Bread Makin' Weather

It's a snow day! These are my favorite days to bake bread. The house can get all steamy hot and it won't matter, the smell of bread baking is completely cozy, and then you get to eat it!

I used to make this recipe for Butter Crescent Rolls all the time when I first got married, and then it got shoved away in the cookbook pile and mostly forgotten until Thanksgiving this year. I made two kinds of rolls and these got eaten first. Some people going back for fourths and fifths!

They are light, buttery and deceptively easy to make. You should probably make extra. :)

Butter Crescent Rolls

1 tablespoon yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 and 1/4 cups flour
butter, softened

~Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit until frothy. (About 10 minutes.)
~Microwave the milk until warm, but not hot.
~Stir in the salt, sugar and egg.
~Add the milk mixture to the yeast mixture.
~Stir in enough flour for a soft dough. The dough will be sticky.
~Cover bowl with plastic wrap and raise until doubled.
~Flour your cutting board/counter. Divide dough in half, put one half on the floured surface, flour the top as well and roll out dough into a circle.
~Brush the circle generously with soft butter.
~Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the circle into 8 wedges. Roll each wedge from the wide edge at the top down to the point.
~Place the rolls on a baking sheet forming a crescent shape with the point underneath (this keeps it from unrolling while it rises). Space them about an inch apart.
~Repeat the rolling and cutting steps with the second half of the dough. You will have 16 rolls.
~Cover rolls with plastic wrap and let raise until double.
~In the meantime, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
~When rolls have doubled, bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Throwing Rolls...A New Tradition?

According to the Travel Channel, The number one "Place to Pig Out" is in Sikeston, Missouri called Lambert's Cafe...where they throw rolls at you! (Number two was a place selling the Godzilla Burger which was 3 pounds of meat and something like 5 pounds of french fries) I thought that was the most interesting thing I'd seen all day, so I looked them up on the internet and someone had the recipe for Lambert's Throwed Rolls.

I made them last Thanksgiving out of curiousity and they were so incredibly huge and tasty (and quite easy to make for bread...honest!) that I had to post the recipe. I think I might make some more this Thanksgiving. But I doubt my Mom will let us throw them to each other. Darn.

This is now on my list of must see road trip places!

Lambert's "Throwed" Rolls

1 packet active dry yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup tepid water (between 105-110 degrees F.)
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten (at room temperature)
4 cups flour (you can use all-purpose, but I like King Arthur's bread flour...it's awesome!)

-Combine sugar, yeast and tepid water in a large mixing bowl.
-Let mixture stand for 5-10 minutes until mixture is foamy.
-Mix together the milk, melted butter, sugar, salt and egg.
-Add to the yeast mixture.
-Stir in about 3 and 1/2 cups of flour, adding a bit more if necessary to make a soft, pliable dough.
-Turn the dough out onto a well floured board to rest while you clean out and oil or butter your mixing bowl.
-Knead dough for 4-5 minutes adding more flour as needed until dough is smooth and silky.
-Put the dough ball into the prepared bowl and turn to oil the top.
-Cover with plastic wrap and a clean dish towel and put in a warm, dry place until doubled in size. (About 1 and 1/2 hours)
-Butter a 12 cup muffin tin.
-Punch down dough.
-Pinch off pieces of dough--you should have 24 pieces--that are about the size of a golf ball (about 1 and 1/2 inches or enough to fill 1/2 of a muffin cup) and roll into smooth spheres.
-Place two spheres in each muffin cup-it will be a tight fit. (It will look like a little bum!)
-Spray each roll lightly with oil and cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise for about 45 minutes.
-Preheat the oven during this last rise to 350. Remove plastic wrap when doubled.
-Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until browned.
-Serve as soon as they are cool enough to throw.

Makes 12 giant rolls.