Easy Crescent Rolls

Soft, yeasty, buttery rolls rolled into crescent shapes.  They make great dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, or snacks.

The people at Patience Brewster unique gifts gave me with a great idea.  They wanted to hear about a recipe that had been passed down from the mothers in my family just in time for mother's day.  I thought these crescent rolls were the perfect fit.

A recipe passed down from mom #mothersday [Tweet this]

You can tell my husband rolled this one...his look so much better than mine.  That's why I dubbed him The Official Crescent Roll Roller (he can also roll faster than I can).

This is a recipe that my husband's mom used to make.  He talked about it all the time and how delicious they were.  I make lots of homemade bread and have been making many yeast rolls lately and while he enjoyed them all he would always say that they almost tasted like the kind his mom made.  Finally, I got the recipe from a family member and made these rolls for him.  He was so excited and absolutely loved them.  I think we ate all of the first batch in one day (probably not super healthy for us but oh so good).  Well, I had to make them again and get some pictures so I could blog about them.  My husband did not mind, in fact, we've had these many times since I got the recipe.

We ate them all in one day. [Tweet this]

The original recipe was written in cups and tablespoons. but I prefer to use weight when baking bread so I converted it.  I also added some whole wheat flour just because.  This final recipe is great and easy to scale up or down depending on how many you are feeding.  These rolls are perfect on their own (with or without butter), to accompany any dinner, and make great sandwich rolls too.  You'll never want to go back to the canned/refrigerated kind.

You'll never go back to the canned/refrigerated kind [Tweet this]

Easy Crescent Rolls

Ingredients:

229 grams lukewarm water
45 grams sugar
7 grams active dry yeast
352 grams bread flour
150 grams whole wheat flour
1 egg (about 45-50 grams)
5 grams salt
24 grams cooking oil

Pour the warm (barely warm to the touch about 110F) into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Stir in the sugar and then sprinkle on the yeast.  Swirl until yeast is moistened then cover with a towel and let sit for 15 minutes or until foamy.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir, on low speed with the paddle attachment, until the dough forms a sticky ball (you may need to add a little more water just a bit at a time until all of the flour is hydrated and the dough the proper consistency).  Cover with a towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic and very tacky but not sticky (add flour if needed to reach this consistency).

Add a little oil to a large bowl and roll the dough around in it until it's lightly coated in oil all over (you can also use spray oil).  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in bulk (about 1-2 hours).

Form the risen dough into a ball and let rest on a floured board for 5 minutes.  Roll the dough out into a large circle or rectangle (mine never stay round so I just make it a rectangle--you actually don't need to form the dough into a ball first if you're making a rectangle) about 1/4 inch thick.  Brush the dough with softened butter and cut into 12 triangles (or 24 for dinner rolls--then you want to split the dough ball in two).

Roll the triangles into crescents and place on a baking sheet.  Let rise for 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 375F.

 Then bake at 375F for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove to a cooling rack and let cool for a few minutes before eating/serving.

They are best warm but still great cold.  Again they taste the best the same day they are made but still good up to 4 days later (pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to soften).  They also freeze well.

Enjoy.

For more rolls check out:

Rye Yeast Rolls

Onion Buns

Best Burger Buns

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Rye Yeast Rolls

Soft and fluffy yeast rolls made with rye flour, onions, and caraway seeds.

What goes better with corned beef than rye bread?  How about rye rolls?  I've recently found a new love for yeast rolls.  I guess I can credit my not so great oven with this new development.  My oven doesn't maintain even temperature while baking so my usual baking methods don't always work.  I started baking bread on an airbake pan and that seems to work (it helps to distribute the heat more evenly).  It doesn't work as well with crusty rustic bread but for soft bread and rolls it's perfect.  Another of yeast rolls' perks is that they are relatively quick for yeasted bread.  You use about double the amount of yeast than for other bread and the rise time is half (or less).  Not only are yeast rolls quick but they are super soft and delicious.  These rolls are no different.  I added some onion and caraway seeds so they have the same amazing flavor as my favorite deli rye.  I served these alongside corned beef and cabbage, but they would also be great for sandwiches or sliders.

