04 March 2010

Spoon Rolls - A New Twist on an Old Favorite

Spoon Rolls - A New Twist on an Old Favorite / www.delightfulrepast.com

When I'm feeling my Southern roots from my paternal grand-
mother, I like to make her delectable fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, biscuits, peach pie and iced tea. Now there's a Delightful Repast! Spoon rolls are a Southern thing, too, but I have to have biscuits with my fried chicken.

Traditional spoon rolls are the quickest and easiest yeast bread going. The problem I always had with them was that, though tasty, they are more like a muffin in texture. So I started experimenting and came up with a much more flavorful version that has the proper yeast dough texture. It's still just as quick and easy, but since they have to hang out in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, you have to plan ahead.

24-Hour Spoon Rolls


(Makes 18 rolls)

3 3/4 packed cups (18.75 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In small saucepan, melt butter; stir in water. With dough whisk or large wooden spoon, stir water, melted butter and beaten egg into flour mixture until blended. The dough will be very sticky. Cover with lid or plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours or up to three days.

2 An hour to an hour and half before serving time (the longer time if your kitchen is cold), remove from refrigerator and stir down the dough (just a few strokes). With a 1/4-cup measure, scoop dough into well-greased or cooking-sprayed muffin tins, filling two-thirds full (scant 1/4 cup). Let rise, uncovered, 20 to 30 minutes (60 minutes if kitchen is cold) or until they’ve risen to the top of the cups. During last 15 minutes, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

3 Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before removing from tins. Makes 18.

6 comments:

Mr. P said...

This blog looks like it could be fun! A source of good American recipes, methinks.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Thank you. Yes, I'll be featuring good American food, also British (since that is my heritage), along with a smattering of French, Italian and others. Let me know how the recipes work for you. Food is such a magnificent obsession!

drfugawe said...

As an old former resident of The South, I know this version of spoon bread would raise eyebrows - but I love the idea of a yeasted spoon bread, and I think I'll use your version and add just a little cornmeal - and see what happens.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Dr, this is spoon ROLLS, a whole different animal than spoon BREAD. Now you've got me craving some spoon bread. I've got plenty of cornmeal, so I think I'll whip some up for Sunday dinner!

drfugawe said...

Ahh - Learn something new every day - guess I've always equated "spoon" anything with corn - thanks for setting me straight.

I am still going to try your spoon rolls with a little cornmeal in there - how bad could that be?

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

I agree--how bad could that be? A little cornmeal can't hurt anything! Let me know how much you added and how they turned out.