You Will Never Be Able To Eat Store-Bought Rolls Again!

Before I begin, just a quick reminder that my April giveaway is in full swing.  Claim your free, easy, daily entry here.  Don’t forget to visit Jennette’s website, so you can tell me which Thrive food storage item you’d like to try.  Jennette has generously provided our wonderful prize.

 

Our lovely prize: freeze dried sausage and freeze dried cheese. And remember! You can enter once each day!

 

Have you ever eaten something so delicious, so yummy, you knew there was no way you could ever recreate it in all its glory at home?  That’s how I used to feel about Jenna’s rolls.  Those lucky enough to know  Jenna know what I’m talking about.  Her rolls are DIVINE!  Just the mere mention of her rolls brings a blissful, longing look to people’s faces.  When I mention that I’m bringing “Jenna’s Rolls” somewhere, there is an excitement and longing that cannot be contained.  Just the words “Jenna’s Rolls” are spoken with reverence and respect.  They are SO GOOD!

 

Remember when I said my cinnamon roll recipe was amazing?  (And they are!)  These are better!  Perhaps that’s because anything made with white flour and sugar is going to be one of my most favorite things in the world.  Bread is better than dessert to me, so you can imagine how much I LOVE these.

 

Jenna was kind enough to share her recipe last year when she taught a class on making her life changing rolls.  Today, I’m going to share her fantabulous rolls with you.  These easy, delicious rolls will become a staple in your home.  When you share them with friends, they will love you even more than they already do.  They will be in awe of your roll-making ability!

 

Best Dinner Rolls EVER!

 

Best Dinner Rolls Ever by Jenna

 Makes 32 rolls

 

Ingredients

2 cups almost hot water

1/2 cup sugar or honey (if you use honey, decrease the water by 1/2 cup)

6 cups flour (I use 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 bread flour, but you can use all-purpose if you don’t have bread flour)

1 stick softened salted butter, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 well-beaten egg

 

Proof yeast by adding a little sugar and the yeast to the water.  Let sit until bubbly.  (If using instant yeast, you can skip this step.)  Add yeast mixture, 3 cups of flour, and remaining sugar to a mixing bowl.  Mix well.

Add the remaining flour, butter, salt, and egg to the mixing bowl and mix until well combined.  If you are using a stand mixer, turn the mixer to medium and let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes.  If kneading by hand, knead for about 10 minutes until the dough springs back when depressed.

Cover dough and set aside.  Let rise until double (about 45 minutes – 1 hour).  Shape into rolls.  Let rise again for about 10 minutes or until puffy.  Bake in a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 12-15 minutes (until light golden brown).  Check with a toothpick to see if the dough is still sticky inside.  If it is, bake by one minute increments until the toothpick comes out easily.  Brush rolls with the 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

You can use 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour if you desire.  I’ve used quinoa and ground flax seed as well (with about 1/2 of the mixture other “flours”), and they were still lovely.  Not quite as light, but still super yummy.

 

Here’s my photo step-by-step, so you can make these at home.

 

Ingredients assembled.

 

Start with the yeast. Dissolve it into the water mixed with some of the sugar. When the yeast has “bloomed,” it will look like this. When it does, it’s ready!

 

Mix 3 cups of bread flour with the proofed yeast and remaining sugar.

 

It will be quite wet.

 

Add the egg, salt, and butter. Mix just a bit to ensure the salt well distributed in the dough.

 

Add the last 3 cups of flour (I used all-purpose for the last 3). Mix well on low speed.

 

Your dough should look something like this. Now it’s time to knead. I use my Kitchenaid mixer to knead the dough, but you can do it by hand.

 

After kneading it for 5 minutes on medium speed, the dough is smooth and beautiful. It springs back when you press into the dough.

 

I removed the dough hook, covered it with plastic wrap, and set it aside while I made the rest of dinner. It sat for about 45 minutes.

 

After 45 minutes, it more than doubled and was ready to roll out. QUICK TIP: To make clean up easier, spray Pam (or other cooking spray) on your counter top before you put down your flour. I’ll show you a little later how easy it is to clean up afterwards.

 

Divide the dough in half and put one half on your floured surface. Turn it over so there’s flour on both sides.

 

Roll out the dough into a rough circle. It doesn’t really matter if it’s an exact circle, so don’t stress about it. My circle was great today, but many days it looks more like an oblong round or like a rectangle. The rolls taste the same regardless of how they look.

 

Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 16 pieces.

 

It’s super easy to make a fancy crescent shape. Jenna (I just LOVE her!) showed me this trick. Pick up one of your triangular shaped pieces of dough. Rest the wide side of the triangle on your two index fingers. Then flip the dough in a circular motion around your fingers.

 

It will look something like this. Place the dough with the tip facing down onto a greased pan.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

 

Like this. This is an entire batch of rolls. Let them sit for 10-20 minutes, until they get puffy.

 

I forgot to take a picture before I put them in the oven. Here’s what they looked like after 10 minutes. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Mine usually come out at 12-13 minutes.

 

I removed them from the oven…

 

And immediately brushed them with melted butter.

