Tag: bread

Shrine Mont Dinner Rolls

Our good friends Al and Dardi from Richmond, Virginia, drove us to Shrine Mont many years ago. Shrine Mont is the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration, a retreat and conference center of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in the village of Orkney Springs, Virginia, on the western edge of the Shenandoah Valley.

As Episcopalians Al and Dardi have stayed at Shrine Mont many times. It is a beautiful venue for meditation, worship and conferences, and the eastern slope of Great North Mountain in the Appalachian Mountains is a good place to escape the humid air of tidewater Virginia. It is also a great place to enjoy authentic homestyle southern cooking in either one of the dining halls.

Dardi shared the recipe for Shrine Mont dinner rolls when we raved about them on the drive back to Richmond after our visit. The instructions from Shrine Mont begin by saying you should start these rolls at 10 AM or later in the summer, but you can arrange your own schedule. Just give the rolls plenty of time to rise.

INGREDIENTS:

2 small potatoes (3 to 4 inch diameter)
Cold water to boil the potatoes
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 T sugar
1 cake or 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. lard
4 to 6 cups all-purpose flour plus extra for kneading
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. butter to brush the tops of the rolls

PROCEDURE:

Stir the sugar and yeast into a half cup of lukewarm water in a small bowl and allow the yeast to proof while you cook the potatoes.

Peel and quarter the potatoes and put them into a saucepan. Add just enough cold water to cover them. Bring the potatoes to a boil, cooking them until they are fork tender, about twenty minutes. Drain but reserve the water. Mash the potatoes thoroughly to make sure no lumps remain. You should have about a cup and a half of mashed potatoes.

Mix the mashed potatoes and lard with the hot potato water in a large mixing bowl. Let this mixture cool to lukewarm, then stir in the yeast mixture. Add a teaspoon of salt to three cups of flour and sift the flour and salt by thirds into the liquid ingredients, stirring well between additions.

Sift in more flour until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out on a well-floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic. This is a sticky dough, so kneading will take ten to fifteen minutes. Grease the mixing bowl, form the dough into a ball and turn it in the bowl to lightly grease the surface. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow the dough to rise until doubled in size.

Grease two nine by thirteen inch baking pans.

Return the dough to the floured surface and press or roll it out to about a three quarter inch thickness. Divide it into equal portions and roll them into balls about two inches in diameter. Place the balls about a half-inch apart in the baking pans, cover them with a damp towel and allow the rolls to rise until doubled in size. A dozen rolls fit nicely into a nine by thirteen-inch pan.

Preheat the oven to 450º while the rolls are rising.

Bake fifteen to twenty minutes until the rolls are lightly browned. Brush the tops with a little butter as soon as you take the rolls from the oven.

NOTES: As copied by Dardi, the recipe says to make the rolls about three hours before serving. This means that the rolls would be rising more than two hours before going into the oven. If you have a cool kitchen, it might take that long, but I just watch the rolls and pop them in the oven when they are ready.

These rolls keep well for up to two days. You can also freeze them, then pop them in the microwave when you want to enjoy “fresh” dinner rolls in minutes.

Phyllis’s Cheese Corn Bread

Mike and Phyllis were friends of ours when we lived in western Kentucky. Mike was a fellow teacher in the English Department at Murray State University. Besides introducing freshmen and sophomore students to great literature and trying to teach them to write grammatically correct sentences with meaning, Mike also was a talented musician. We had many enjoyable afternoons and evenings listening to Mike and our friend Pete playing their guitars and singing folk songs.

I don’t remember Phyllis singing along with us, but she kept us well supplied with plenty of her Kentucky cooking. She and Mike had a place in the country and cultivated a big garden. Phyllis canned the vegetables and fruits that flourished in their yard. She once said that she loved falling asleep listening to the lids “ping” as the jars cooled on the kitchen counter. I know how she felt, for I have given thanks for every “ping” that told me another jar had made it through my inexperienced canning procedures.

Here is a recipe in Phyllis’s neat handwriting that we classify as a winner. It is probably better with home-canned corn, but even a can of store brand whole kernel corn will do just fine. For those of you who do not really like corn meal in bread, you will notice that this recipe has none. It is a wonderfully moist bread that reminds me of dinner rolls. Eat it warm with plenty of butter.

We recently enjoyed it with Easy Eggplant Parmesan. You might want to try that combination this summer while eggplants are still available at your local farmers market.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted shortening or oil
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup whole kernel corn

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 400º and grease a nine by nine-inch baking pan. Beat the egg in a small bowl for a few seconds until it begins to turn lemon colored and drain the corn. Grate the cheese and melt the shortening if necessary.

Put the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir them together. Whisk the milk and oil into the beaten egg and stir that mixture into the dry ingredients. Blend in the corn and cheese. Stir just until the flour is moistened; this batter should be lumpy.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and bake on a center shelf for thirty-five to forty-five minutes until the top is golden brown. You can check for doneness with a toothpick inserted near the center of the pan. If it comes out clean, the bread is done.

NOTE: Use either medium or sharp Cheddar cheese for the best flavor.