Thanks to a great Black Friday sale, I am the new owner of a bright red KitchenAid stand mixer! I’ve been entering blog giveaways to win one of these babies for years, but was never successful. I finally decided to treat myself to one when I saw a price for the Professional 600 that was lower than I’d ever seen before.
I have never been much of a bread maker, but with the new mixer I was tempted to try out the dough hook. I used a recipe for Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls that came in the instruction manual of my mixer. The recipe comes together easily, and they smell delicious even before they hit the oven — just the smell of the raw dough rising is warm and homey. Out of the oven, they were very tasty if a little plain. My boys loved them and gobbled up several on the spot. They won approval from 2 out of 3 of my dear friend Sharon’s kids as well.
However, once the rolls cooled they were quite tough. The recipe makes 24 rolls, so not all of them are going to be eaten warm. I am a very inexperienced bread maker, so the tenderness issue could be from several technique shortcomings: too much flour, under kneading, or over kneading (I think this is the least likely). I felt that I followed the recipe closely, but I will need to try them (or another recipe) again as I develop my bread legs and get used to what my new mixer can do.
We went camping in the Kenneth L. Wilson campground last weekend, just for a night. I couldn’t wait to try out a technique for cooking crescent rolls over a campfire! I originally saw the idea on Pinterest, but there are lots of pictures of this camping treat online.
I used Immaculate Baking Co.’s Crescent Rolls instead of Pillsbury — the ingredients are a little better. The picture above is the first and only roll we cooked on a stick. Unfortunately, the dough didn’t separate into triangles when I popped open the can — it was one big blob. I had to just rip it apart, stretch out the dough, and then wrap that small piece around a stick. It took a while to cook, but once it was done all four of us agreed it was fantastic — we each got a nibble from this one stick.
As good as that roll was, I didn’t feel like standing around for another 10 minutes per roll to make the whole batch this way. Instead, we made a makeshift baking pan from a piece of aluminum foil and pinched off pieces of the rest of the dough to make lots of little rolls. Covered with another piece of foil and set on a grill over the coals of the fire, these itty bitties baked in about 20 minutes and were just as delicious.
Although we need to work on our technique, these Campfire Crescent Rolls will definitely be part of our next camping trip.
Poor A. has strep and he’s been feverish all weekend. I thought I’d bake a treat for a lazy Sunday breakfast while my three boys tried to unlock yet another character on Mario Kart. I came across a recipe on Parenting.com for Sour Cream-Chocolate Chip Muffins, which looked fast and simple. Only, it omitted the quantity of sugar in the ingredients list. I used a scant 3/4 cup of granulated sugar and otherwise followed the recipe.
G. came running into the kitchen as soon as he smelled them baking, excited to have chocolate chip cookies for breakfast! He was not even a bit disappointed when I told him they were muffins, not cookies (might as well have been dessert with these ingredients, though). We all loved them, and I was tickled by the fact that J. was able to snap off the muffin top from the “stump” — the muffins were just the right balance of substantial heft (not fluffy like a cupcake) but not too dense so that they sat heavily in your stomach. Really delicious, and a treat that made A. feel better, if only for a moment.
I still had sweet potatoes left from my last farm share, and although I kept intending to make burritos with them it just never happened. I was going to make Sweet Potato Buttermilk Cornbread, but didn’t want to buy buttermilk for just that recipe. Instead, I decided to try my hand at another yeast roll (I’d made Pumpkin Dinner Rolls once before — what is with me and orange bread?).
I settled on Sweet Potato Rolls, using the puree from my microwaved CSA sweet potatoes, and they turned out beautifully. They are soft and substantial, with a bit of chewiness when you bite into them. I thought they were texturally perfect, so yay me! However, the flavor was bland. Really no hint of the sweet potato, and not quite sweet or savory. Like white bread. But, hot out of the oven they are wonderful — what could be bad about a freshly-baked roll? A. liked them a lot and G. said they were “pretty good,” but then he only ate a nibble.
I had to start this recipe at 2 PM in order to have them ready for dinner — they need to rise twice. I scheduled them today because I knew I’d be home all afternoon, but I wonder if it’s worth it. It is an easy recipe, and I did feel a sense of accomplish in baking with yeast successfully. Still, even though the hands-on time is low it just seems like a lot of work for not enough reward. A fun project for once in a while, but not something I’d want to do regularly.
Edited to add: These were very good at room temperature the next morning. You could taste more of the sweetness in the recipe, and they made a lovely breakfast.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Moroccan Chicken Tajine: I recently had a chicken tajine dish at Fig & Olive in Scarsdale, and wanted to recreate something similar at home. This is an Ina Garten recipe, and she never fails me.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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