Potato Rolls

As I mentioned yesterday, this is supposed to be the post about 10 things that have changed in my 10 years of running. I'm almost done with that one. Tomorrow, for sure. Tonight? Potato rolls.

But first: You should see my desktop. Having a baby isn't my excuse for for everything. Especially not my shoddy filing system. I do regular photo dumps onto my desktop, yes -- always my desktop, and have absolutely no organization system in place.

Look! It's embarrassing. (Equally embarrassing: That is a photo of Win Butler as my computer background. Not Ada or Stephen. Win Butler.)


I name my folders random things that pop into my head because I usually dump photos of all different topics into one folder (Ada, dinners, outdoor shots, house things, family, etc.). A folder with images of all sorts might get a title of something inane like: "Boogie" simply because Stephen may have said it to Ada while I was transferring.

You know. Making it nearly impossible to find stuff when I need to. Ada isn't my excuse, but I'd say that things got 10,000 times worse when she got here. I think I take a million photos of her each month.

Anyway, it's clear I need to get better at organization as it relates to the blog. A couple weeks ago I promised I'd be posting some recipes (I mentioned them in passing in photos) and I never got around to it. Here's just one of them!


MASHED POTATO ROLLS

What you'll need . . .

• 1-1/2 to 2 cups mashed potatoes (see notes below***)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt (if you don't have any in your mashed potatoes -- otherwise, omit)
• 1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water

***NOTE: If you already have mashed potatoes (or other puree, like pumpkin) on hand, you can use it. Otherwise make mashed potatoes for this recipe. I actually peeled and cubed mine, then put them in a large, shallow baking dish, poured a 12-ounce beer over top of them, salt, pepper, and olive oil, too. And let roast until soft. Then mashed. Delish.


Method . . .

1. Combine the 1 cup of warm water with the yeast and let sit for five minutes. Until frothy. 
2. Pour your flour and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (You can do it by hand, too -- but I've been lazy lately.) Then pour in your yeast mixture, maple syrup, mashed potatoes, olive oil, and flax mixture. Mix well -- adding more flour or mashed potatoes as necessary.
3. Then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. 
4. Spritz some olive oil in your original mixing bowl, return the dough ball to it, and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour. 
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spritz a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside. 
6. Atop a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 12 to 16 large portions, depending on how large you want your rolls. Alternatively, you may freeze some of the dough for use at a later time. 
7. Take each piece of dough and shape it into a round, tucking under the excess to make the roll appear more roll-like (I can't think of a better way to describe it. Look at the first photo of this post!). 
8. Then bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. 
9. Rolls are done when they are lightly browned. You can also cut into one to see if it's still too moist/dense. 
10. Let cool before slicing/serving.

You can eat these rolls on their own. But we used ours for tofu burgers. Sort of the same setup as when we made this Open-Faced Asparagus-Tofu Sandwich. Just burger-ized and slapped together with some Vegenaise (a big splurge for us), basil, ketchup, and mustard.


SITE UPDATES: The banner is back by popular demand. The sliding features option is gone. The "read more" is gone for good. And I think we're getting better. I do have goals to make a new banner this summer to reflect more current times. But I can't do everything at once as much as I'd like to.

PS: Today on Writing Chapter Three I share my first real victory as a new mom. And it wasn't facilitated by anything I read in books, blogs, or other websites. Nor was it advice from friends or family. Score one for the home team!

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Pumpkin Dinner Rolls and Change

You may have noticed that the Banumpkin Bread recipe only calls for a 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree. What did we do with the rest of it? What we usually do, of course: We made bread! Dinner rolls, actually.

Are you getting sick of pumpkin yet? Well, you shouldn't. Not only is the orange stuff a popular fall ingredient. It's also packed with vitamin A, antioxidant carotenoids (like alpha and beta-carotenes), vitamins C, K, and E, and lots of minerals, including magnesium, potassium, and iron. (Source)

You can use pumpkin as a healthy substitute for oil and butter in recipes (like we did with the Banumpkin Bread). In this recipe, we used it to replace almond milk. (You'll see which recipe we switched up below.) Basically: Most anything wet in your recipes -- for cooking AND baking -- can be swapped with pumpkin puree. I haven't had any kitchen catastrophes (yet) using this philosophy.

And if you'd like to make your own puree, just follow these instructions!


PUMPKIN DINNER ROLLS

What you'll need . . .

• 1 cup white bread flour
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (wrist-temperature)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 to 3 tablespoons soy milk

Method . . .

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yeast and 1/4 cup of warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes (until frothy).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the white bread flour and 1-1/2 cups of the whole wheat, and the salt.
3. In your yeast mixture, whisk in the maple syrup and pumpkin puree. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix using the paddle attachment. If the dough seems a bit too dry, add in -- 1 tablespoon at a time -- the soy (or almond/regular/etc.) milk. The dough should be smooth and elastic.
4. Then, drip a bit of olive oil into the bowl (hardly any -- just enough for a light, light coat, use a spray oil if you have one) and cover with some plastic wrap and let puff in a warm place for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
6. When the dough is puffed, divide dough into 8 balls and flatten with the palm of your hand a bit.
7. Place the rounds onto the baking sheet. They don't need much room to puff.
8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Until the rolls are golden brown.