 

Aren’t they beautiful?

 

Here’s a shot with all the rolls. YUM!

 

These rolls went so fast last night! We had guests over for dinner, and these were the most popular thing on the menu.

 

And these fabulous rolls are so much less expensive than the rolls you buy at the store.  My local Costco carries some pretty good dinner rolls.  They’re about $4 for 3 dozen.  These cost me about $1.

 

Better Rolls + Saving Money = SCORE!

 

These are so quick and easy to make.  Do you think you’ll try them out?

Revealing A Bit Of My Inner Self, So, Please, No Haters

The main reason I store food and am learning all the skills that go along with it is to help my family be more self-reliant.  I’ve touched on a few aspects of self-reliance (or self-sufficiency, whatever you want to call it): cooking, gardening, canning, learning to cook, baking, etc.  One topic I’ve avoided is fitness. Why have I avoided it?  Because there are powerful emotions involved whenever fitness, health, weight loss, etc. are discussed.

 

 

I’m not talking about weight loss here.  That’s something entirely different than fitness.  It plays a part in one’s overall fitness, but it is not the only part or even the largest part.  Some might argue that you must be slender to be fit (see here) while others argue that you can be fit and fat at the same time (see here and here).  I’m not here to discuss the merits of either argument.  I’m talking about taking care of my body, so I can perform the tasks I need to perform.   Eating healthier, homemade foods is a part of taking care of my body and so is physical fitness.

 

Today, I’m talking about the physical fitness part of self-reliance.  I’m sharing something quite personal which I guard very closely, so I hope you will all be kind and refrain from harsh judgments.  🙂  Or, keep your judgments to yourself.  That’s fine, too.

 

Not sure why I had my roommate take my picture, but here I am in my freshman dorm room before a dance.

 

As a child and teenager, I was very active, had a healthy body, and was pretty fit.  Then, I got married and had my first child.  I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal to lose the baby weight, as I’d had no problem losing weight in the past.  Granted it was only 5 pounds, but how different could it be?  I soon learned that it was very different.  I tried so many different diets and ways of eating (low-fat, Atkins, whole grain, Zone, Ornish, and more), I worked with nutritionists, I taught step aerobics, I exercised on my own, I logged my food, and so on.  Nothing worked.  I was still fat.  I was pretty healthy, and I was fit for my size, but I was a big gal, definitely not what I was as a fit teenager.

 

After a lot of thought and prayer and at least 22 serious weight loss efforts over 22 years, I opted to have a vertical sleeve gastrectomy just over a year ago.  I didn’t tell many people, only family and close friends.  Why didn’t I tell more people?  I didn’t want to hear “You should just try _____!”  Or “If you just did _____, you’d lose weight.”  No, I didn’t try everything on the planet, but I am not an unintelligent person.  I spend hours upon hours researching and reading.  I tried many things that work for many people in the long term.  I wasn’t interested in short term solutions or anything that might risk my health.

 

If I didn’t want to risk my health, then why did I have surgery?  Without boring you with all my mental ramblings, here’s a summary.  I tried losing weight for 22 years.  It wasn’t working.  This surgery and others like it work.  The sleeve is not a magic cure, BUT it is an effective tool.  When used properly, surgery would allow me to lose some of my excess weight.  I knew I was at the point where I needed to lose weight, or it would affect my health in the long term.

 

You want a shorter reason?  I want to be able to walk when I am 70.

 

Why am I telling you all this?  There’s a chance you’ll lose all respect for me.  That happens when people find out someone they haven’t met is fat.  Everyone must find their own balance, to find what works for their body and their lifestyles.  Truth is, I am not as fat as I was, but I’ll never be my skinny teenage self again.  And I’m okay with that.  I still look a bit like an apple on sticks, but I’m a much smaller apple now.  I’ve lost 8 inches off of my waist and 2 inches off of my neck, and it feels good.

 

Allow me to get back on track…  Fitness…  What does that mean TO YOU?  To me, it means living a healthy, active life for as long as I can.  Since weight loss surgery is not a magical, instant solution, I exercise as I did before surgery.  Earlier this year, I found myself slacking off a bit earlier this year after a nasty cold that would not go away.  So, I signed up for a color run in Orange County.  It sounded like a lot of fun, and it would motivate me to try something I haven’t done regularly in almost 3 decades: run.

 

I am using the couch to 5K program.  I’m not starting at “couch” as I walk and exercise regularly, but I think it’s better to start slowly.  Especially now that I’m in my 40s.  But I waited a little too long to start, so I’m accelerating it just a tad bit.  I need to be done in 5 1/2 weeks rather than the 9 they schedule.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

This is not my first fitness event since my surgery.  I swam the swimming leg of a sprint triathlon last August.

 

I was not looking forward to getting in the water as it was COLD outside!

 

But I did! The water felt fine. I am the one in the middle of the picture in blue.

 

 

Then my family and I participated in the Foam Fest 5K (which was a blast!) last September.

 

This was a muddy race!  Not a great picture of me, but I promised I would be my real self in this blog, unflattering pictures and all.

