Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

I love that this recipe uses whole wheat, but still tastes light and tender like a white bread roll. And is there anything better than a dinner roll? Okay, cake, but bread is awesome. Goose and I tease all the time that we could live on bread and water and be perfectly happy. From the time you put the yeast in the water to sit until the rolls come out of the oven is about a two and a half hour process. Not a quick bread, but totally worth it.

You will need:

1 cup less 2T warm water
1 package yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1T butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup plus 2T whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
*****************
2T melted butter




Dissolve yeast in the warm water with a tsp of the sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes or until creamy.



Mix together the rest of the sugar, salt, the 1T of melted butter, egg, and whole wheat flour in your mixer bowl. (Use the dough attachment.) Add the yeast mixture and mix.





Add the white flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. At this point you can turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes or keep it in the mixer and mix at a medium speed for about 6 minutes. Watch it and periodically pull the dough off of the dough hook.



Form the dough into a ball...



Take the dough out of the bowl, oil the bowl lightly, and then put the dough back into it, turning lightly to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.





Punch down the dough, cover, and let it rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. Punch it down again and divide the dough into 8 large balls. Put the balls onto a lightly greased parchment covered cookie sheet.



Let rise, uncovered, in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled.



Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with the melted 2T of butter.







Oh, man. I have to make these again soon! It is worth turning on the oven in this suffocating heat for these babies. They taste even better than they look, too. Okay, one more picture.



Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Pizza is so cheap and ubiquitous that most people never bother making pizza dough from scratch. Once you start making your own dough, you'll realize how much better it tastes! When I first starting making homemade dough (and after much trial and error) I used this recipe from Tyler Florence. It's my good-to, never-fail recipe when I want all white flour pizza dough. But, more often I use a whole wheat/white flour mix. This recipe is fantastic. Super tasty and you can add more or less whole wheat to your liking. I don't recommend using all whole wheat, though. The crust comes out too dense and you loose the chewiness. Adding the white flour will keep your crust light. That said (written), if you do decide to use all whole wheat you will need to add 4 tsp of gluten, which will add a bit of chewy and will help the dough rise.

You will need:



1 tsp white sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 package active dry yeast
1 T olive oil
1 tsp Kosher salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour

(I only use King Arthur flours. If you use another brand you may need to adjust your flour quantities just a bit. But...King Arthur really is superior!)

In a large mixer bowl (I use my KitchenAid) add the water, sugar, and yeast. The sugar feeds the yeast (little burpee guys). Add a bit more sugar if you like a sweeter crust. After the mixture is foamy--about 10 minutes--add the oil and salt.



Mix gently and then add the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the bread flour.



Use the dough hook attachment and mix until dough starts to come together.



At this point you can either turn out the dough onto a surface floured with the remaining bread flour or you can, like I do, leave it in the mixer and slowly add the remaining flour with the mixer on medium speed. You'll need to stop it now and then to scrape the dough off of the hook.



If kneading by hand, keep it up until all of the flour is absorbed and the dough becomes smooth. About ten minutes or so. If you are using the mixer, mix for at least six minutes. Dough should be smooth and elastic.



Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn to coat, and loosely cover with a damp towel. Let it stand in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. I turn on the oven to 400 degrees and put the bowl at the back of the stove with one half of the towel over the back burner.



After it rises...



punch it down and turn it out onto a floured surface.



This dough is so great. You can divide it into 2 and have two great, thick, large crusts. Or you can divide it into 3 and have thinner crusts, but still nice size pizzas. I divide it into 4 and have individual pizzas for each family member. The dough is thin, but not the flat thin you get at a pizza parlor--the one that makes you think you are eating cardboard or paper. Form the pieces into little balls and leave them alone for about 45 minutes or until doubled.



Preheat the oven to 425. You can use a rolling pin to form your crusts, but I just stretch and pull at them until flat. I like the look of homemade pizza crust, not perfectly round.



Top with anything you like! Bake on a greased pizza pan or cookie sheet for about 12 minutes.. My pizza pan is blackened and malformed owing to years of being spread with pulled pork and cooked on the grill, so I just use a cookie sheet lined with parchment and greased with a bit of olive oil. Works great, but still every year I ask Santa for a pizza stone. For some reason, he always forgets to bring me one. :)


Tinker Bell likes tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni and green peppers on her pizza.



Bubba, Goose, and I like BBQ sauce (thinned with a bit of pineapple juice), BBQ chicken, bacon, and pineapple on our pizzas.



Even in smaller, individual size crusts the dough is chewy, not too dense, and thick enough to let you taste it. Give it a try and you won't be sorry!

