Gorgeous Round Rolls, Giveaway Photo, and Festivus

As I forge forward on my baking journey, saving money at every turn, I've made another bonanza discovery: I not only figured out that my homemade bread costs around 50 cents to make, but now I can make more than two dozen rolls for the same price! Instead of paying almost four dollars for nine bagged rolls at the grocery store with a bunch of strange ingredients, I can make beautiful (gorgeous?), big rolls at home with simple ingredients for a tiny fraction of the cost. What's also nice is I can prepare my bread right along with it: since I make two bowls of dough for two loaves of bread at the same time (soon to be four, I hope), I just convert one of those bowls into rolls. Or, you can just have a roll making day - the second rising is shorter than that for bread, and the baking time is also shorter. I adapted this recipe from an old baking book I own. By the way, I have switched to using Active Dry Yeast from Rapid Rise Yeast. Not only can I buy it in bulk, but I like how it makes the dough feel when I knead it and how it rises. I explain how to use it in the directions below. Have fun, eat well, and save money!

Finished rolls on a plate. Now, what's interesting about this photo and the next three are they were taken the first time I made these rolls. The ones on the plate do not have a soy milk glaze, and I now prefer the glaze. They also came out a little smaller than the second time I made them because it was a colder day. Sometimes dough doesn't rise as well in colder weather, so keep that in mind if you see that happening. But, they were still cute, so I added them.

A rough ball of dough from the main lump. You can either flatten the dough out and cut proportionate sizes, or tear off chunks from the dough still in the bowl. I've done both, and I prefer the more barbaric method of tearing, but cutting ensures more equally sized rolls.

Roll the bottom end inward by sections, like this.

Turn it over, and you'll have a lovely roll ready for its second rise. Make sure you make the initial ball, here, half the size you want it to end up to be.

I made two batches this day: this is the first batch which yielded about three dozen rolls.

This is the second batch which yielded over two dozen. I made the initial balls a little larger, I guess. But, we suffered through them.

A close-up. Aren't the little darlings so cute? But, you can see how they brown more with the soy milk glaze - I like that.

We also received our giveaway win from Dirty Duck this week! The blessings were downright crazy when that box arrived! As you can see below, the only Lara Bar that wasn't ripped open before I grabbed the camera was mine. I was going to split it with G, but he didn't want half, so oh, well, I ate it. The package was really from Lilly the Duck; the return address had her name, and she even sent us some of her feathers. Maybe she lost them while frantically packing the box! In either case, the feathers have been equally divided between the three shorter members of the family and are safe in their rooms. I made a dish with a box of penne pasta last night, kind of a spaghetti soup, and it was good. We all thank you, Dirty Duck family!

The Goods

Last year we started celebrating Festivus, made famous by Seinfeld. G wants you to know that we are Reformed Festivuvians because we decorated our pole with Christmas bows - apparently the pole should be bare. We will air our grievances tonight and have feats of strength against the leader of the home, G, to try to knock him from power. Last year, the feats of strength included pinky wrestling. This year G tried to suggest seeing who could eat the most cookies, but we didn't fall for it. We can tell he's nervous.

Our cheerful Festivus pole belies the serious tone of this life-changing holiday. All heads-of-households, Beware!

Gorgeous Round Rolls
Ingredients:

5 cups of flour
2 Tbs. of salt
1 pkg. of Active Dry Yeast, or 2 and 1/4 tsp. of bulk Active Dry Yeast
4 Tbs. warm water
2 cups of cold water
Extra flour for kneading
1/4 cup of soy milk

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the yeast and warm water until the yeast is dissolved. Create a well in the center of the dough, almost all the way to the bottom of the bowl, and pour in the dissolved yeast. Mix in just enough of the surrounding flour to create a pudding-like texture. At this point, many recipes will tell you to let this rest for ten or twenty minutes and see if it develops a frothy mix. This is to check the freshness of the yeast; however, if you know your yeast is fresh, go ahead with the next step. Add a cup of cold water into the well, and mix in some of the surrounding flour. Add the last cup of cold water and mix in the rest of the flour. On a floured surface, scoop out the dough, and sprinkle some flour on top. Knead for ten minutes, adding just a little bit of flour if the dough gets sticky. Wash out your bowl, and put the dough in it. Cover with a damp dish towel and let rise until doubled in size, about two hours. Punch down the dough in several spots to get out the air bubbles - you can flour your fist if your sticking to the dough. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Tear off clumps of dough about half the size of what you want your roll to be, and tuck the ends under. See photos above. Place each roll on cookie sheet, with tucked side on the bottom, cover with a damp dish towel, and let rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes. They will continue to "grow" when baking, so don't worry if they're not exactly double in size. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put the soy milk in a small bowl, and with a basting brush, brush a bit of soy milk over the top of each roll. Bake for 20 minutes. If some milk dribbles on the baking sheet, it will turn brown; that's okay, nothing is burned. Cool individual rolls on cooling rack. Makes between two and three and a half dozen rolls, depending on how big you make your initial balls of dough. You can freeze them and thaw later for a quick reheat in the oven. I heat them in the oven for ten minutes at 350 degrees. So good straight from the oven! Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.