Bacon Rounds

We're back home! A little rougher around the edges, a lot happier after a bunch of coconuts, some amazing tacos, and some quality time at the greatest wedding I've been to in ages, and happy to be done with long plane rides for awhile. But we had an amazing time, first at the wedding in California and then in Tulum, Mexico, where we ate a lot of shrimp, swam in the sea in the shadows of Mayan ruins, and generally relaxed after a long and stressful few weeks of work leading up to our holiday.

And since we both stayed up all night on the plane ride home and thus slept for fourteen hours on Saturday night, I really thought I might have escaped the jetlag unscathed... but then the week rolled around, and for the last two nights, I've been awake from 2am until 5:30am, just laying in bed and wishing I could start my day. Then at 7am when my day ACTUALLY starts, I can barely hold my eyes open (I'm yawning as I write this).

Do you know what helps with jetlag? Breakfast. (No, seriously.) Eating real food-- something besides just coffee-- helps reset your body clock and get you back on schedule, so I've been relying on these bacon rolls to do the job for me. They may not be the same thing a Scot thinks of when he thinks of a bacon roll, but they're pretty tasty, and they pair amazingly well with raw salted butter.* (Also, if you promise not to tell anyone, they also taste pretty great with a thin smear of apricot preserves. Try it, no one is going to judge!).

These rolls may not be the classiest breakfast (or the healthiest one), but they make a nice change from the 'lukewarm cup of instant coffee at the office' trend that I find it really easy to fall into, and because they're so easy to grab on your way out the door, you don't even have to wait for a weekend to take advantage of them. Bonus: they keep really well, so you can take one to work every day all week and they'll taste just as warm and fluffy on Friday as they do on Monday. If you can find two 1-pound ovensafe coffee cans, this recipe should technically be made as two small loavess in those cans. Coffee cans that I found are all either cardboard or painted, and either way I couldn't put them in the oven, so I just popped these into a standard muffin tin and got exactly 12 rolls out of the recipe.

Finally, let's just note that the bottom of this recipe pamphlet, which I'm pretty sure was a freebie that came with a bag of flour or a packet of yeast, includes an ad for silverware if you mail in coupons, along with a coupon for 5 cents off a tub of margarine. Ew.

*Bacon rolls are as close as you can get to a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit in the US, but they only include bacon-- no egg, no cheese, and they're served on a roll that has kind of the texture of ciabatta, and they're topped with brown sauce, which is like a sweeter version of A1. I'm pretty indifferent to them because of the lack of cheese, but also because, I mean, if you're going to have a breakfast in Britain, wouldn't you rather have a cream scone? I know I would.

The verdict:

3 out of 5. They're delicious, but I'll always prefer a biscuit or a scone when it comes to breakfast food.

The recipe:

Bacon Rounds

the directions:

Grease 12 muffin cups.
In large bowl, dissolve yeast in hot water.
Add 1 1/3 c flour and all remaining ingredients.
Stir until only pea-sized lumps remain, about 15 seconds or so.
Stir in remaining flour thoroughly, scraping sides of bowl until mixture is almost smooth (as my mom taught me, you want a few lumps to remain or the rolls won't rise).
Batter will be very sticky, so avoid going at it with your hands; instead, use a large spoon to scoop heaping spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, then smooth out the tops of each portion.
Let rise in warm place (aka anywhere in my apartment this time of year) for 50 minutes.
Batter will rise slightly but not double.
Heat oven to 176C/350F, then bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.
Immediately remove from pan and serve warm, if possible.

If saving for later, reheat with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt, and a tiny spoonful of jam if you're feeling daring.

the ingredients:

4 ½ tsp yeast
¼ c water, very warm
2 1/3 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp soda
1 c sour cream
1 egg
½ c lardons, fried until crisp and then drained on a paper towel

Single-Rise Rolls

Have you ever noticed how sometimes when you're stressed, the simple act of doing something repetitive and easy can be the best possible therapy, even if it makes you slow down in your productivity?

For me, making these rolls was that therapy yesterday. We're having a great summer over here, but it's a busy one: guests coming to visit, projects to finish, a busy season for both of us at work, an impending holiday in California and Mexico, and Scottish sunshine that just begs us to go outside and spend time in it. After a busy weekend that was full of Checking Things Off My List, Sunday night seemed as good a time as any to stock up on some easy breakfast rolls for the week... and the fact that this is basically just a new rendition of these recipes made me sure I could succeed, even if my mind was elsewhere. Because seriously, is there anything more soothing than the smell of bread baking in your own kitchen? (Ok, ok, maybe laying on the beach with a coconut drink in hand, but I can't do that for another few weeks, so for now, it's baking bread in my Scottish kitchen while I listen to the rain fall).

The best part? Not only did I cross another recipe off the list, but I also ended up with breakfast for the week-- for me AND Judson! And on a week that requires all of my concentration just to keep my head above water, anything that makes my day easier is a win in my book. Paired with apricot jam (my current favourite) and a warm slather of salted Irish butter, these rolls are the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee or tea, and because they're made in a muffin tin, you don't even have to worry about slicing them up. Like I said, this week in my house, we are all about convenience.

This is a Betty Crocker recipe that comes from a wee pamphlet with a half-dozen versions on it, but I'm not complaining about the lack of originality-- it's kind of nice making something that I know how to do for a change (unlike the total unknowns I seem to fall into often in this project). And even if you aren't experienced with bread or yeasted doughs, this is still an easy one. Plus, you don't even need a mixer or a muffin tin to do this recipe right. The dough mixes easily by hand, and the rolls could just as well be dolloped onto a cookie sheet instead of into a muffin tin. And when it's summer in a flat with no air conditioning, the 50-minute rise time flies by, so seriously, why are you not in the kitchen yet?

