelly Rolls

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour, more as needed
1 envelopes rapid/quick rise yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp butter

Instructions

1. Mix together 3/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
2. Heat milk, water and butter until very warm (120-130 F). Add to flour mixture and beat with mixer on medium for about 2 minutes.
3. Add 1/4 cup flour and beat for 2 more minutes. Continue slowly adding more flour and beating until you have soft dough.
4. Generously flour your counter top. Also flour your hands. Also set aside a measuring cup with more flour cause you'll probably need it.
5. Knead the dough 8-10 minutes until it's smooth and not sticky anymore, adding flour as needed to combat the stickiness.
6. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. While the dough is resting, catch up on  your dishes or something. Drink some lemonade.
7. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces using Dad's fancy dough cutter. I feel like a putty knife would work just as well, but I'm not sure how it would fare in the dishwasher. Maybe stick to the dough cutter.
8. Shape the dough into balls and put into a greased round pan, aluminum cake pan works best for this. Quit getting distracted by shopping on amazon and cover the whole thing with plastic wrap, use small binder clips if it seems like the plastic is going to fall off.
9. Put outside where it's 98 in the shade and let it rise for half an hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375.
10. Once they're doubled in size, take off the plastic and bake for about 20 minutes, when the tops should be nicely browned.
11. Brush with melted butter (about 1 Tbsp) if you want. Tell everyone how many they're each allowed to have and watch your fingers as everyone dives in to snatch theirs. Guard your rationed portion closely, they go fast!

Why we love it

Perfectly soft and fluffy little rolls, maybe we should have made a double batch?
I'm so impressed with Shelly's resourcefulness and willingness to try new things, she really hit this one out of the park!

   

Fall is Here! Muffins

I let Shelly lick the mixer beaters. She said the batter tasted like Fall.

Archer walked into the room and said, "It smells like Fall in here." And thus was born my new favorite muffin. Not overly sweet. A little spicy. Enough said, let's get baking!

Fall is Here! Muffins
Original recipe from the Kitchn.

Ingredients
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

2 to 2 1/2 cups diced pears - 2 pears (or mix of pears and apples, 1 each)
1/4 cup candied ginger, diced small, but not TOO small, you want to taste those little chunks of ginger like treasures in every other bite...

mixture of cinnamon and sugar for topping

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 425. Place paper muffin cups in muffin pan.
2. In large bowl, cream sugars and eggs until well blended. Add eggs one at a time and ensure all well mixed. Add vanilla extract.
3. In separate bowl, mix flour and all dry ingredients.
4. While mixing egg/sugar mixture, add about 1/3 of flour mixture to egg/sugar mixture. Once incorporated, add 1/3 of milk. Continue alternating adding flour and milk until everything is blended. Don't over-mix!
5. Add pears/apples and ginger, gently fold in with rubber spatula until fruit is evenly distributed within the batter.
6. Scoop batter into muffin cups, this should make about 12 medium sized muffins. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture onto muffins.
7. Place muffin pan into oven and reduce heat to 400. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating after 10 minutes, until browned and toothpick inserted into muffins come out clean.
8. Place muffins on wire rack to cool before enjoying.

Why We Love It
Because they taste good? Because they're not overly sugary so you don't feel like you're eating dessert for breakfast? Just because!

Just 3 stars because 2 of us don't really like the chunks of fruit.