July 7, 2008

Betty Crocker's Crescent rolls & Strawberry Preserves


The last Daring Bakers challenge had left me with a craving for Danish pastries, but thinking of the effort and the calories, I had decided to leave it alone for a few more weeks. The croissants that I came across on several blogs were haunting me in my dreams, and finally I decided to make something that atleast remotely resembled these pastries, atleast in their shapes - crescent rolls. From the day I saw this recipe on Betty Crocker's cookbook, I wanted to make them, but was too lazy and impatient when I saw the dough - rising step. But after completing the Danish Braid challenge, this wait seemed like nothing, and yes, it was a cake-walk! I made only half the recipe and everything turned out perfectly!! JM and I actually ate it as the evening snack and dinner, with homemade Strawberry jam. It sure was yummy!! With just a wee little butter in the whole recipe, we didnt cringe as we ate, and enjoyed it immensely. This recipe can be used to make dinner rolls, crescent rolls and cloverleaf rolls. The crescent rolls are given as the variation of the basic dinner roll recipe. It sure made a tasty set of rolls, please do try them, they were perfect!! Yumm!



Recipe (Makes 32 rolls) :

All-purpose flour - 3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups
Butter or margarine - 1/4 cup (4 tbsp)
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Quick active dry or regular yeast - 1 package or 2 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup, very warm (120 - 130 F)
Milk - 1/2 cup, very warm (120 - 130 F)
Egg - 1 large
Butter or margarine - melted, if desired



Method:

In a large bowl, stir 2 cups of flour, the sugar, 1/4 cup of butter, salt and yeast until well-mixed.

Add warm water, warm milk and egg.

Beat for a minute with an electric mixer on low-speed, followed by 1 minute on medium speed, both times scraping bowl frequently.

Stir in enough remaining dough to make dough easy to handle.

Place dough on lightly floured surface.

Knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and springy.

Grease a large bowl with shortening.

Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides.

Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

The dough is ready when indentation remains when touched.

At this stage the dough can be used to make any of the specified rolls.

For making crescent rolls:


Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray.

Push the fist into the dough to deflate and cut the dough in half.

Roll each half into a 12" circle on a floured surface.

Spread with softened butter.

Cut each circle into 16 wedges.

Roll up each wedge beginning at the rounded end (broad end).

Plcae rolls on the cookie sheet, with points underneath and curve the edges slightly.

Brush with butter (I didnt) and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Let rise in a warm place about 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Heat oven to 375 F.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm or cool.

Tips:

  1. I did not brush the shaped rolls with melted butter.
  2. I only made half the recipe to yield 16 rolls.
  3. If using self-rising flour, omit salt.
  4. For the dough to rise, I usually switch on the oven at 200F or so for a minute or two, switch it off, and place the dough in the oven to rise.
  5. I had actually stuffed a single roll with jam, as you can see in the picture below, to see how it would turn out. Experiment with more stuffings.

I am sending these crescent rolls to the "Bread baking day - Small Breads" event at Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen. The event was started by started by Zorra at 1x umrühren bitte.



I am also sending these Crescent rolls to the "Healthy Cooking" event over at Mansi's Fun and Food. I feel that these rolls are very healthy because it has a very low fat and sugar content. It is a leavened bread and is baked so that no additional fat is introduced. The recipe actually mentioned smearing the rolls again with butter before baking. I actually omitted that step and still the rolls turned out perfectly browned. The rolls can be eaten on their own because they taste great!! It would also go well with soups, salads or preserves!!

Source: Betty Crocker Cookbook : everything you need to know to cook today.



We had the rolls with home-made strawberry preserves. The preserve was made from a recipe on Sunita's blog. Here's a pictorial step-by-step instructions on the process. We had gone strawberry picking two weeks before and I used up our hand-picked berries by making this Strawberry Preserves. I am sending this Home-made Strawberry Preserve to "Eating with the seasons" event at Maninas : Food Matters.



Through and over the weekend, I am glad some of my fellow bloggers remembered me, because I again have several awards to share. Veda of Iyengar's kitchen passed me the "Blogging with a purpose" award. Srilekha of Me and My Kitchen and Hetal of Isha's kitchen passed me the "Yum-Yum Blog" award. Thanks a trillion for remembering me, you guys! I really appreciate your gesture. I would like to pass these onto,




Asha of Foodies Hope
Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner
Roopa of My Kitchen Treats
Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen
Cham of Spice-club

Enjoy your awards!! And come back to Tasty treats for more recipes through the week.


26 comments:

FH said...

YUM! Looks perfect, not much butter either. It's not like one person eats the whole batch to get that much of fat in you at one time, right?
Some dishes do haunt you, don't they? EVIL dishes!!;D
I made "No knead bread" last weekend which haunted me for many months now. I thought I won't make many dishes this week, so I don't have to keep in fridge while we were gone, but couldn't resist!:D
Jam looks perfect too, enjoy!:)

Laavanya said...

