Make-ahead Bread Rolls

I am grateful that in the past decade, I have never had to cook the Thanksgiving meal, thanks to the hopsitality of my friends who have always slaved in the kitchen cooking up a sumptious feast with home-made everything - from Turkey to the cranberry sauce to sides and pie.

Whereas, I walk in with something store bought. No shame in that though I do feel like the least I can do is to attempt something home-made.

So this year, in the spirit of taking baby steps -- here's my lowly contribution to the Thanksgiving table - home-made, make-ahead dinner rolls!

Tremendously easy - that is, if you have a dough hook or bread machine. By the way, the Kitchenaid mixer is the best investment I made in my effort to learn how to bake ... I've baked more in the past 2 years, than I've ever done in the past few decades (don't want to give out my age here :-)).

This is an easy recipe for the holiday feasts or just everyday dining! 

Recipe for Make-ahead Bread Rolls ( Source: Followed this recipe)

Ingredients:

(A) Bread rolls
1 cup milk (110 deg F.)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
3 tsp instant yeast

(B) Egg glaze
1 egg
1 tsp water

Method:

1. Put all ingredients in (A) in the stand mixer with a dough hook, until a soft dough forms.
2. Let dough rest infor 10 minutes.
3. Grease your baking pan(s) or cake tins.
4. Divide dough into even balls - best way to make sure they are even is to weigh them:

• 2 oz (for small rolls) or
• 3 oz (for big rolls).

Let it rise for about 1.5 hours in a warm place, and it will look like this:

At this point, you have a few options:

Option 1:  Bake immediately
- Pre-heat oven to 375 deg F.
- Place rolls evenly on baking pan.
- Apply egg glaze on rolls 
- I also melted some butter and brushed it on top.
- Bake for about 25 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Option 2:  Refrigerate and bake
- Cover with oiled plastic wrap and put in fridge overnight.
- The next day, follow the steps in Option 1.

Option 3: Freeze and bake
- Cover with oiled plastic wrap and put in freezer.
- Once frozen, you can remove and put in plastic freezer bags.
- To bake, place rolls on greased baking pans and let it thaw until room temperature.
- Once thawed, follow the steps in Option 1.

Makes about 22 rolls (2 oz each)

Finally, for a bit of a variation, I decided to make some herb rolls using the same dough above, after coming across a recipe for Buttered Rosemary Rolls from the amazing Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  No rosemary on hand, so dill will have to do.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

There's nothing like home-made cookies, freshly baked from the oven.

I'm not much of a cookie fan, but one day, I had a box of raisins and Quaker Oats sitting side by side in my kitchen, and decided that they were meant to be together. Turns out it's a match made in heaven - chewy cookies with the crunch of oatmeal, coupled with the softness of the raisin.

I followed this recipe from the fabulous Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, or 115 grams) butter, softened

2/3 cup (125 grams) light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 cups (120 grams) rolled oats

3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins

1/2 cup walnuts (65 grams), chopped (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.
3. At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.
4. The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Makes about 24-26 cookies

My comments:

• I chilled the cookie dough because I prefer my cookies to be thicker.
• I also used a tablespoon to scoop each cookie for consistency.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Can you bake a cake without butter and milk that is still moist and delicious?

Yes you can!

This Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe (adapted from House of Annie's recipe) calls for corn oil instead of butter and coconut milk and lots of eggs, and produces a fluffy, light and moist cake that goes so well with afternoon tea.

My all-time favorite cake which transports me back to my childhood in Singapore ... ahh, sweet nostalgia!

Ingredients:

(A)
150g bleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

(B)
8 egg yolks
140 g baking sugar

(C)

150 ml coconut cream/milk

3 Tbsp corn oil (or vegetable oil)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp pandan paste

(D)

10 egg white

60 g baking sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

Equipment:

• Kitchenaid Mixer (unless you want to develop strong biceps whisking all 10 egg whites to stiff peaks!)
• Chiffon cake pan

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg C. (175 F).
2. Sift flour and baking powder (A).
3. Cream egg yolks and 140g sugar (B) until it is creamy and thick.
4. Add in sifted flour and baking powder, and all ingredients in (C) above into the egg yolk mixture and mix well.
5. In separate bowl, whisk egg whites starting on slow and gradually increasing speed.
6. When egg whites are whisked to soft peaks, add the remaining 60g sugar, cream of tartar and a pinch of salt (remainder of (D)). Continue to whisk until stiff peaks form.
7. Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture gradually and pour into an ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake 45-65 mins, or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean.
8. When cake is baked, invert it immediately and cool down for 2-3 hours before removing.   

Notes:

This is a lovely cake but can be a beast to master. My one takeaway is to be patient and not unmould the cake when hot!You'd do well to read through these 2 blog posts from the experts before you start. 

• How to make Pandan Chiffon Cake (ieatishootipost)
• Chiffon Cake Tricks (House of Annie)

Banana Nut Bread

This is a pretty fail-proof recipe which I adapted from this website.

Ingredients:

1 stick (4 0z) butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (substitute: add 1 teaspoon vinegar in 1 cup whole milk)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
11/4 cup mashed bananas (3-4 ripe (blackened) bananas)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease and flour two 8"x4" loaf tins.
3. Cream butter and sugar well, about 5 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
5. Sift dry ingredients.
6. Add 1/3 of dry mixture then 1/3 of milk. Repeat until dry mixture is mixed well with milk.
7. Stir in mashed bananas, chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.
8. Pour into greased loaf tins.
9. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 55-60 minutes.

Makes 2 loaves.