Family Baking Traditions and Yeast Rolls

The theme for December for the HBinFive Baking Group is Family Traditions. I have lot’s of family traditions, and, as you can imagine, a lot of those traditions involve baking.

Baking Cookies

I’ve always loved to bake.  My mom and my sisters and I used to bake cookies and quick breads during the Holidays and I’ve continued that tradition with my sons. For years, we would bake and decorate sugar cookies and make Peanut Butter Blossoms.  Then as my sons got older, it wasn’t cool to bake with mom anymore.  They still loved to eat cookies though so I would bake them and they would eat them.

Christmas with Family and Baking Cookies Again

On Christmas day, I usually get together with my extended family and enjoy a big dinner and fellowship.  However, this year, my oldest son, who lives a couple of hours away, couldn’t make it home for the Holidays due to his work schedule so he called to ask me to come to his house for Christmas.  We talked about the plans for a little while and what we would do Christmas Eve.  Then he said “and we can bake cookies!”  I said “I’m there!”

So I went to my oldest son’s house for Christmas and we made Peanut Butter Blossoms.  I didn’t think to take a photo of the cookies, but they were extra special this year.  It’s so nice to watch your children mature.

Baking Yeast Rolls

Another tradition my sons enjoy is yeast rolls. I’ve made yeast rolls for years and they never grow tired of them.  I was trying to decide what bread or rolls I wanted to bring for Christmas Dinner and my son said “you could always bring yeast rolls!”  Well, since I’m a sucker and his birthday is December 28th, I decided to honor his request.  He and his roommates don’t have the ingredients or the equipment to make rolls so I decided that rather than transporting everything and making the rolls there, I would make the rolls the day before. It worked out really well.  So my new motto is “have rolls will travel!”

 

Favorite Yeast Roll Recipe

Makes: 16 Rolls (I doubled the recipe to make 32 rolls)

This is our favorite yeast roll recipe.  The best part about this roll recipe is that you get to handle the dough without all the work. The bread machine does the work and you get to have fun shaping the rolls and baking them in a conventional oven.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 3 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons bread machine or active dry yeast
• Butter or margarine, melted, if desired

 

Directions:

Measure the ingredients and place all ingredients (except the melted butter) in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use Delay cycle.

When the bread machine is finished, remove the dough from pan, using lightly floured hands.

Cover and let rest 10 minutes on lightly floured surface. Grease a large baking sheet with shortening or cooking spray.

Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, using floured hands. Place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in warm place 30 to 40 minutes or until double. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)

Heat oven to 375°F. Uncover, bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops of rolls with melted butter. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack.

I didn’t brush the rolls with butter.  After they had cooled completely, I put them in plastic bags for transporting.

On Christmas Day, we heated the rolls in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes and served them with Italian pot roast, homemade macaroni and cheese (that my son made), squash and green beans.  Everything tasted great.

 

A New Tradition: Making Chocolate Truffles

I participated in a cookie swap earlier this month with the Trail Dames, one of my hiking groups. I made truffles for the cookie swap, and I do believe this is going to be a new tradition.

My youngest son is home from college and when he saw a bowl of chocolate in the refrigerator, he said, “there’s a bowl of chocolate in the refrigerator!”  I said, “yes, and your point is?” His point was that he wanted to eat it. I didn’t let him eat the bowl of chocolate, but I did save him some truffles for his troubles. He and his buddies enjoyed them immensely.

I made Chocolate Truffles rolled in crushed peppermint candy, Earl Grey Truffles rolled in Cocoa Powder, Mexican Truffles rolled in chopped toasted almonds, and Chocolate Truffles rolled in candy sprinkles.

 

They all tasted great!  I was so glad I gave most of them away.

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my family baking traditions.

 

May you be blessed in the New Year!

Happy Baking,

Cathy