When my friend Emily at imperfect, announced her Rookie Thanksgiving, I knew I wanted to try to play along.
The concept is to learn to make a homemade Thanksgiving meal in stages over the course of 6 weeks. I may not have the opportunity to do every challenge, but I’m definitely going to try. Hopefully, this will broaden my cooking and baking horizons, and give me some new options to bring to Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Here’s the schedule:
Oct. 3: Rolls and pumpkin butter
Oct. 10: Mashed potatoes
Oct. 17: Turkey and gravy
Oct. 24: Sweet potatoes
Oct. 31: Stuffing
Nov. 7: Pies
For the first week, the challenge was to share an experience with rolls and pumpkin butter. Go over to Emily’s to check out the first week of participants. Do you wanna play along? Post your favorite rolls and butter and go link up!
I’ve made several different homemade rolls/breads, and decided to follow along with the rolls recipe Emily shared as well as divulge a few of my favorites.
I decided to forego pumpkin butter and make both cinnamon honey butter and pumpkin pie honey butter instead.
Why two butters? Because I wanted to try the pumpkin version, but Ryan probably wouldn’t eat the pumpkin version and I shouldn’t eat an entire batch myself. Right?
Plus, when I read the recipe for sweet dinner rolls at Emily’s, I thought it would pair perfectly with the cinnamon honey butter I made for Rebecca’s shower. And a few friends and family had requested some of this butter, so this was a good opportunity to kill several birds with one stone.
The new recipes
Cinnamon honey butter
(Recipe from All Recipes via Darby at Fly Through my Window)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (the recipe also says you can use pumpkin pie seasoning, so I halved it and did half and half)
In a bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar, honey and ground cinnamon/pumpkin pie seasoning. Beat until light and fluffy. Refrigerate and serve softened.
Review: There is no reason not to make this. It takes all of 1 minute, uses ingredients I already have on hand and is truly delicious. The cinnamon version is a dead ringer for Texas Roadhouse’s version. The pumpkin version just has a subtle pumpkin pie taste.
Sweet dinner rolls
(Recipe from All Recipes via imperfect)
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup butter, softened
1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Roll into 36 small balls and put three into each spot in a cupcake tray. This makes a nice clover roll. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.
Review: I used the bread maker version, and I think I needed to let it rise for longer. I forgot to set the timer and I got a little distracted. It tasted okay, but was pretty dense. I think it should have been softer inside. But, they were still decent. I think I’m still on a bread search.
And here are the fruits of my labor – homemade bread and cinnamon honey butter.
My favorites
Since the rolls weren’t “the ones,” I also want to share the two recipes for “rolls” that I made most often. Neither are a strict “dinner roll,” but nonetheless, totally delicious, and perfect as an accompaniment to a meal.
Cheesy soft pretzels
(Recipe from Erin at Domestic Adventure)
1.5 cups flour
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (2 ounces)
2 TBS butter, softened
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
Coarse salt
1. Mix all ingredients except egg and coarse salt in medium bowl with fork until soft dough forms. Smooth dough gently into ball on floured board. Knead 10 times and divide the dough in half.
2. One half of the dough at a time, roll into a rectangle that is about 10×5 inches. Cut rectangle lengthwise into four even strips. Fold each strip lengthwise in half; pinch edges to seal.
3. Twist each strip into pretzel shape. Place seam down on greased cookie sheet.
4. Repeat with second half of dough.
5. Beat egg in small bowl with fork until blended. Brush pretzels with egg.
6. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
7. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.
8. If you want thinner pretzels, roll each rectangle to 12×8 inches and cut into 8 strips of dough.
Review: We have made these a lot since finding the recipe at Erin’s. To be fair, I find them more roll-like than pretzel-like. But, they are super yummy, cheesy and simple. You must make these. We like to pair them with spaghetti.
Go over and check out more recipes at Emily’s.
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get your ex back or get over it says
Whoa! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a totally different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Outstanding choice of colors!
*claire* says
wooooaaaah yum.
i need to run away from this post right now!!!!
christi @ grey umbrella says
What a great idea! Homemade any kind of bread is delicious. I’m going to have to try your sweet rolls.
Shannon says
You are butter over-achiever Kim…how do you find the time to do it? You’re a maniac! And garlic butter balls are right up my alley. Gonna try to make them this week. Then eat them all. Like usual.
Amanda Sevall says
ooooo…. Cinnamon Honey Butter sounds delish! I’m definitely going to try that one!! I love the dinner roll recipe in the red & white checkboard cookbook… Better Homes & Gardens I think? I’d have to look at home! It’s the best I have found. I left Emily a comment about it this morning. Maybe I will have to post the recipe today or tomorrow. 🙂
Kylie says
Yum yum! I cannot wait until I have my oven back…
Heather says
These look great. I don’t really have a favorite receipe unless you count sister shubert (sp?) rolls as homemade 🙂
Everything looks great and you can totally do thanksgiving dinner.
Shanade says
Oh my gosh! Those look heavenly. I wonder if you could can that butter? I know you can can just plain butter. If so, that would be a great gift for neighbors, friends, etc. I’ll have to do some research now.
Mrs. Adventure says
Ummm I’d say you could charge $20 a person and host a dinner (count me in).
Tara @ Tara Being Tara says
You can totally learn to cook Thanksgiving dinner!! When it comes time for mashed potatoes I have a great secret I’ll share with you… 🙂
Jenny @ Anything Pretty says
Okay I am officially hungry. That butter looks heavenly. And very low-cal of course. Do you love your bread machine. I have been lusting over one but not sure how much I would use it. Any thoughts?
MV says
O the cinnamon honey butter sounds delicious!
Emily says
That was me. These darn double google accounts foil me everytime!
Emily says
Yeah, I felt the same about the rolls. AllRecipes’s rating system has never let me down before, but this was not their week. I guess that’s why we’re doing it – trial and error before the big holiday! Cannot wait to try your garlic rolls!
Amanda @ Serenity Now says
Oh my word!! Those recipes look amaaaaazing, and this sounds like such a neat activity. 🙂 IF I EVER get to actually host a Thanksgiving dinner, I’d love to try. But, no, I’m not bitter about that. Not at all. 😉
Mom says
I like ANY kind of bread….pop ‘n fresh…garlic bread….that Hawaiin bread….brown ‘n serve.. I love it all and ALL of your recipes sound wonderful. Can you come to AZ and cook it all for your mamma and pappa?