Food Network Copycat Breadsticks

I was so excited to get a new issue of Food Network Magazine this month! They have the most amazing recipes and photographs of food. True food porn and I am addicted. My favorite part of the magazine may be the Recipe Index. Instead of descriptions of articles with page numbers, they list every piece of food with a thumbnail image and page number. Brilliant. It also has a section called Weeknight Cooking, which details a number of entrees (including a budget-friendly one), sides, salads, tips, and a dessert. Then there is Fun Cooking. For the June/July issue they made a copycat recipe of Olive Garden's breadsticks and let me tell you, it is spot on.

For the dough:
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used bread flour)
2 T butter, softened
2 T sugar
1 T salt (I used 1 tsp kosher salt)

For the topping:
3 T butter, melted
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Pinch of dried oregano



Why I used bread flour...I was running low on all-purpose, true, but I always prefer to use bread flour. It is higher in gluten, which gives you more rise and a chewiness that I love in bread. Also, bread flour has a small amount of barley, which helps the yeast retain its gas. (I can hear my kids laughing at that explanation.)



Place 1/4 cup very warm water in the mixer bowl with the yeast and leave it alone for 5 minutes or until it looks like this:



Add the flour, butter, sugar, salt, and 1 1/4 cups plus 2 T warm water and mix with the paddle attachment until a slightly sticky dough forms, about 5 minutes.




This dough is a beautiful, wonderful thing. I wanted to name it (Pierre?) and keep it as a pet. Perfect texture. (It kind of looks like a Thanksgiving turkey in the picture, though, doesn't it?)

The recipe suggests kneading the dough on a floured surface for about 3 minutes, until it is very soft and smooth. I didn't want to stop kneading.



Ah, Pierre. You are so beautiful...to me.

Roll the dough into a 2-foot-long log. I spread out some wax paper, floured it, and then made small marks to delineate the 2-foot length.



Cut into 16 1 1/2 inch-long pieces. Despite using a measuring tape, I did not have perfectly even pieces. I do not blame Pierre.



Knead each piece into a 7-inch-long breadstick and place them 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. I used two sheets.



Cover with a lightweight dish towel in a warm spot until almost doubled, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400. After they have doubled, brush them with 1 1/2 T butter and 1/4 tsp salt. The recipe calls for sprinkling on the salt, but I mixed it with the butter.



Bake for 15 minutes then brush with remaining butter and sprinkle with the salt, garlic powder, and oregano. (Again, I mixed it all together and brushed it on.)

Paula Deen's Buttermilk Biscuits

There is nothing healthy about this biscuit, but there is no better biscuit recipe on the planet. I write that with a heavy heart because growing up my Georgia born and raised Southern grandmother lived with us and she made buttermilk biscuits every single day. And they were so good. I could cry just thinking about them. But, no matter how many times I made them with her or how many times she walked me through the process, I cannot make her recipe work for me. I don't know what it is! She just had the touch. It breaks my heart that she is not around to make them for us any more. She just used flour, baking powder, Crisco, and buttermilk and they would rise and be absolutely beautiful. When I make them they come out like pancakes. (She would cut them open while they were hot and add extra-sharp cheddar cheese slices. Mmmmmmmm.)

Paula Deen's recipe calls for yeast and the biscuits puff up and are just as tender and moist as they can be. I do, however, add one step that my grandmother never forgot and that takes these biscuits over the top. But first, the ingredients:
1 package yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup Crisco
2 cups buttermilk

Mix the 1/2 cup of water to the yeast and add just a pinch of sugar, which feeds the yeast (or as Tinker Bell says, "the little burpy guys"). Set aside. Meanwhile, pour your two cups of buttermilk into a bowl to let it lose some of its refrigerated cool.



Use a pastry cutter (or two knives) to cut the shortening into the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt. It will start out like this:



And end up looking like this:



When your yeast has proofed (about 5 minutes), add it to the buttermilk and stir.



Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just barely combined. The longer you mix it the tougher your biscuit will be. You want tender, soft biscuits, so barely mix! Then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to your desired thickness. I like them big and fluffy, so I don't pat it out too much and am only able to cut about 7 biscuits before having to reroll. If you flatten the dough you will have flat biscuits. Then you'll think I was lying to you about how much these biscuits puff. :) I use a large cup, not a biscuit cutter.




Place your biscuits (about 12 with leftover dough) onto a greased cookie sheet. Now here is my grandmother's secret touch...rub each biscuit top with buttermilk. Instead of a flat, dull biscuit top you will have a glossy, slightly crisp top.




Paula suggests baking them at 400 degrees for 12 minutes, but my biscuits always require about 15-16 minutes. Aren't they pretty?!!



Serve them with cheddar cheese slices, butter, jam, honey, gravy, or (our family favorite) bacon, egg, and cheese.