Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Dear Spiders,

I realize we are in spider season in the PNW.

As per our Spider/Human Treaty of 1997, you are allowed as many spiders as you wish outside of the house, as long as you do not web my face.

However, you are limited to one spider, no larger than a dime, inside the house. I have now seen five spiders, and they were really big, in the house.

Please retreat to the treaty boundaries and quantities, or risk summary eviction.

--Jenn

This Week's Bread: School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls (Third Try's the Charm)

I finally nailed down what I was getting wrong and it was a lot:

Scaling down to 15g carbs per roll was too small, and left me with yeast pebbles.

I've been activating my yeast in 95 degree water. That's great for some yeast, but I'm using Active Dry Yeast. I didn't realize there was a difference and that active dry yeast needed to be activated at 105 degrees. And boy did it activate. Hopefully this will translate to my constantly dense struan bread.

Finally, I let the dough rise in a warm oven each time and oh, boy, did it rise.

But finally, school cafeteria rolls like I remember!

# School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls

Plain Chicken
24 rolls

2.5 Tbsp yeast
0.75 cup warm water
6.5 cups bread flour
11.0 Tbsp instant non-fat dry milk powder
6.5 Tbsp sugar
1.0 Tbsp salt
6.5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1.25 cups water

1 - In a small bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Set aside.
2 - In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, and dry milk powder.
3 - Add vegetable oil and water. Mix on low for 3 minutes.
4 - Add yeast mixture and knead on medium speed for 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5 - Loosely cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 45 minutes.
6 - Punch dough down.
7 - Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
8 - Divide the dough into balls and place in the prepared baking dish.
9 - Loosely cover the dish and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 30 minutes.
10 - Preheat oven to 400ºF.
11 - Bake rolls for 15 to 20 minutes.
12 - Brush baked rolls with melted butter and enjoy!

#thisweeksmeals #baking #cooking

They're perfect. I did it! Another childhood fave recreated! 😃

Thoughts Before Bed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_gwnFSFzv0

I THINK THIS IS IT, Y'ALL! The tops look perfectly brown, the sides are perfectly crumbly, and even the bottoms look perfectly toasted. We might have finally got the yeast rolls down!

I'm not even upset that I burned my fingers by grabbing the 190 degree glass sides of the pan with my bare fingers!

Oh. Oh my. They rose! THEY ROSE! We might have a winning set of yeast rolls, folks!