Friday, November 25, 2011

Crescent Rolls

Cookbook Bites Recipe review of Crescent Rolls
Homemade crescent rolls.
A few years ago I helped to compile a cookbook that was a present to the resellers where I worked as a holiday gift. The cookbook was also a tribute to one of our co-workers, Victoria, who had passed away suddenly that year. Victoria had been gathering employee recipes with the hopes of someday publishing a cookbook so we finished the project. Here's an excerpt from the forward by the company founder:

"Cooking and baking were important to Victoria--she loved to create her own masterpieces. She and her children would make cookies on Monday nights and take them to families in her neighborhood. She loved making holidays special for her family, and good food was always at the heart of these celebrations."

So this brings us to a really great recipe "Corinne's Rolls"shared by Claudia, one of the sales reps. It's become a family favorite! I used this dough to make cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning last year and these rolls show up regularly over the holidays. Let me know how they work out for you!
Watch for the red bowl as you scroll down to see what the yeast looks like when it starts fluffing up.
The butter is melted, milk scalded, and combined with the sugar and salt.
See how fluffy the yeast got! "It's so fluffy!"
These little guys are fluffy too... 
"They're so fluffy I'm gonna die!" All-righty, back to the rolls.
If you have a mixer, use the dough hook when adding the flour.
Set the dough aside to raise.
"Poof" It's ready!
Roll out the dough, and cut into 16 pieces with a pizza cutter. (If you cut a couple extra you can make some smaller rolls too.)
Crescent rolls raising in pan.
Roll the rolls from the large side of the triangle to small* and raise.

Corinne's Rolls
2 packages of yeast or 2 heaping T
1/2 C warm water (sprinkle of sugar)
1 C (2 sticks) butter
1 C Sugar
1 1/2 milk (scalded)
2 t Salt
6 eggs (beaten)
8 C All Purpose Flour (I replaced 2C with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)

Add yeast to warm water and add a sprinkle of sugar. Set aside. In a pan combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt then cool to lukewarm. Add yeast to mixture and mix well. Add beaten eggs and flour to create a smooth soft dough. Knead and place in greased bowl. Cover and let raise 1 1/2 hours until double. Divide the dough in half. With first half, roll dough into a large circle. Brush melted butter onto the dough. Cut dough with a pizza cutter into 16 triangular "pizza" slices. Roll each piece from the large end to the small. Same with second half of dough. Let rise on baking sheet for 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Brush with butter. The dough freezes well. Yield 32 crescent rolls.

*Before rolling the rolls, I stretched the top of the cutout triangle (the wide end) to get more dough on the outside ends to better curve the rolls into the crescent shape.

Recipe Source: Table Scraps, A Collection of Our Favorite Recipes, Corrine's Rolls shared by Claudia Mann, pg. 91

Enjoy!

Suzanne
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