Rolls, Part II

I made the rolls again, and they were even better the second time! Here are the pics and the recipe. Thanks Rachel for the best roll recipe ever! I changed the recipe name to reflect how I think of them.

Clone of Rhodes' Dough Rolls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c. warm milk

4 tsp. yeast

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled

2 tsp. salt

7 c. flour

Directions:

After warming milk pour into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle yeast over the surface. Make sure that all the yeast is wetted, with minimal stirring if needed to accomplish this. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. During this time, melt butter so it has time to cool. Next, beat in the sugar, eggs, butter, and salt; blend thoroughly. Gradually stir in flour to make a soft dough. Note: Don't be tempted to add more flour! It is ok if it seems too wet, it will make them tough if you add more flour, and moist if you don't. Cover bowl and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour, doubling in size.

Puch down dough and allow to rise again, about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, till double again.

Break off 2-3 inch pieces of dough, rolling and folding to form balls. They turn out best if you fold all the edges uderneath, making them as round as possible. Place on a greased cookie sheet, cover, and let rise again for another 1/2 hour.

Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

I love trying new recipes. It's so much fun! So this time, I went to allrecipes.com, and looked at their top 20 recipes, and picked one. I was in the mood for "Big Soft Ginger Cookies", even though it is not even near Christmas. Oh, well. :)

I hurried the cooking time a little, so I think the first batch was a little undercooked, but they are really good. They stayed soft for days, and fulfilled my craving. They are a lot like mom's recipe.



Big Soft Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 c butter
1 c white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/4 c. molasses
2 Tbsp white sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the dry ingredients. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape the dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

That's the original recipe. Then I read some of the reviews, which I always do when I use this website. The first one said to substitute orange juice for the water. It's supposed to bring out the flavor of the cinnimon, ginger, and cloves. So I used orange juice. And 2 tablespoons of sugar is not enough to cover all of the cookies, so I ended up using nearly 3. The other thing the recipe doesn't tell you is how sticky the dough is going to be. It would be extremely difficult to roll it into balls right after everything is mixed together. So I refrigerated it overnight, but it probably wouldn't take that long. In the morning, it was a little hard, but it softened to the perfect dough quickly. Oh, and it will probably take 10 whole minutes to cook, but maybe that is just our old oven. Overall, I loved this recipe!

Rachel and Mom's Project Share

Rachel and I decided to make Ethan's blessing suit this week. For all the things we did wrong it turned out pretty cute with a few humorous mistakes. Have you ever heard of a blessing suit with a fly? Ethan's has one. Not as if he could ever use it if he tried, it's above the belly button. Two people working on a project is fun, but sometimes a few details can be left out. For example, Rachel knew all along that what I thought was a fly was the back of the suits' button plack. Too bad she was gone when I sewed it all together backwards! When I found out there was no place to put the button holes it was too late. So I just put one little snap in the back and called it good. Lucky there are snaps on the legs to open big enough to fit Ethan's head through, because he sure couldn't fit through the top. Amy was such a good sport and we were all thankful that babies look cute in anything.

Ethan can make any sewing skill look great!