They look so pretty and perfect JZ. I see that the amount of butter to the flour is not too bad so this is something we can indulge in once in a while :)

ranji said...

AWESOME JZ...i was waiting for this recipe:)...jam is also too good.YUM YUM .i will definitely preapre this soon..ur photo has tempted me even more.....congrats on ur awards and thank u so much for passing me :)

vandana rajesh said...

delicious jz...u have been doing such yummy dishes. Have been wanting to try some baking recipes for sometime but haven't had the courage to do so. Would love to try this one. Would like to try a nice chicken filling with this. Just a bit scared as have never ventured into baking this kind of stuff due to my mental block.

Would definitely let you know when i do try it and if i have any doubts i know whom to contactnow :)

Cham said...

Crescent roll dough is not the easiest one to make it and very buttery... Love ur flaky croissant and jam :) U shaped it perfectly! Congrats for ur awards, u just deserve for all ur sweet treats.... Thanks to pass it JZ :)

Trupti said...

Woooooooow JZ Crescnet and jam both looks very delicious and as usual nice presentation and photos. Check my blog for one award.

Unknown said...

Hey JZ:) Got to finally to see your post wit the crescent rolls:) Thats a very good write up:) And Congrats on winning the awards:) You deserve it:) yum yum blog:)I appreciate that you thought about me:) It means a lot :)Thank you!

bha said...

those crossiants look so cute.....the butter amount is pretty less considered to the flour, so guess its no worry....:)

renuka said...

Hi JZ
This is my first visit to your blog and happy I landed on a wonderful page,an excellent one and will continue to drop in

Srikitchen said...

hey JZ what a crescent rolls pics are too......... good tempting to eat now itself... simply superb ma.. wan to learn more from u.. u can start a photography blog also.. such cute pics u have

Sujatha said...

Great Crescent rolls, JZ! They look very fluffy and soft.. love the color and texture..

Sum Raj said...

yummy yum perfect combo...good job

Dori said...

The rolls look perfect with the strawberry preserves! Congratulations on your awards!

Anonymous said...

Very nicely explained and very well presented. They look gorgeous little croissants!

www.zaiqa.net

Unknown said...

Perfect shape JZ.I love betty crocker's products.YUM strawberry jam.Once in a while you can tret u'rself with some extra butter :)

Rachel said...

J..that looks perfectly done and very artfully presented...I am envious of ur pics J :)

Congrts on the awrds and thanks for passing them on..

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

These crescent rolls look perfect. Thank you for the entry, JZ.
The croissants were the best part of the Daring Bakers challenge for me.:)

Illatharasi said...

Looks yummy.... I was infact missing your colourful recipes for the past 3 days;)

Divya Kudua said...

wow jz...the rolls look so pretty..!!

Sunshinemom said...

Have the same recipe in my books too but yet to make:) Lovely! Could you let me know where you got those templates from?

@the_whisk_affair said...

Asha, I loved your comment abt evil dishes! Thanks for your lovely comment!

Thanks Laavanya and Ranji! Do try these out sometime..

Its great that you are inspired to try baking, Vandana. I would only be happy to answer any questions that you have!

Thanks Cham and Trupti! Cham enjoy ur award, and Trupti, I am coming over!! :-)

Thanks Roopa and Bhags!

Welcome to my blog, Renuka! Do come-by more often!!

Thanks a lot for your lovely words, Srilekha!

Thank you so much Sujatha, Suma and Meeso!!

I'm glad you liked them Mona and Maheswari!

Thanks a lot Rachel and Aparna!

Wow, its so sweet to say that u missed my posts, Vani. Thanks a lot!

Thanks Divya and Sunshinemom!

Mansi said...

These crescent rolls look so professionally done JZ! perfect shape and color! you should opne your own bakery; I promise to be your first customer:)

thanks for a lovely entry!:)

Mallika said...

They do look very professional! And that instruction page was a nice touch - so that's how they are shaped...

Shubha Ravikoti said...

Hey dear... u got some awesome recipes and i feel so bad.. I have been missing on them...:) loved the crescent.... its looks so lovely... and even the kajjikayalu looks mouthwatering.... yum yum... congrats on all ur awards.... while i was missing...:D u deserve every inch... hey can u tell me how do u manage to click such awesome snaps?? which cam do u have yaar and who shoots these?? u?

Anonymous said...

Love your photography. Looks so cute and appetizing!

Barbara said...

I have been looking all over for this recipe, used to make these many years ago. I agree I never added the butter on top before baking. Thank you ever so much for posting. Love your site! ♥♥♥