Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Yeast Bread, Part 1; Parker House Style Rolls

     Have you ever heard of Sister Schubert? As in the Sister Schubert's rolls you can buy in the freezer section of your grocery store. Well, if you do not know what I am talking about please do yourself and your loved ones a favor and buy a pan of her rolls to serve with dinner one night. They will change your life. Most of you probably know about her rolls, but did you know she is a real person? I am not kidding! Her face on those packages of rolls is not just another ploy to make a product more personable and marketable. She is real, and I have met her! My mom and I went to a ladies luncheon where she spoke and did a little cooking demonstration. We also bought her cookbook-- and got them autographed by Sister herself! Not only is she one of the nicest, and most down-to-earth people you will ever meet (I mean, hello? She is from Alabama, and women from there are just fabulous!), she is an amazing cook, a woman of God, and has an incredible story. In her cookbook she shares a lot about her family, her life, her company, and her ministry. She also shares her secret to making her famous Parker House Style Yeast Rolls. And as if that isn't enough to make you want to buy the cookbook right this second, her cookbook is filled to the brim with fantastic recipes (more than just bread recipes!) and mouth watering pictures. I thought I outgrew picture books a long time ago but this cookbook changed all that! I would definitely recommend this cookbook. It would make a great Christmas present-- or an "I love myself" present. Here is the link to Sister's cookbook so you can see it for yourself, and purchase it if you like:


    

     Ever since I got the cookbook I have been itching to make her famous Parker House Style Rolls and her Cinnamon Rolls. However, my experience with yeast bread in the past has been hit or miss so I was a little scared of trying my hand at it this time. But, Sister has a whole section of her cookbook dedicated to technique and tips on making good yeast bread and after I read it I was confident I could do this! So I gathered my ingredients for the rolls and cinnamon rolls and set to work!
     The rolls and cinnamon rolls have the typical ingredients of any other yeast bread: flour, yeast, water, salt, etc. However, because of copyright laws I cannot tell you exactly what went in these. Hey! I don't make the rules. I just follow them! So you can do one of two things: 1) buy Sister's cookbook and you can have the secret to her rolls like me, or 2) go buy a pan of her frozen rolls, heat them up, rub flour on your face/hands/elbows/what-have-you and just tell your family you made them. Sister won't care.

Here is what I did to make make these awesome rolls (the cinnamon rolls will follow in my next post):


Pour your yeast into warm water and allow it to sit for a few minutes.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, and salt.


Melt butter flavored shortening and allow it to cool slightly. You don't want it to be too hot and kill the yeast.

Get ready to combine the flour mixture, water/yeast mixture, and shortening.

Pour them all into a large bowl...

and stir to combine.

Finally add in a little more flour and some eggs...

and stir till incorporated.

Brush the dough with butter...

cover with a damp tea towel...


and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk. I let mine rise in the laundry room while I was washing clothes. The environment was warm, and moist-- which is perfect for yeast dough.
Yep! I'd say that's doubled!

So I told you the cinnamon rolls would come in my next post, right? Well, one of the beautiful things about Sister's cookbook is that she gives you one great recipe (the yeast roll dough recipe) and it can be turned into dozens of different things! (The cookbook gives you tons of fabulous and different recipes, I just mean her famous roll recipe can be used for dozens of different things-- not that she just gives you one recipe. Make sense?) So I chose to use half of this batch of dough for the rolls, and half for the cinnamon rolls. Here is me halving the dough... I'll show you what I did with the other half tomorrow. But for now, on with the rolls!

Generously flour a clean surface...

grab your handy-dandy biscuit cutter-- or in my case a Scooby-Doo cup. Hey-- it works!

Turn your dough out onto the floured surface.

Roll the dough to desired thickness...

and cut out rounds. You'll want to have two 9-inch round pans greased and ready to go.

Take each dough round...

slap some melted butter on it...

fold it in half, and place it in the pan.


All mine are done!

Mmm... butter.

I can already tell I'm going to make myself sick off of these.

Allow them to rise one more time until doubled in bulk.

Bake until golden brown and delicious!

I mean just look how perfect. You can bet I froze this one pan for Thanksgiving! Talk about impressing the family.

But the other pan...

yeah, they didn't last very long.



Stay tuned for tomorrow's post! Cinnamon Rolls! 
Oh yeah... and this other little thing happened in my life recently: I GOT A FANTABULOUS AMAZING FIRST JOB! I am going to dedicate another post just to that so be looking for it, too!

Have a great Wednesday everybody! Love ya!

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