What goes better with corned beef than rye bread?  Rye yeast rolls. [Tweet this]

Rye Yeast Rolls

Ingredients:

320 grams water (lukewarm)
11 grams active dry yeast
48 grams dark brown sugar
267 grams bread flour
266 grams rye flour
53 grams butter (room temperature)
5 grams salt
*40 grams dried minced onion re-hydrated in 40 grams water
3 grams caraway seeds (about 1 tsp)

*You can let the onions rehydrate overnight, Or I used boiling water and let it cool for a few hours or once re-hydrated put in the fridge to speed the cooling process (the onions should be room temperature to lukewarm when you add them to the dough)

Mix sugar and water in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and swirl to mix.  Cover with a towel and let stand for 15 minutes.

(After 15 minutes the mixture should be foamy if not your yeast might be dead--start over with new yeast.  If using instant yeast skip this step and just add the yeast with the flour.)  Add the rest of the ingredients and stir with the paddle attachment until all of the flour is hydrated and a ball forms.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 8 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and very tacky.  It should pull from the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom.

Lightly oil the same bowl.  Roll the dough around in it to coat all sides with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise up to an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Divide the dough into about 20 pieces of about 50 grams each.  Roll each piece into a ball and place on a(n airbake) cookie sheet.  Place each dough ball fairly close together.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise another 15-30 minutes until they have risen almost double and grown into each other.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400F.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until dark golden brown.  Allow to cool until able to handle, pull apart, and enjoy warm. (they are also great reheated for a few seconds in the microwave or cold)

If you don't eat all of the rolls the first day they keep best frozen.  Just pull out of the freezer about 1-2 hours before you want to eat them.

Enjoy.

If you like rolls and sandwiches check out:

Guinness BBQ Brisket Sliders

Onion Buns         -

Open Faced Reuben Melts

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Onion Buns

Soft fluffy buns studded with onions.  Great for sandwiches, burgers, or all on its own.

Submitted to YeastSpotting 1/13/14

When I was a kid, my dad would occasionally buy onion buns.  These were always such a treat any sandwich tasted so much better on an onion bun.  Now that I'm an adult I try to make all of the bread I eat so it's been a while since I've had an onion bun.  Once I finally perfected the basic bun in Best Burger Buns I immediately thought about turning it into an onion bun.  With a little thought and some help from many other recipes I finally did it.  These buns turned out fantastic.  They are soft and fluffy and full of onion flavor.

Ingredients:

401 grams all purpose flour
249 grams water, luke warm
192 grams onion, diced
40 grams butter
28 grams dry milk
36 grams sugar
8 grams salt
6 grams active dry yeast
*1 egg slightly beaten for egg wash

Saute the diced onion, in a little butter or oil, until soft and translucent.  Set aside to cool until it reaches room temperature.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, pour the barely warm water (about 100 degrees F, it should hardly feel warm to touch).  Stir in the sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top.  Allow to sit for 15 minutes until it becomes frothy and active.

To the yeast add the flour, onions, butter, dry milk and salt.  Stir on low with the paddle attachment for about 1 minute until ingredients combine and form a sticky ball.  Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 6 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until dough becomes elastic and is very soft and tacky but not sticky (it should just clear the bottom of the bowl).

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for about 90 minutes until it has doubled in size.

Cut the dough into 12 pieces of about 80 grams each and gently shape into balls stretching the dough over the top and pinching underneath to develop surface tension.  Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on a non stick or parchment covered baking sheet.  With the flat of your hand gently press down on each ball to slightly flatten.  Brush with *egg wash and cover with plastic wrap.

Preheat oven to 400F and allow buns to rise (at room temperature) for 30 minutes until they have puffed up.

Remove plastic wrap and again brush with egg wash, sprinkle some dried minced onion on top, and bake for 12-15 minutes (rotate pan(s) half way through for even baking) until golden brown.

Cool for about 15-30 minutes, slice, and enjoy.

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Joybee Baking Journal: Pull Apart Pumpkin Bread

A delicious, sweet, and easy to pull apart yeast bread flavored with pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. Modified from A Dash of Cinnamon.

