Yeast Rolls

31/2 to 33/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c shortening softened
1 tsp salt
1 packaged regular or quick acting active dry yeast
1/2 c very warm water
1/2 c very warm milk
1 egg
margarine or butter softened

Mix two cups of the flour, the sugar, shortening, salt and yeast in medium bowl.  Add warm water, warm milk and egg.  Beat on low speed 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently.  Beat on medium speed 1 minute scraping bowl frequently.  Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. 

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface.  Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Place in greased medium bowl and turn greased side up.  Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until double.  Punch down dough.  Cut dough into 24 pieces and shape into balls.  Place close together in greased round pan.  Brush with margarine.  Cover and let rise about 30 minutes or until double.  I usually let them rise during the afternoon before dinner.  Heat oven to 400 degrees and bake 12-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Lessons in Yeast

Well, I have been trying for sometime to make breads and rolls using yeast. I did what the recipes said, but the bread never rose. I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. So, I did a little research. I learned a little bit about "proofing." See, you must proof your yeast, yet the recipes did not talk about this at all. I guess they assume you already should know this tidbit of information. Proofing is sprinkling the yeast over warm water and adding about a teaspoon of sugar. The yeast thrives off of carbohydrates. After 10 minutes, the yeast should have doubled in size and look like it is creamy and/or bubbly. Another bit of information I learned is that yeast rises the best in temperatures around 85 degrees and high humidity always helps.

Needless to say, after I gained all of this very useful information, I made another batch of yeast rolls. They rose wonderfully!

I hope that this information helps anyone who is struggling with yeast as I was!

Some Banana muffins I made Saturday as well...