Food, glorious, food.

Today was grocery day. Kedzie and I trek around town and head to 3 different grocery stores in order to keep costs down and just get what we need. I've learned what's cheapest where and have really brought our grocery costs down by visiting all 3 grocers. All this to say that our house is packed full of food. I've been craving making some bread, so the menu chosen for tonight's dinner included Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls from the cookbook "Simply in Season." This is a cookbook written by a Mennonite woman who cherishes local, sustainable food. The Mennonite philosophy is "to promote the understanding of how food choicer we make affect our lives and the lives of those who produce the food." I know you can purchase this cookbook at your local "Ten Thousand Villages" store, as that's where we purchased ours, but you can also get it here. OK, technically this book is not ours as we gifted it to Sam's mama a couple years ago. But, in an effort to be frugal, we stole it out of their kitchen on Thanksgiving. Sorry guys! (To my in-laws: We'll invite you over for dinner soon!)

I digress, the rolls were amazing. Fluffy, healthy, easy and delicious. I paired them with a simple spinach, tomato, gruyere quiche with hash brown crust. Sounds fancy, but super easy and most of the ingredients I got from Amazing Savings...which means, organic and cheap.

Here are the rolls before we got into them. Quiche in the background. I jazzed up the rolls by adding a sugary glaze on top. I think that put them over the edge. I know my sweet tooth. This soothed it. (I think they would also be delicious with butter.)

Here they are after. Yes, there were 8, now there's 3 1/2. Sooooo gooood.

I'm not sure this is legal, but Sam assures me that since I adapted the recipe a bit, I can post it. Here it is, if you're interested.

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

Yields 2 dozen (Mine yielded 16 b/c of how I cut them)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour (I used farro flour, because that's what we had)

1/4 cup sugar

1 T. active dry yeast

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. ground ginger

1/4 t. allspice

Combine in large bowl. (I put everything into the Kitchen Aid and gave it a quick stir)

1 Cup Sweet potato cooked and mashed (I cooked a whole sweet potato and gave Kedzie the leftovers for dinner)

1 Cup Milk

1/4 cup butter

Combine in saucepan, cook over medium until butter is melted and mixture is warm. Add to flour and beat with mixture set on low 1-2 minutes until everything is moist. (I did this in the Kitchen Aid)

1 large egg, beaten

 

Add and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

2 1/2 cups bread flour

Stir in enough flour by hand to make the dough easy to handle. (Once again, I did this all in the kitchen aid...I just watched for the dough to start to come together and not be so sticky on the sides...I used the dough hook) Place dough ball in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled. 

Our dough got to rise outside in the sun for a bit...It was beautiful today.

Punch down. Divide the dough in half. Roll out each 1/2 into a 12 inch circle. (I saved one ball and put it into the freezer for another time).

2 T. Butter melted

Brush each circle with 1 T. butter. Cut into 12 wedges (Like I said, I did 8). Tightly roll up each wedge wide end to point. Place rolls on cookie sheet point side down. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I added the glaze after they came out of the oven. For 1/2 batch rolls I made a glaze by mixing 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 1/2 T. half and half. (You can use water, or cream or whatever you'd like)

I'd love to know if you make them...and if you have any suggestions!

Enjoy.

n.