These rolls will impress you with their simplicity, and since they don't last long (no preservatives in homemade goodies!), you'll be happy you ate an innumerable amount on the day you made them. But if a dozen rolls is too much for you (are we even friends?), it's an easy recipe to cut in half-- just scramble the egg lightly and scoop out two tablespoons of it to divide it in half.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. These rolls are delicious, easy, and cheap. You probably already have nearly all of the ingredients in your pantry. But I'm knocking off a spoon because the dough is really sticky and hard to handle, so if you're not careful, it's easy to add too much flour and render them pretty dry.

The Recipe:

Single-Rise Rolls

The directions:

Grease 12 muffin cups.
In large bowl, dissolve yeast in hot water.
Add 1 1/3 c flour and all remaining ingredients.
Stir until only pea-sized lumps remain, about 15 seconds or so.
Stir in remaining flour thoroughly, scraping sides of bowl until mixture is almost smooth (as my mom taught me, you want a few lumps to remain or the rolls won't rise).
Batter will be very sticky, so avoid going at it with your hands; instead, use a large spoon to scoop heaping spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, then smooth out the tops of each portion.
Let rise in warm place (aka anywhere in my apartment) for 50 minutes.
Batter will rise slightly but not double.
Heat oven to 176C/350F, then bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.
Immediately remove from pan and serve warm.

the ingredients:

2 ¼ tbsp active dry yeast
¼ c hottest tap water
2 1/3 c flour, divided
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1 c sour cream*
1 egg

 

*The recipe actually calls for 'dairy sour cream,' as if there were any other kind. But the more I think about it, the more I want to know if there is another kind, because if so, gross.

Butterscotch Coffee Rounds

First of all: I AM ABOUT TO SHARE WITH YOU A RECIPE FOR BREAKFAST FOOD SOAKED IN BUTTER.

Ok, now that we're clear on that, here's the back story. When my parents were first married, long before I was born, they lived in South Georgia while my dad finished his undergrad degree. For awhile, they lived with my great-great-Aunt Gladys, in a wee farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It was their time living near her that taught my mom to like tomatoes (warm and fresh from the vine), asparagus, and probably a lot of other Georgia produce.

By the time I was born, Aunt Gladys was quite old (she was, remember, my grandmother's aunt), but we would go up to Georgia to visit her every year or so. Whenever we went, she would set me loose in her yard with a pecan picker-- basically a tiny cage on a stick that you could use to pick up the pecans that fell from the trees without bending over. Her home was shrouded with pecan trees that I remember being taller than an office building, and in the fall the ground underneath them would be thick with nuts. I'd gather shoeboxes full of pecans-- paint buckets full!-- and we'd eat them for snacks all year round, give them as Christmas gifts, and bake all kinds of delicious things with them. (One time, in a story I'm not sure we ever told her, my brother and I were so hungry for pecans while my mom was at the store that we couldn't wait for her to come home and tell us where the nut cracker was, so we spent the afternoon on the kitchen linoleum, shattering pecans with my brother's baseball and gathering up the shell remnants to avoid getting caught.)

Ever since then, in the many years I lived in Georgia, I could never drive past a rural general store promising 'papershell' pecans. I've been duped into buying my fair share of (probably imported) mediocre pecans at exorbitant prices, but I've never tasted pecans as good as the ones that grew on Aunt Gladys' trees.

Gladys probably never knew Eleanor well (linked, as they were, only through Gladys' great-nephew and Eleanor's daughter), but I think that based on the number of recipes featuring incredibly Southern ingredients I've found in the box, it's a safe bet that they probably had a fair amount of overlap in their cooking repertoires-- at least when it comes to desserts.

Now, as I mentioned, these breakfast rolls are soaked in butter, studded with pecans, and coated in a sticky brown sugar glaze. Not sold yet? How about this: it's a one-bowl recipe and you don't even have to use a mixer. You can even make these on a weeknight (I did) and still be in bed by the time the sun sets at 11:30pm.

If you have Georgia pecans, they'll be even better, but don't let it stop you if not: these are decadent and heavenly, and so worth making as a reward for your coworkers for making it through another week of madness. There's nothing particularly 'butterscotch' about them, but they pair great with coffee (or tea!) and I can personally vouch that they are just as good the second day as they were the first.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. Seriously, make these. They taste as good as cinnamon rolls but they're a fraction of the work. These are definitely a luxury breakfast-- not the kind of thing you eat every day, but that makes them even more special when you do make them. Make these and everyone in your house will be grateful.

The recipe:

Pecan Breakfast Rolls

the directions:

Dissolve yeast in hot water.
Add 1 1/3 c flour, sugar, salt, soda, sour cream, and egg.
Mix thoroughly until fairly smooth, but do not overmix.
Stir in remaining flour, mixing until smooth and scraping sides of bowl frequently.
Melt 1/8 c of butter in each of two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans.
Sprinkle brown sugar and pecans evenly over melted butter in each cake pan.
Drop batter in tablespoons evenly over mixture in pans.
Let rise in a warm place for 50 minutes (batter will not rise much).
Preheat oven to 176C/350F.
Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Immediately invert pans onto serving plates then let pans remain a minute so butter drizzles over coffee cakes.
Serve warm, if possible.

Yields 12 rolls.

the ingredients:

1 pkg yeast
¼ c tap water, very hot
2 1/3 c flour, divided
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
1 c sour cream
1 egg
¼ c butter, divided
¼ c brown sugar, packed & divided
¼ c pecan halves, divided