French Bread

I had a friend over for Thanksgiving this year, and her husband (Jared Giatras) offered to make his mom's roll recipe. This recipe is normally made as french bread loaves, but can also be turned into rolls. I got the recipe and it turned out great! He said that the trick is to make sure the water isn't too hot or too cold. Yum!

Makes 2-11 inch loaves
Takes about 2 hrs, but only about 10 or 15 minutes of active time.

INGREDIENTS

1 T salt
2 1/2 c warm water
2 T yeast
2 T sugar
2 T oil
6 c flour
1 egg + 1/2 t salt
sesame or poppy seeds (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a large warm mixing bowl, add salt; pour in water and yeast. Sprinkle sugar on top of the yeast. Add oil. Add flour to liquids and mix until flour is well mixed. Allow dough to rest 10 minutes and stir down. Do this 5 times. Turn onto an oil coated counter. Divide dough into 2 parts. Roll each part to 9x12-in rectangle, then roll like a jellyroll from long side. Pinch edge to seal. Put each loaf onto a French bread pan. Cut diagonal slits with a sharp knife. Pt a small pan filled with water in the oven, then preheat your oven to 400. Let the bread rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Brush with egg mixture of 1 egg and 1/2 t salt, beaten with a fork. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds or leave plain. Bake for 25 minutes

Variations: You may also roll this dough into hard rolls, hoagie buns, breadsticks or rosette rolls. You would brush each with the egg mix before baking. Bake only 20 minutes for the roll and breadsticks. Make sure and put the water in oven prior to preheating it. Enjoy!!

Tres Leches Cake

I made this cake that I found on the Pioneer Woman's website. It was a huge hit at the party I went to. I had attempted the same cake a few years ago with a different recipe. This one was definitely much better. Sorry for the bad photo, I forgot to take a picture and managed to get one after it was almost all eaten.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 5 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• ⅓ cups Milk
• 1 can Evaporated Milk
• 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
• ¼ cups Heavy Cream
• 1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Separate eggs.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla.
Pour egg yolk mixture over flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer on, pour in 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
Fold egg white mixture into other mixture very gently until just combined.
Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out surface.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small pitcher.
When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times.
Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes.
Whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable.
Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.

Libby's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is based on one called "Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Old-Fashioned Cookies
cookbook. I changed it, but only very slightly. They are perfectly chewy and yummy warm out of the oven, or days old. I think the trick is the butter-flavored crisco, though the first time I made these I did half butter-flavored and half regular, because I only had half a stick of the butter-flavored. Also, make sure you do not over bake them, since they will still bake longer on the cookie sheet once you remove them from the oven.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 Butter Flavor CRISCO Stick of 1 c Butter Flavor CRISCO all-vegetable shortening
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c warm honey
2 t vanilla
2 c Guittard milk chocolate chips
1 c finely chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets (or use a Silpat, if you have one) Place sheets of foil on countertop or cooling racks for cooling cookies.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine shortening and sugars in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg, sour cream, honey and vanilla. Beat until just blended.
4. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture at low speed until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
5. Drop slightly rounded measuring tablespoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto prepared sheet.
6. Bake at 375 F for about 10 minutes, until set. Do not overbake. (unless you prefer crunchy cookies) Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet and remove to foil to cool completely.

Super-Moist Zucchini Bread

I found this recipe in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Heavy-Duty Revised Edition
and I found it to be sooooo super moist! It is delicious! As you can see in the picture, the zucchini bread was almost gone by the time I got to take a picture of it. When I made it, I substituted half the white flour for freshly ground whole wheat (as noted below) but I bet it's just as good with all white. I plan to try all wheat too, and I'll probably make a note about the results later. Also, I never know how much weight of something I used (note to self, get a kitchen scale) and I think I probably used more zucchini than called for.

Makes 1 9-in loaf
prep time: 10 min
Total time: 1 hr 20 min plus 1 hr 10 min cooling time

If you are using large zucchini, out each zucchini in half lengthwise and use a spoon to
scrape out and discard the seeds before shredding. The test kitchen found no
discernible difference in the flavor of loaves made with plain whole-milk yogurt, plain
lowfat yogurt, or plain nonfat yogurt, so use what you have on hand.

INGREDIENTS

2 zucchini (1 lb), ends trimmed
1.5 c sugar
6 T (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 lg eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c plain yogurt
1 T lemon juice
2 c all-purpose flour (i use half white, half wheat)
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t allspice
1/2 t salt
1/2 c pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

1.Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously coat a 9x5-in loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.
2.Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. (I used a food processor) Squeeze the zucchini between several layers of paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Whisk the sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and lemon juice together in a large bowl.
3.Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt together in a separate lg. bowl. Gently fold the zucchini and the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, until just combined. Do not over-mix. Fold in the nuts.
4.Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 55-60 minutes.
5.Let the loaf cool in the pan for 1- minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool for 1 hr.

VARIATION (I haven't tried this, but it sounds like a good idea)
add 3/4 c golden raisins or dried cranberries to the batter along with the zucchini.

The Rolls

These are the melt-in-your-mouth rolls that inspired us all. They are irresistibly buttery, uncontrollably fluffy, and absolutely delicious.

Warning: No other roll will taste good to you ever again.

without further ado:

Grandma's Rolls
Make about 50 rolls
Takes about 1.5 hr

Note: this recipe is recorded by me taking notes while watching the Pro.


Get out
3 eggs, so they can get to room temperature. Then, preheat the oven to 350 F.

Heat together in the microwave for 2 minutes:
3 c milk
1/3 c shortening
1/3 c sugar
until warm through. Be sure it's not too hot for the yeast by sticking your hand in and touching the bottom. If you're nearly getting burned, it's too hot.

Put about
2 c flour
2 t salt
2 T active dry yeast
in the mixer, add warm milk mix, and mix on med-low until combined.
Add 1 egg at a time, until all three are mixed in.
Mix on med-low for 1 min.
Add flour, 1 c at a time until dough looks like thick pancake batter (less than 4 c)
Add flour and mix with wooden spoon until still really sticky. Let the dough rest for 10 min.
Meanwhile put about
3 c flour
on a pastry cloth.

Once dough has rested for 10 minutes, pour it out onto the floured pastry cloth.

And fold until doesn't stick to hands, but it will still be barely sticky.

Do not add too much flour!

Let the dough rest 10 min covered by the pastry cloth.

Grease 2 jellyroll pans with Crisco.


Melt a cube of butter in a shallow dish.

Once the dough is done resting

"Crisco" your hands. (If my grandma says it's a verb, it's a verb!)

Pinch off dough a little larger than golf ball size.

Roll to push air out and flatten.

Dip one side in butter,

wipe butter on the top of the previous roll and fold butter to inside. Press edges.

Lay rolls 5x5 on your jelly roll pans.
(Note, John, Audra and I helped, so these rolls are not as uniform as when Grandma does it herself. Also, she always gets exactly 50 rolls.)

Rise covered, until doubled in size (20-30 min).

My grandma cleans her pastry mat like this

Now we wait

Bake at 350, 15-20 min
Endulge!