Pretzel Rolls

Pretzel Rolls

from How Sweet It Is (on Tasty Kitchen) and My Life as a Mrs.

Makes 8 buns

Ingredients:

– 1 1/2 cups warm water

– 1 package (1/4 Oz. Packet) Active Dry Yeast (not Quick Rise Yeast)

– 2 tsp. sugar

– 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

– 2 tsp. kosher salt

– 4 tbs. unsalted butter, melted

– 1/4 cup baking soda

– 1 egg, lightly beaten

– pretzel salt, to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir and let sit for about 5-10 minutes until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour, salt, and melted butter and mix with the dough hook until it is well-combined. Add the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and place in a warm place for one hour (I turned my oven on low and set the bowl on top).

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a baking mat. If you are making buns, cut the dough into 8 pieces (each should weigh about 4-4.5 ounces) and place on a lightly floured surface. If you want to make bites or rolls, cut the dough into smaller pieces. To form each piece of the dough into a nice round piece, pull the sides all the way around and pinch to seal. Then, place the pinched side down on the floured surface, cup your hand and roll the dough in small circles until it is round and smooth. Place each piece on the baking sheet seam-side down at least one inch apart (you may need to use two pans), cover with a towel, and let rise another 30 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large sauce pan, bring 2 quarts of water to a low boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and slowly add in the baking soda. Place 2-3 rolls at a time in the liquid seam-side down. Poach for 30 seconds on each side. Place back onto the baking sheet with the seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining rolls.

4. Brush the egg on each roll, covering all the way around. Sprinkle the pretzel salt on top. With a serrated knife, cut slashes on top or make an ‘X’. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Dinner Biscuits

Gotta love biscuits, they are so quick and easy to make. I've really come to like them since I don't really have to plan in advance when making them.

I've combined two different recipes and decided that I can finally post this after getting it down pretty good.

Make sure you don't over work the mixture. I toss it around only a couple of times until it's all combined and then dust the counter with flour. The dough should be super sticky, just dust it with some flour, too before cutting them out.

I plop it down so it's about 1/2- 2/3 inch high and cut with a medium biscuit cutter, still barely moving it unecessarily.

Biscuits:

2 C. Flour

1 T. baking powder

1. T sugar

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 C. butter & shortening mix

*Whisk together

1 C. Milk mixed with 1 beaten egg

*Stir into dry ingredients and move around with a spatula.

**Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Easter/Conference Sunday Breakfast

This Easter I thought I would make sticky buns and orange julius for breakfast. It's taken many tries at cinnamon roll making and my bread making class to finally feel like I can call myself "good at it." Plus, I haven't had an orange julius since I was in high school and blowing 5 bucks on a tall orange juice was no big deal like it is now. So, when you can't afford to buy something, you make it, right? That's what I think.

I made the orange julius in our magic bullet and it made a bit more than I expected, so after the initial mix I realized I would need to take some out before adding in the ice cubes. Which ended up working out great because sometimes when you blend too many cubes in a blender it doesn't quite get them fine enough and I don't know about you, but I don't like chewing hunks of ice. I'm sure it would have been fine either way...I just like to think that making the extra mess was worth it. The recipe was from a friend of mine's missionary cookbook that I copied when in school in Hawaii so I don't know the lady who put it in there, but it tasted amazing! So, Thank you to Sister Campbell of South Jordan Utah.

Orange Julius:
1/2 can frozen orange concentrate (6oz)
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
approx. 10 ice cubes

Blend everything together adding the ice cubes at the very last.


Sticky Buns:

I feel like, in a way, that I can call this recipe my own because I've blended 2 recipes together to get what I made yesterday. Tell me what you think. Can I make my own name for this? Because if I can I would need to call it something pretty amazing...like on Charlotte's web.

I'll just do it anyway.
Something Pretty Amazing sticky buns:

Dough:
(mix all ingredients in a SUPER large bowl and don't plan on using a mixer at all, it's all by hand girls)
1c. pretty warm water to activate the yeast
2T. yeast (active dry...but whatever is probably ok)
1T. granulated sugar
Wait for approx. 10 minutes to let the yeast get busy.
5T. more sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten

4c. milk
6T. butter
1T. salt
In a 4cup pyrex measuring cup microwave the milk & butter to a pretty warm/nearly hot temp.
If it's too hot it will kill the yeast, so not too hot.
Add the salt at the very last, after you've mixed in the milk and butter mix.

Start slowly adding in 10-11c. AP flour. Don't just dump it all in at once; add a little, mix a little.
You may not even need the entire amount of flour. I just go by the feel and appearance of the dough to know when to stop or keep adding. I like to get mine to feel pretty squishy and even still a little tacky. That way, after it rises, I can have more control over it after I've started rolling it out, etc. I just keep some in a a pile close by and add a little here and there.

This dough makes a TON! I decided since I wanted dinner rolls for Easter dinner that I would just divide the dough and put what I would use later on into the fridge and bake up some rolls with it later.

Let the dough rise for about an hour, punch it down, divide it if you want, then roll it out.
Roll it onto a floured surface in a large rectangle shape. The dough should be really stretchy and still very soft and pliable. When handling dough that you've just let rise, it's good to punch it down to get some of the air out of it, but don't squish it do death. I punch it down just enough to release some of the gases but leave enough to keep it fluffy and when you divide the dough, use a sharp knife instead of tearing.

Dough topping:
3/4 c. brown sugar
1T cinnamon
4T. butter (soft enough to spread over the dough without tearing it)

*Spread the butter all over, mix the sugar with the cinnamon and lay a thick covering over the entire surface leaving the edges bare.
Roll it up tightly. Since I like mine still tacky, it makes it a little more tricky to roll it up without a plastic scraper. I bought a couple dollar bowl scrapers that are awesome. Once it's all rolled up nicely (or not, doesn't really matter), let it hang out and rise for a little while.

Topping:
3/4c brown sugar packed
4T. butter (softened)
3T. honey
1T. light corn syrup
1 1/2c. coarsely chopped pecans

*in a 1 qrt. saucepan, combine it all and cook on low heat until melted and then some.
Grease up a 9x13 glass pan ( I save the butter wrapping and grease it up with that). Pour the melted mixture into the pan and sprinkle the pecans all over.
Cut the rolls gently (or use floss) and about the same size and fill up the pan.

**Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes...you'll just have to check it (I wait until it's mostly golden).
*** When it's done, have a platter or I used freezer paper (the dull side) to flip the rolls onto.
Do this immediately after pulling them out. All the hot gooey stuff slides down and coats the whole bun. Eat them warm, they are Awesome!