Belated Dinner Party
Here's an old post from our 2012 Halloween dinner party...
After making a list like this - pumpkin bread, apple sharlotka, dinner rolls, cinnamon breakfast puffs, blossom's brownies, mexican wedding cookies, chicken enchiladas, banana bread - I realized that perhaps I was trying to cram too many things into one post. After all, this blog is primarily a way for me to organize and remember the recipes that I like, so I can return to them later with visual aids and notes and without all the fuss of looking up recipes all over the internet and in fifteen different cookbooks. It is my version of my mom's huge binder of recipes compiled over the course of a lifetime.
Our pre-Halloween costume dinner party that I planned with my friends, including food and invitations (though we conveniently forgot to hand them out), had more than enough new food to be going on with. We invited our families to the extravaganza, and experimented like no other. I usually stick to making one or two new things and a few classics, but the party was an excuse to make everything I had been eyeing for a while.
I honestly still have no idea how we got everything into and out of the oven within ten minutes of dinner, but somehow we timed it all perfectly so each recipe could cook to completion without disturbing the cook times and temperatures of any of the others.
Anyway, we started with pumpkin bread, then moved on to apple sharlotka (oh yeah, another smitten kitchen recipe, how did you guess?) and dinner rolls. The sharlotka was delicious, but had the weirdest texture of any dessert I have ever eaten. The batter is mostly whipped eggs with sugar that fills in the cracks between the apples, so it is kind of custardy with tart apple chunks and a crisp top. The pumpkin bread took twice as long to bake as the recipe called for, and was still a little soft in the middle. The flavor was good, but making them as muffins turns out to be a much better plan.
I may have mentioned that the twins come from a family famous for their bread-baking prowess. My first attempt with one of the twins at anything yeast-related was in high school, and it was an unqualified disaster. Somehow we killed the yeast, and ended up scratching the whole soft pretzel project and making fudge instead. Both of us have improved since our high school experimentation, and the party was a complete success. We whipped up some homemade rolls and popped them in the oven while we started on more dessert preparation. While periodically checking on the pumpkin bread, we made another smitten kitchen delicacy - cinnamon breakfast puffs.
My other friend is really one who should stay out of the kitchen unless the recipe calls for an artist, but we let her smother the puffs in cinnamon-sugar after a dunk in some melted butter. Soup was provided by my mother, and salad by the twins' family. Everyone arrived fully costumed (I guess we were all searching for something - three Waldos, Carmen San Diego and Dr. Who were all in attendance) and ready to eat, and we sat down to a delicious meal.
Of the many recipes we used that night, the desserts are on smitten kitchen - cinnamon breakfast puffs and apple sharlotka. Soup is soup is soup, and there's really no need to put up a recipe. Add the vegetables and herbs you like to chicken or vegetable stock, add some tortellini and salt and maybe some meat if you want, and you're good to go. The pumpkin bread is one I tweaked and posted after making it into muffins (much more fluffy and successful than the bread), so I will share the easy recipe for dinner rolls and nothing more.
Dinner Rolls
A recipe from my good friend Kara
1 1/4 cups warm milk
10 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or rapid rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Whisk milk, 8 tablespoons butter and egg together in medium bowl. Mix 4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a stand mixer with a dough hook. With mixer on low, add milk mixture until dough comes together, about one minute.
Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding flour if needed after 5 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but stick to the bottom.
Turn dough out on a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth round ball. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
Divide the dough into 24 smooth round balls. Space the balls evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (we may have missed this step - they still turned out delicious) and cover again loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (they should touch slightly) and dough springs back when pushed, 30-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush rolls with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve with dinner (or sneak a few with butter and jam before dinner and hope no one is looking for the last few when they disappear like lightning as soon as everyone sits down to eat).
After making a list like this - pumpkin bread, apple sharlotka, dinner rolls, cinnamon breakfast puffs, blossom's brownies, mexican wedding cookies, chicken enchiladas, banana bread - I realized that perhaps I was trying to cram too many things into one post. After all, this blog is primarily a way for me to organize and remember the recipes that I like, so I can return to them later with visual aids and notes and without all the fuss of looking up recipes all over the internet and in fifteen different cookbooks. It is my version of my mom's huge binder of recipes compiled over the course of a lifetime.
Our pre-Halloween costume dinner party that I planned with my friends, including food and invitations (though we conveniently forgot to hand them out), had more than enough new food to be going on with. We invited our families to the extravaganza, and experimented like no other. I usually stick to making one or two new things and a few classics, but the party was an excuse to make everything I had been eyeing for a while.
I honestly still have no idea how we got everything into and out of the oven within ten minutes of dinner, but somehow we timed it all perfectly so each recipe could cook to completion without disturbing the cook times and temperatures of any of the others.
Anyway, we started with pumpkin bread, then moved on to apple sharlotka (oh yeah, another smitten kitchen recipe, how did you guess?) and dinner rolls. The sharlotka was delicious, but had the weirdest texture of any dessert I have ever eaten. The batter is mostly whipped eggs with sugar that fills in the cracks between the apples, so it is kind of custardy with tart apple chunks and a crisp top. The pumpkin bread took twice as long to bake as the recipe called for, and was still a little soft in the middle. The flavor was good, but making them as muffins turns out to be a much better plan.
My other friend is really one who should stay out of the kitchen unless the recipe calls for an artist, but we let her smother the puffs in cinnamon-sugar after a dunk in some melted butter. Soup was provided by my mother, and salad by the twins' family. Everyone arrived fully costumed (I guess we were all searching for something - three Waldos, Carmen San Diego and Dr. Who were all in attendance) and ready to eat, and we sat down to a delicious meal.
Of the many recipes we used that night, the desserts are on smitten kitchen - cinnamon breakfast puffs and apple sharlotka. Soup is soup is soup, and there's really no need to put up a recipe. Add the vegetables and herbs you like to chicken or vegetable stock, add some tortellini and salt and maybe some meat if you want, and you're good to go. The pumpkin bread is one I tweaked and posted after making it into muffins (much more fluffy and successful than the bread), so I will share the easy recipe for dinner rolls and nothing more.
Dinner Rolls
A recipe from my good friend Kara
1 1/4 cups warm milk
10 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or rapid rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Whisk milk, 8 tablespoons butter and egg together in medium bowl. Mix 4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a stand mixer with a dough hook. With mixer on low, add milk mixture until dough comes together, about one minute.
Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding flour if needed after 5 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but stick to the bottom.
Turn dough out on a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth round ball. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
Divide the dough into 24 smooth round balls. Space the balls evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (we may have missed this step - they still turned out delicious) and cover again loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (they should touch slightly) and dough springs back when pushed, 30-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush rolls with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve with dinner (or sneak a few with butter and jam before dinner and hope no one is looking for the last few when they disappear like lightning as soon as everyone sits down to eat).
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