 

When I came across this new recipe for my seasonal favorite, pumpkin bread, I had to try it. This relatively simple, but messy and time consuming, recipe takes a basic cinnamon bun dough, adds pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices. Then, strips of the sugar spiced dough are stacked into a loaf pan and baked. The resulting bread is everything great about cinnamon buns but with pumpkin flavor, in loaf form, and it's easy to tear off a piece.

I keep an active sourdough starter, that I've kept alive for 2 years, in my fridge and use it for just about all of my breads. I think it adds so much more flavor and just a hint of sourness to any recipe, regular breads just taste bland to me now...I guess I've spoiled myself. Even though I use sourdough, sometimes I spike the dough with a small amount of instant yeast. This allows the bread to rise in a much shorter time yet I still get the flavor from the sourdough (just not as much). For this recipe I was too excited about it to wait so I  spiked the dough. You could easily make this without sourdough, or make it totally sourdough. Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

Makes 1 loaf

12 oz sourdough starter--2oz sourdough barm+ 5oz flour+ 5oz kefir
3.25 oz sugar (6 1/2 Tbsp)
.25 oz salt (1 tsp)
1 oz butter (2 Tbsp)
5 oz canned pumpkin (about 1/2 cup)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 oz bread flour or all purpose flour (2 cups) *16oz (3 1/2 cups) if not using sourdough
1/2 tsp instant yeast *2 tsp if not using sourdough
2 oz kefir or buttermilk (1/4 cup) *9-10 oz (1 1/8-1 1/4 cups) if not using sourdough

Sugar mixture:

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
or 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spicemix

For the sourdough version, I fed my barm the night before.  That means I took my sourdough starter/barm out of the refrigerator and 'feed' it.  I usually 'feed' it, with equal parts flour and water, at least once a week, but I keep a small amount on hand (about 10-12 oz) so when I will be using a big batch  of it I take out about 2 oz and 'feed' that.  Feeding means that I take any amount of my original barm and add equal parts flour and liquid to at least double (by weight) the amount of barm.  I always do this by weight because it is simpler, but you could measure however you prefer.  So I turn 2 oz of barm into 12 oz by adding 5 oz each of flour and liquid and let it sit, covered, overnight.

The liquid I used was kefir, a cultured milk product, but you can use buttermilk or just milk.  I use kefir because I have my own culture going and I always have some on hand.  It gives a similar flavor as buttermilk, and I don't have to go out and buy it.  As long as I have milk I can keep making kefir.  For more on kefir click here.

Now that we have 12 oz of sourdough, add it to the bowl of a stand mixer, or just a large bowl if mixing by hand.  Add sugar, salt, butter, pumpkin, egg, vanilla extract, flour and yeast.  Mix on slow speed with paddle attachment, or by hand, until all ingredients come together and form a sticky ball, add the rest of the kefir/milk as needed to reach this consistency.  Switch to dough hook and knead for about 10 minutes (it may take longer by hand), adding flour as needed, until the dough is smooth and tacky.  It should pull away from the sides of the bowl but stick slightly to the bottom.

Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and roll around to coat all sides.  Cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for 2 hours.  If making with only sourdough it will take at least 4 hours

Once dough has risen to at least double it's size, roll out into a rectangular sheet about 14x12 inches and about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Slather on some butter, enough to cover entire sheet. Then sprinkle on the sugar mixture.  At this point you could roll the dough up, cut into 1-2 inch sections and you have pumpkin spice cinnamon buns, but that's not what we are making.



Cut the sheet of dough into 6 strips.  Stack the sugared strips on top of each other, then cut the stack of strips into about 6 sections.  Then stack the sections into a greased 9-5 inch loaf pan.  Sprinkle any remaining sugar on top then cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour (about 2hrs if only sourdough) or until dough fills pan and crests a little above the rim.

Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 30-35 minutes (turning 180 degrees half way through for even baking).  Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes then slide out onto a plate or platter.  Wait 20 minutes, for loaves to set, before serving (if you can).  Enjoy.

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