Spoon Rolls & Pot Roast

I have always wanted to try making bread. My Mom made bread often when we were children. With five bellies to fill, it is cheaper than buying it and it is much more delicious!! I bought a package of yeast about a month before Christmas, but i have yet to get up the courage to actually use it. Finally, last week i found this recipe for Spoon Rolls on a blog i follow: Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. They looked so easy, i couldn't wait to try the recipe!! I was making a pot roast yesterday, so i decided it was high time i tried making rolls to go with it. A perfect pair!


Spoon Rolls

1 Tbsp yeast

1/4 cup warm water

3 Tbsp sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup cold water

1 egg, slightly beaten

4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small bowl.

In another bowl, add butter, milk, salt and sugar; microwave 2 + minutes or until the butter melts and the milk boils. 

Cool the milk mixture by adding the cold water.Let sit 5 - 10 minutes to cool further, then add egg.

Pour flour into large bowl; add yeast and milk mixtures. Stir until well blended.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and spoon into greased muffin tins (18).

Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes.  Brush tops with butter or oil while hot to keep them soft.

I only had to bake them for about 12 minutes. On a whim, i checked them early and found them looking like the above picture, so i yanked them. They are absolutely delicious!! The perfect dinner roll. 

One of my favorite parts of making bread is the smell of the yeast. When i was a kid, i would watch the yeast as it activated and expanded in the bowl. I used the measuring cup to let it do its thing, to save a dish. I had to use the cup to measure the water anyway. It's a bit blurry, but here is a picture of the yeast after it has activated.

I also used a larger measuring cup to microwave the milk and butter for the same reason. Why bother using a bowl when the cup will do. I started to mix everything by hand in my mixing bowl, but then got lazy and dumped it into the mixer. This was the first time out for the dough hook and it worked great!

By this time, i was starting to doubt my baking abilities...was this going to do what it was supposed to do and rise? I covered it and checked it after 15 minutes and it still looked the same. After 30, no visible change. I stopped torturing myself and found something to do for the next 30 minutes.

And it rose as it was supposed to! Finally, i pulled the dough apart and put it in the pans. My favorite rolls that Mom had made when i was a kid were the ones with 3 bumps; she made these in her muffin tins. The rest she usually made in square cake pans, side by side rolls to tear apart. I think the ones with the 3 bumps were my favorite just because they looked fancy, and therefore felt a little more special. I decided yesterday to make some of these in my muffin top pan. After 45 minutes, they were ready for the oven!

Meanwhile, I made dinner. Or rather, my crock pot did. I had gotten a roast Thursday night on sale, a fair sized chunk for 10 dollars. I threw it in the crock pot at about 12:30 with 2 chopped potatoes, a chopped sweet potato, a couple of carrots and a bit of onion. Over this, i threw a cup of water mixed with a pre-packaged slow cooker pot roast mix. At about 4, i turned it down to low and at about 6 i checked it and it was done!

I covered it with tinfoil and let it sit while i prepared everything else. The veggies were floating, so the first thing i did was drain off the liquid; I left them in the crock pot on warm. As for the liquid, i used a mini strainer and poured it through 3 times, then put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. The refrigerator caused some of the grease to congeal, so i was able to strain it one more time to remove some more (i did this because i had no cheesecloth). Onto the stove it went, and i added about 2 Tbsp of flour that had been mixed with about 1/4 cup of flour. I stirred it and let it bubble.

The gravy was not thickening, so i ended up adding some more flour/water to it. It turned out yummy! As for the veggies, i served them up beside the meat with some frozen peas on the side. 

There were plenty of veggies left, so that will be tonight's dinner. The leftovers of the roast and gravy i threw in the freezer for next weekend. I will warm them up in the crock pot while I am at my sister's wedding shower, so when i get home all i will have to do is make some mashed potatoes and more frozen peas and i will have another dinner. I found the mix i used was a bit salty, so next time i will probably dilute it a bit more. Other than that, i think my first bread and pot roast experience went over very well! I am also going to try the spoon roll recipe again, but the next time i might try to make a loaf of bread out of it.