Here's my new rule: No baking yeast-raised recipes on a weeknight.
What a mess! Even with the things I did along the way to try and clean up the kitchen. By the time I finished, it was late - I was tired - the evening chores hadn't yet been done --- I threw in my towel and hit the sack.
Which is not to say the Yeast Cinnamon Rolls didn't turn out pretty darn good. I wrapped eight of them up in aluminum foil as soon as they were nearly cool and popped them in the freezer. They'll be ready and waiting for me the next time this dish turns up on my menu. The rest are still tender and delicious today! I could have been a bit more liberal though with the cinnamon and sugar. The recipe didn't lay out any exact measurements for those ingredients, so I tend to end up on the safe side when that happens.
I wonder how 1940s housewives fitted something like baking yeast-raised breads into their daily schedules. I mean, I know most housewives weren't baking their own bread any longer, but they still made lots of rolls. Parker House rolls, cloverleaf rolls, sweet rolls, coffee cakes... Maybe once you were an expert at it you just found a way to work each step into the rest of your work about the house. You'd start a "sponge" then go to work tidying up the bedrooms. Knead the dough, set it someplace warm to raise, then head back upstairs and give the bathroom its daily once-over.
These vintage cookbooks can be a bit tricky. They have a lot of general information about certain types of foods towards the beginning of a mini-section of those recipes. The recipe for the Rolls, for instance, was a variation on the Standard Roll Recipe, but you really needed to refer back to the initial section on breadmaking in order to flesh out what looked like a scant set of instructions. That was the case for me too with the Soft Molasses Cookies. I should have read the intro to rolled cookies before even starting the recipe. I guess all of this basic stuff is the kind of thing a 1940s housewife would have learned in a home economics class, the kind of stuff she'd have learned from watching (and helping) her mother cook three meals a day.
Here's something mission-related I learned several days ago. If I'm going to make a trip to the supermarket only once a week, I need to give up fooling myself with a shopping basket. You know, the little plastic one - "I'm just here to pick up a few things!" - that you fit over your arm. It's time to let it go and resign myself to the big ol' shopping cart.
8 comments:
I'm actually ok with making rolls and quite enjoy it, I find starting first thing in the morning saves alot of time.
Maybe once you were an expert at it you just found a way to work each step into the rest of your work about the house.
I'm no expert but, setting a timer and keeping it in my pocket keeps me on track and allows me to get other things done.
This is my lazy-dough tip - mix and knead the dough after dinner, and when it is ready for its first rise, brush the top with oil, pop it in a mixing bowl with a damp tea towel covering it, in the fridge. Next morning form the dough into rolls, pop them in the oven at 25C for the second rising, then after half an hour, turn up the oven to heat, to 200C, leaving the rolls in the oven. They will be ready soon after the oven reaches its full heat, 15-20 mins. This is a method I have trial and errored over the years, and works beautifully for me, taking the least time out of my day, and providing hot rolls for breakfast, or ready to take to school/work.
Here's a tip you might enjoy ...
While I clean the kitchen or baking I have my computer set to listen to "Yesterday USA" It has old time radio programs. Lots of 1940"s shows. There are some new ones mixed in but mostly 1940's I love to be in working away in my 1940's world.
p.s. I love "destination 1940" good to know I am not alone in my love for the past.
Jo- that's a wonderful idea!
Andrea
Glad your rolls turned out nice.
Jo, thanks for letting us know that the fridge method actually works
Jo, I have an old advertising pamphlet from the Fleischman's people recommending the overnight/fridge method for women with limited baking time. Nice to know it works!
Jo, your lazy-dough tip reminds me that the menu in the cookbook actually says in parentheses "Yeast Cinnamon Rolls (from stored dough)." I had forgotten that, but had given it some thought at some point and couldn't figure out when to stop the process and "store" the dough.
Now I know!!!
So you stop the process before letting the dough rise at all, eh? I'm going to have to translate your C degrees into F. :) Well, this would certainly have helped a busy housewife in the '40s have baked frequently using yeast. She'd start her dough in the evening, clean everything up. And take it out in the morning and let the oven do the work. I likey.
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