Soft, Buttery Dinner Rolls

It's Thanksgiving TODAY and I want to share my favorite dinner roll recipe with you.  I can't get over how soft they are every time I make them.  Have faith when I tell you that these rolls are delicious and easy and that YOU can make them, I promise!!

Ingredients:

1 c. warm water
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1/4 c. sugar
3 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp. butter, softened

Oven Temperature: 375
Baking Time: 12-15 minutes

Combine the water, sugar, and yeast.  Make sure the water is warm enough to activate the yeast, but not so warm that it kills it.  (If the water feels hot to your finger, it might be a little too warm.  If the water feels lukewarm to your finger, it's not warm enough.  Find that happy medium between the two!)

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt and give it a quick stir.  Add in the activated yeast mixture. While that's mixing together (I use my stand mixer), you'll add the egg and softened butter.  Continue to allow the dough to mix for close to 5 minutes, just to activate all the gluten so your rolls will be nice and fluffy.

Once your dough has been thoroughly combined, you'll want to place it into a large, lightly greased bowl.  The dough will be slightly sticky, but not to the point that it's stuck all over your hands.  If your dough is that sticky, it's time to add a tiny bit more flour (maybe 1/8 or 1/4 c.) and allow it to mix in well.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap that has also been sprayed with non-stick spray so that your dough won't stick to it once it rises.  Place it in a warm oven--having the oven light on keeps a steady and warm enough temperature to assist in the rising process.

Once your dough has doubled in size, approximately 1 hour, you'll want to punch it down so that it deflates.  Now it's time to call in the reserves--my kids love to help me shape the dough into dinner rolls.  Divide the dough into 16 portions and shape each of them into a ball.  Place them 2" apart on a baking sheet (parchment covered is the best to make sure they won't end up sticking to the sheet). Cover and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  When it's ready, bake the rolls for 12-15 minutes, until they are golden brown.  If you wish, you may brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter after they come out of the oven so that they stay super soft, and sprinkle with coarse salt if you desire.

Homemade Stuffing/Dressing

Until recently, I was never sure what the difference was between "stuffing" and "dressing."  Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but just in case you were wondering, too, let me share with you.  Stuffing is when you stuff your turkey with the bread mixture, dressing is when you simply bake it in the oven. Pretty simple.  This recipe can be used either way.  Personally, the whole concept of stuffing does not appeal to me, so each year for Thanksgiving, I prefer to make dressing. No matter which way you decide to go about it, this is a great-tasting recipe that you can't go wrong with!

Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 sticks of butter
2 one-pound loaves of bread, cubed (approximately 19 c. of bread cubes), dried for a couple of hours.
2 onions, chopped
8 stalks of celery, chopped
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 c. chicken broth
1/3 c. dried cranberries (optional)

Oven temperature: 350 degrees
Baking time: 30-40 minutes

Start out by melting the butter in a large pot.

Add the onion and celery to the melted butter, cooking until they become soft.

Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, stirring well.

Add in your bread cubes.  I use my whole wheat bread--it tastes delicious in this recipe!  Stir well to coat the bread.

Next, pour in the chicken broth and again, stir well.  Finally, stir in the dried cranberries, and pour into a lightly greased 9x13" pan.

Go ahead and refrigerate the dressing unless you plan to bake it right away.  On the day you want to bake it, place it in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top layer of bread becomes golden and slightly crispy.  As I am not baking this until tomorrow, I do not yet have a "finished" photo to place on this post, but I will add it on when I can.  If you prefer to have stuffing, rather than baking this, you'll obviously stuff it in your turkey and cook it that way at this point.

Popovers

Whenever I make soup, I always have to have a yummy side of some kind of bread item...whether it's a basic loaf of bread, cornbread, biscuits, or these popovers, for me, a meal of soup just isn't complete without one of them.

While you can make popovers in a muffin tin, I'd highly recommend using an actual popover tin.  It allows the popovers to cook up nice and tall.

Ingredients:

1 c. flour
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Oven Temperature: 425 degrees
Baking time: 40-45 minutes

(Make sure your oven is preheated nice and hot to 425 degrees so you can quickly put the tin into the oven as soon as your batter is ready.)