Do these rolls look familiar? They should.

See it now?


This recipe is a creative spin on the quick-to-rise Wasabi Dinner Rolls we posted last week. It was as easy as taking out the wasabi powder and replacing the milk with -- that's right! -- pumpkin puree.

So, you may be getting sick of pumpkin. But I'm not. I want to stretch fall out for as long as possible.

Two years ago today, I cut off all my hair. It was super-duper short. And I hated it!


Stephen found some fossils on a hike . . .



And it was much prettier than it is today (most of the leaves are already fading/gone . . . and it's raining!)


Back to the hair thing: Whenever the seasons change, I always feel this need to change something about myself or my surroundings. Usually it's my hair. Sometimes I feel like I want need to change my entire wardrobe. Until we bought our house, I had often changed apartments in the fall, too.

It can all be rather exhausting and irritating, the urges I have. In fact, right now I'm trying my best to keep myself away from scissors. Ahh! I think I may dye my hair to calm myself instead. Though, I think this year's itch was scratched by overhauling our first floor layout. I hope, at least!

Do the seasons have a weird effect on you? Though I know many of you live in warmer climates, I'm thinking you notice a difference in the weather a bit, too, right? I've love to know if I'm not the only one. :) Just leave a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Wasabi Dinner Rolls: No Waiting

If there's one thing I hate about baking bread or rolls, etc. -- it's waiting for the darn stuff to rise. No-knead breads are the worst. Sigh, but they're also the best. But, 18 to 24 hours is just too much for this impatient girl to wait (and plan ahead during the work week).

So, there are nights when we're bread-less and I feel rather hopeless and hungry.

See, we don't love store-bought bread unless it's from the bakery section. And if we buy from the bakery every time, it's not only expensive, but the loaves stay good for only a short period of time. Usually, this means I eat half a gigantic loaf of bread in a day. There. I said it.


I know. Freeze it and get over it. But I'd rather make fresh when possible. So, last night when I wanted to add a side of bread to my dinner, I whipped up these easy wasabi dinner rolls. And I didn't wait for them to rise very long, just to see what might happen.

Without all the waiting . . . OK. With only minimal waiting to the tune of 20 minutes. (In other words: An episode of The Office.) The rolls still turned out beautifully. They blew my mind, really. Perhaps the texture may have been slightly fluffier had I waited another hour (so, if you have the time -- by all means, wait it you want to). For a quick fix? They were beyond my expectations.


WASABI DINNER ROLLS

What you'll need . . .

• 1 cup white bread flour
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon wasabi powder
• 1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (wrist-temperature)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 cup almond milk
• Sesame seeds

Method . . .

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yeast and 1/4 cup of warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes (until frothy).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the white bread flour and 1-1/4 cups of the whole wheat, the salt, and wasabi powder. You'll want to hold on to that half 1/4 cup and only use as-needed once the wet ingredients are mixed in.
3. In your yeast mixture, mix in the maple syrup and almond milk. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix using the paddle attachment. The dough will likely be sticky, so add in the whole wheat flour as necessary (tablespoon at a time) until you get a nice, elastic round.
4. Then, drip a bit of olive oil into the bowl (hardly any -- just enough for a light, light coat, use a spray oil if you have one) and cover with some plastic wrap and let puff in a warm place for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
6. When the dough is puffed, transfer from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Toll into a 2 ft-ish long log. Flatten slightly with your palms, then cut with a knife in a zig-zag pattern to create 8 to 10 triangles.
7. Place the triangles onto the baking sheet, moisten with a bit of water (just a pinch) and then sprinkle on some sesame seeds. This part is optional.
8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Until the rolls are golden brown. Marvel at your creation.

What's up with using wasabi powder in bread? Well, it isn't a critical ingredient. So, if it freaks you out, leave it out. I thought it would be interesting to taste how the flavor would work in bread. With my soup (we'll share the recipe on Monday) -- which, by the way, is a sort of East-meets-West corn chowder -- I didn't notice the flavor incredibly much. Just a slight note of it.

But when I toasted a roll for breakfast this morning and topped with some homemade chocolate-coconut peanut butter and jam, they flavor was much more pronounced. Either it takes time for the wasabi to bloom . . . or mixing it with peanut butter is just strange.

Whatever. It was still a great breakfast!


What are you doing this weekend? Any fun plans? Or are you just relaxing? We're going to get dinner out tonight and order our dishwasher (YAY). Tomorrow, we're having lunch with my grandparents, checking out the race expo, and hitting the hay REALLY early. Sunday -- of course -- we're running our race. Of course, we'll be thinking of all of you :)

I can't wait to be done because I've also taken Monday off. Hooray for 3-day weekends! Enjoy!

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

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