April 2003 - RECIPE OF THE MONTH

Breads & Breakfast

Super Easy Best Ever Crescent Rolls

by Narita Roady from Pryor, OK

Assembly Directions:
To scald the milk, put it in a saucepan over medium heat. Watch it, and when small bubbles start to form around the edges, it’s done. It doesn’t boil and the bottom doesn’t scorch. Remove from heat and add the butter, so it melts in the warm milk. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large bowl, mix together 4 C. of flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Check the temperature of the milk… it needs to be between 120 to 130 degrees F to activate the yeast. When the milk is the right temperature, mix it to the flour mixture. Mix in the eggs and the remaining 3 C. of flour. Make sure the dough is well-mixed, but do not knead. It will be a sticky dough.

Cover and let rise for 2 hours in a warm, draft-free place. After 2 hours, punch the dough down, and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Lightly dust the counter with flour, and roll one piece into a circle as large as you can get it. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle! Dip your hand, a spreader or a spatula into the tub of margarine and spread a thin layer all over the circle. Next, cut the circle into 8 pie-shaped pieces with a pizza cutter. This doesn’t have to be perfect either… mine come out all sizes! Using your hands, roll up each pie-shaped piece, starting at the wide end and rolling towards the small end. Place it seam-side down on a cookie sheet. Repeat this process until all the dough is used up.

Freezing Directions:
Place the cookie sheet(s) of dough rolls into the freezer. When they’re frozen solid, place them in a container with a lid or a freezer bag. Seal, label and freeze. Keep in the freezer until ready to use. (They don’t seem to rise well if you keep them longer than 3 months.)

Serving Directions:
Grease a cookie sheet and place the needed number of frozen rolls on it. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 3-1/2 to 4 hours, or until doubled. (When dough is doubled, you can touch it with your finger and the indentation will stay.) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and bake the rolls for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Brush lightly with melted butter and serve.

Comments:
This is the best and easiest recipe I have ever found for frozen dinner rolls! Best of all, it required NO kneading! They turn out great every time. I love these because I can put them out Sunday morning when I get up and when we get home from church, we have fresh bread, ready to bake!

You can easily use half whole wheat pastry flour and half white flour too. If you use all whole wheat pastry flour, you need to use additional yeast and liquid, but I don’t have the exact amounts for that. I have also used this same recipe and made cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, hot dog buns and hamburger buns!

To make hamburger buns, divide the dough into about 24 balls. Roll each ball out very thin, then put two together, one on top of the other and press them gently together. Freeze like that, and rise and bake as you would the crescent rolls. This makes rather small buns. As they rise, they will get much taller, (the reason for rolling them thin), but they don't get a whole lot bigger around. Hot dog buns would be done the same way, except you roll them in oblong pieces. By stacking 2 pieces of dough together, you are creating an easy “ready to cut” spot in the baked rolls.

For cinnamon rolls, roll all the dough out into the largest rectangle you can. Spread with margarine as you do the rolls. Then sprinkle the inside with a mixture of 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Leave about 1/2 inch from the edge without sugar. Roll tightly, beginning at the wide side. Seal ends by pinching the edges of the roll together when you are done. Cut into 1 inch slices. This should yield 12 or more cinnamon rolls. Freeze, rise and cook as with the crescent rolls.

For orange rolls, make as for the cinnamon rolls above, using the following as the filling: mix 1/2 C. sugar, 2 t. finely grated orange rind and 1 t. cinnamon. Then ice with orange icing: 3 T. margarine, 2 T. grated orange rind and orange juice, and 1-1/2 C. powdered sugar.

You could even make butterscotch rolls by spreading the dough with a mixture of 1/2 C. packed brown sugar, 1 T. corn syrup, and 1/2 C. chopped pecans.

You could use this recipe to make Stollens, Swedish tea rings, and most other recipes that call for a sweet yeast dough.
 

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