Lightly grease the popover/muffin tin.  In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt.  Add in the eggs and milk, mixing until well combined.  A few small lumps may be in your batter, but it's not a big deal. Quickly pour the batter into the cups and immediately place into the oven. You can see that I fill my tins just slightly over halfway full.

Gather the kids around to watch the popovers start to grow!  It's fun to see how quickly they change. Once your popovers are well browned (don't let them get too dark!), it's time to remove them from the oven.

Should your popovers stick to the edge of the tins (mine often do), simply use a butter knife to loosen the edges without puncturing the popover.  Immediately poke a hole in the popover and allow some butter to melt inside the hollow center.

Serve while hot as a great side dish to any soup recipe and enjoy!  Makes 6 large popovers or about 12 small ones if you are using a standard muffin tin.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Growing up, we always had the canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.  I never cared for it and I still don't.  Enter homemade cranberry sauce--simple and much more tasty--and I'm hooked!  Not to mention, the homemade stuff is so pretty, too!

Ingredients:

Large bag (I used 32 oz.) of fresh (or frozen) whole cranberries--reserve 1 c. of berries
3 c. white sugar (you can reduce the amount if you wish)
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (can use orange juice for a sweeter taste)
pinch of salt, pepper, and cinnamon

Simply place all but the 1 c. of cranberries into a large pot. add the sugar and the lemon juice, and stir it up well.  Make sure that no dry sugar remains on the bottom of the pan so it won't burn.  The sugar will still be fairly dry, but it should have a slight coating of moisture from the citrus juice.  Turn the burner on to a low setting and allow the berries to become soft, approximately 10 minutes, continuing to stir every so often.

Once the berries have begun to soften a bit, turn the heat up to medium for at least another 10 minutes. As the berries heat up, they will burst--I love the little popping sound they make!  Continue to stir the mixture with some frequency.  It's fine if you want to press the berries up against the side of the pot to hasten their explosions. :)  By the end of those 10 minutes, the berries will have released most of their juice and you will have a nice, soupy mixture on your hands.

At this point, you want to add those berries you reserved in the beginning so you have a little contrast with whole berries versus the disintegrated ones.  Remove the pot from the burner.  The whole berries will soften up in the hot cranberry sauce; some of them may even pop as well, which is fine.  You can also add in the salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  It sounds strange to add salt and pepper, but it gives it a more full flavor. The sauce will begin to thicken as it cools.

Next, simply pour the berries from the pot into a serving dish, allow to cool, and serve when ready.  If storing overnight, I would suggest covering with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out and place it in the refrigerator.

Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

The other week I had a rather large bag of peanut butter M&M's on hand and I wanted to bake some of them up in a treat.

I decided a cookie bar would be the perfect solution.  While I'm a huge fan of peanut butter M&M's on their own, for me, personally, a cookie bar isn't complete unless it also has chocolate in it.  Especially when the bars also have peanut butter in them.  So, enter my Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars creation.  The title is almost longer than the time it takes to throw them together! ;)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
2/3 c. smooth peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. peanut butter M&M's
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Oven Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking time: 25 minutes

Combine the first 4 ingredients, mixing until smooth.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, again mixing well. Next mix in the dry ingredients.  Once all ingredients have been fully combined, it's time to add the M&M's and chocolate chips.  I love how pretty M&M's look.

Once the extras are mixed in well, it's time to place the mixture into a lightly greased 9x13" pan.  This will not spread out very well on its own, so you'll have to use your hands to get the bars in place.  If you are worried about the dough sticking to your hands, you can simply spray a little non-stick spray on your hands or use a piece of wax paper for pressing down on the dough.

Place the bars in your preheated oven, allowing them to bake for approximately 25 minutes.  They'll need to set for about 5 or 10 minutes once you remove them from the oven.  (If you don't care for moist, soft cookie bars, go ahead and bake this for a full 30 minutes for a slightly firmer result.)

Remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool.  The edges should be slightly golden brown and the center should be set.  Once you've waited for as long as you can stand it, go ahead and slice into bars and serve up.  These taste the best when they are warm.  My apologies that the next picture ended up being blurry...unfortunately I can't retake it as these bars didn't last long enough! ;)  Trust me when I tell you these things are GOOD!!