Pioneer Pancakes

In Utah we celebrate the arrival of the Pioneers in the middle of the Summer, July 24th. It's much better than celebrating Statehood Day in the dead of Winter on the 4th of January. When I grew up the whole entire community celebrated with parades and activities in the park. Not much happens where I live now so we decided to invite people over for some Pancakes and eggs. We tell them we will serve up all the pancakes and eggs they can eat. If they want something else with their breakfast they will have to bring it but we will cook it, stir it, fry it and serve it up for them. It is so fun to see what people bring to share. Mostly we just share a fun morning of visiting while we eat.

Recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons oil

Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together wet ingredients. Stir both together. Let sit for a few minutes to thicken. Drop by spoonfuls onto hot griddle. Flip when bubbles pop and edges slightly dry. Serve with butter and syrup. Buttermilk syrup is especially good. 

Pancakes and Egg Sandwhiches:

Cook 2 pancakes and fry 1 egg, easy over. Place egg between buttered pancakes.

Hamburger Buns

There is nothing better than an outdoor b-b-q in the summer. Even better is when friends and family just drop by and a party starts.

Several of my grandchildren can only whole wheat so I started making homemade whole wheat rolls. Turns out everyone loves the whole wheat ones better. So when quests drop by unexpected it's always fun to throw a b-b-q together without having to go to the store for buns.

Start with my regular bread recipe. Follow the directions until the step where the dough is patted out into a rectangle. Divide each of the 4 sections of dough into 12 equal parts. If you divide the section of dough into 4 equal parts and the pinch off 3 equal parts of that it may be easier to determine the correct size of your dough balls.

Let the dough balls rest on the pan for a few minutes. Then using your fingers press each ball into a circle.

Let dough rise until double. Bake on 350º F for 13-18 minutes.

If you don't need 48 buns just start with maybe half of a batch. However these also make great sandwich buns. Delish.

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

It doesn't matter what you are having for dinner, if you serve it with fresh hot bread it becomes a feast. Just the smell in the house makes even the grumpiest person perk up.

For these rolls start with my regular bread recipe. Follow directions up until the step where the dough is divided and patted into a rectangle. From here you pinch off the dough into the size of rolls that you want. For these rolls pictured below, I divided the dough (the quarter of the entire recipe) into 3rds and then each into 3rds, giving me 9 equal dough balls. Each ball weighed approx. 2.5 - 3 ozs. Place dough balls in a greased 8 x 8 pan.
Proceed as usual, letting dough rise until double.
Bake in a preheated oven @ 350º F for 13 - 20 minutes depending on what size you make them.
An entire batch of bread would yield 3 dozen large dinner rolls.

Whole Wheat Potato Rolls

Sometimes you make a combination that is so yummy you can't believe your good luck in making it. These were such the case. I had a potato roll recipe from a friend's friend that I started out with, changed a few things, made it with whole wheat and voila!

WW Potato Rolls

3 cups warm water

2 cups mashed potatoes (I make real mashed potatoes with the skins on as you can see below.)

1 1/4 cups honey

1 1/3 cups butter, melted

1 tablespoon salt

13 cups fresh ground Whole Wheat flour

2 tablespoons yeast

Combine all ingredients in order listed in mixer using only 1/2 of the flour. Let the dough mix until all ingredients are wet. Slowly add the remaining flour and knead for 13 minutes total. The dough should be very sticky. Very. Let dough rest until it has doubled in size. Divide the dough into 3 separate pieces. Spray three large areas on your counters with Pam or oil. Roll each piece out into an 18 inch circle.
When rolling out the dough it helps to only roll from the center out a few times and then finish by rolling out around the edge of the circle. (It reminds me of when my grandmother would tell me to take care of the corners because the middle would take care of itself. But then she was talking about cleaning the house. It seems to work here as well.) Roll out all three circles before beginning to cut the dough. This allows the dough time to rest and relax to avoid excessive shrinking.
Cut the dough circle into quarters using a pizza cutter.
Cut each quarter in half.
And then each section in half again. This will make 16 triangles.

Roll each piece from the outside into the middle. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it with Pam or using a piece of parchment paper. Place rolls on pan close together but with plenty of room to raise and not stick together too much.

 Be sure to place rolls on pan with the tip of the triangle on the pan. If not your rolls will end up looking like little Sargents saluting you when you pull them out of the oven.

At this point either let the rolls rise until double or if they are to be baked another day* skip the next 2 steps.
When rolls have doubled and are ready to bake. Bake in a preheated 370º F oven for 11- 13 minutes.
*If you are making these ahead of time to bake for another day, as soon as you roll them up and put them on a pan, wrap the pan with plastic wrap. I pull out a long piece and wrap the entire thing, pan and all. It will cover half the pan.
Then I pull out another long piece and wrap the other half. Be careful to make sure the second piece of plastic overlaps the first piece. Place rolls on pan in the freezer until the day you want to use them.
On the day you want to use them, take the pan out of the freezer. Remove the plastic. Leave pan on counter and let rolls rise until double in size. This will take from 3 to 4 hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen. If you want to proof them quicker simply place them in you oven to proof. If you don't have a proofing setting set your oven to 100º - 130º F. Place rolls in oven. Rolls usually rise in 45 minutes but watch to see when double. Bake as usual however, since rolls are warmer than when proofed on the counter top they may cook a little quicker.

Now for the really yummy part. Slice warm roll in half, butter and add a slice of Uncle Bill's Beef. Best little sandwich ever.