 

But I didn’t need to worry, because there was a lot of foam to clean off the mud.

 

I had to “save” my youngest son, but we laughed the entire way!

 

And I still had a smile on when I got home in all my muddy, foamy glory. Look at those once white socks!

Wish me luck on my journey. 

I’ll keep working to improve my health and fitness regardless of my size.  I hope you’ll join me.

Why Would Anyone Make Homemade Crackers When There Are Perfectly Good Crackers At The Store?

Because they can!  As part of my “foray into food storage,” I decided that I needed to learn to make things from scratch just in case I need to live exclusively off of my food storage.  Thankfully, I always have the items necessary on hand to make crackers, so I decided to try my hand at it.  My first attempt, about a month ago, was a brown rice cracker. It was okay, but it wasn’t awesome.  It was my first attempt, and you could really tell.  I learned a few things in the process, but I felt confident I could make a passable cracker if the need arose.  I should have snapped a few pictures, but I didn’t.  Sorry!

 

Saturday, I made a second attempt.  I was going to a women’s meeting and signed up to bring a dozen appetizers.  I planned to use some leftover frozen honey ham to make mini quiches, but I didn’t feel like making the crust or running by the store to buy roll-out pie crust.  I remembered that I had some goat cheese in the fridge and thought my Vanilla Pear preserves would be perfect with it.  All I needed were some artisan type crackers to go with it.  It was high time to experiment with cracker making, so I Googled cracker recipes and found this one at TheKitchn.com.  I used their recipe as a template and used some fun flours and ground flax seed and made a delicious cracker!

 

Here’s my version of TheKitchn’s recipe.

 

Artisan Wheat & Flax Crackers

 

Artisan Wheat and Flax Crackers

 

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup brown rice flour

2 tablespoons flax seed, ground (measured before grinding)

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, optional

2 tablespoons poppy seeds, optional

Salt for cracker tops, optional

 

Combine the flours and ground flax seed with salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir well with a whisk.  Add the water and olive oil to the flour mixture and stir with a spoon until well combined into a soft, sticky dough.

 

Divide the dough in half and put one half on a floured surface.  Form into a rectangle and roll out until the dough is 1/8 inch or less in thickness.  If you wish to add seeds, spritz the dough with water, then sprinkle seeds and salt on top.  Spritz with water again.

 

Next, use a pizza cutter, a sharp knife, or cookie cutters to cut the crackers into the shape you desire.  Poke with a fork.  Use a spatula to transfer the crackers to a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake i a preheated 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10-15 minutes.  Remove when the crackers reach desired doneness.  You can make these as chewy or crispy crackers based on your preferences.   Remove from the cookie sheet and let crackers cool on a wire rack.  Serve and enjoy!

 

Makes approximately 100 crackers with 22 calories per cracker.

 

Here’s my photo step-by-step for your viewing pleasure!

 

Before I started making the crackers, I ground my flax seed (2 T.) in a coffee grinder.

 

Here it is after about 15 seconds.

 

Next, I assembled my ingredients.

 

This recipe calls for 3 cups of flour. Since I was mixing in all types of whole grains, I put them all in a one cup measure and filled the remaining space with all-purpose flour. Then I dumped it into my mixing bowl with the remaining dry ingredients.

 

I whisked the dry ingredients together.

 

Then I added the liquid (water and olive oil).

 

I began stirring, and it looked like there wasn’t enough water. But I kept stirring.

 

And soon, it looked like this. There was still a tiny bit of flour in the bottom of the bowl, so I added another tablespoon of water to the mix.

 

The dough came together beautifully!  It was a soft, sticky dough, just as described in the original recipe.

 

I assembled my tools along with my dough: rolling pin, flour for the counter, and a pizza cutter.

 

I divided the dough in half and put one half on the floured counter top.

 

Next, I turned the dough over so it was covered in flour and formed it into a rough rectangle shape.

 

Next, I rolled out the dough until it was a little less than 1/8 inch in thickness.  If I’d taken more care, I could have kept it in a rectangle shape, but I wanted an “artisan” look, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

 

I cut the dough into rectangles for the first batch, then spritzed with water and sprinkled on the seeds and salt.

 

I decided to be a little more creative with the second half of the dough and cut on the diagonal.

 

I transferred the crackers to a greased cookie sheet and baked at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. I turned the pan and let them go for another minute or so until they turned golden brown.

 

As soon as I removed the crackers from the oven, I transferred them to a cooling rack.

 

When I got to my meeting, I prepped my appetizer by pouring the Vanilla Pear Preserves over the goat cheese and let it come to room temperature before serving.  (See that vanilla bean goodness in there?  YUM!)

 

I put my crackers in a cute little bowl…

 

My appetizer was ready for service! And it disappeared so fast!

 

Yes, it is true.  I can buy a box of crackers at the store.  Some stores even sell “artisan” crackers.  But for less than a dollar, I had better crackers than I’ve ever had from a box, and I mastered a new skill!  I’ll definitely be making these again.

Do you think it was worth the 45 minutes it took me to make the crackers (including the time in the oven)? 

What are you learning to make so that you are more self-sufficient?