Food & Swine

Blue Ribbon Butterhorn Rolls

Blue Ribbon Butterhorn Rolls

These rolls are fit for the finest Thanksgiving table.  They are a super easy recipe that just takes some old fashioned patience but turn out brilliantly every time they are made.  The Baker’s Special Dry Milk (or sub nonfat milk powder) in combination with the mashed potatoes in the dough makes a very tender product.  If you take these rolls to your Thanksgiving Feast (or ‘thanksgiving beast’ as my sister used to call it for lack of knowing better) everyone will bow to your fabulousness and beg for more of these fancy, luscious lovelies!  Best part is, you can make this dough up ahead of time (let’s say Tuesday night or anytime Wednesday), give it a nice chill and then it is ripe for rolling out and shaping, on to a quick rise and then baking.  They can be frozen after shaping but I never recommend that.  Fresh is best.  Thanksgiving only happens once a year and these rolls want to impress, and they certainly will.

I will be taking them to my Aunt Vikki’s house this weekend for what my cousins and I call the most brilliant dinner of the year. There are a million fabulous casseroles, a perfect turkey, ham, all of the most divine salads you could imagine.  The problem is, one’s eyes are much larger than one’s stomach on this particular day, always.  So the answer to the question is yes, yes I do (and most of my cousins) wear stretch pants.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!  I hope you enjoy it with those who mean the most to you.

My Mom, Sister and I

(Me, my lovely Mom and my beeee-a-utiful sister)

Blue Ribbon Butterhorn Rolls

1 C buttermilk

1 T instant yeast (or 2 packets of active dry yeast)

*(I use SAF Gold instant yeast, or any yeast suitable for bread machines, it works faster and has more active cultures than regular active dry yeast.  In any small packets of yeast there are 2 1/4 tsp per packet.  I buy my yeast in bulk so I have large volumes of it to scoop one TBSP out of when I need it.  You can use 2 packets of regular active dry yeast in place here which equates to 4 1/2 tsp or 1 1/2 TBSP.)

3 T sugar, divided

1/4 C King Arthur Baker’s Special Dry Milk (may sub regular nonfat dry milk here)

1 3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 C creamy mashed potatoes (prepared potatoes, if I am in a pinch I use Idahoan Buttery Homestyle Instant Potatoes.  Prepare the packet, scoop out what you need, eat the rest for dinner!)

1 C butter, unsalted

4 1/2 C King Arthur All Purpose Flour

Blue Ribbon Butterhorn Rolls Instructions

Combine buttermilk, yeast and sugar in a medium mixing bowl to soften yeast.  (5 min)  Add remaining ingredients and stir until a soft dough forms.  Turn out and knead 6-8 minutes on a floured surface.  (Use a bench scraper, this dough is very sticky and slack).  Place in well oiled bowl, turn once.  Cover, let rise until double in a room temperature setting.  Punch dough down and fold it over itself 4 times.  Lightly oil top of dough again, cover and refrigerate for 5 hours or up to 2 days.  When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator, punch dough down, let relax for 5 minutes.  Turn out on a flour dusted work surface. Divide dough into 3 portions (sometimes I do 2 portions so they are bigger.).  Roll into a circle ¼ inch thick.  Cut into 12 wedges. (the taller your wedges/triangles, the more impressive your butterhorn will look rolled up) Roll up from long side of triangle to short.  Let rise, covered for 1.5-2 hours until double. (At least double, let them rise a little longer than you think!)  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 9 minutes or until internal temperature registers 190 degrees F on an instant read thermometer**.  Cool 5 minutes. Serve warm.

**Instant read thermometer?  What?  You don’t have one?  PERFECT gift for your Christmas list… if you’ve been good.  A must-have for any serious or budding baker.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/thermapen-digital-thermometer

“Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labor when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.”
Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace

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6 Comments

  • Reply Estee Nenow November 26, 2013 at 5:11 am

    I love your blog! It rocks! Thanks for taking time to write such great, meaningful messages. Look forward to your next one! (And I love the name!)

    • Reply mikeandcristen November 29, 2013 at 7:11 pm

      Thanks Estee! I hope (in the future) to feature happy homemaker friends “frontier women!” with great recipes too! Maybe you could be on my list!

  • Reply Christine November 27, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Is King Arrhur flour sold nationally?

  • Reply Kim Garrison June 22, 2017 at 2:03 am

    I would like to clarify that one cup of butter is mixed in with the dough ingredients. I’m an experienced baker and have never seen that much butter given the other quantities.

  • Reply Cristen June 29, 2017 at 2:06 pm

    Yes Kim, this is correct and best mixed in a stand mixer, especially in summer. I too am an experienced baker and this is one of the most popular recipes I have. Butterhorn rolls have lots of… butter! :) Chilling the dough after the initial rise is paramount to the success of this recipe.

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