Lion House Rolls and Honey Butter

John had a birthday last week, and knowing he has a thing for the Lion House Pantry restaurant, Katie and I grabbed him and made a bee-line to the home of these famous rolls! We all swore to pass up all the delicious entrees next time and fill our plates with nothin' but these rolls and honey butter. :-)

Use this recipe to make them at home! Wait. That might not be a good thing....

Lion House Dinner Rolls

4 points per roll

2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees F)
2/3 cup non-fat dry milk (instant or non-instant)
2 Tablespoons dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter, shortening or margarine (butter is best for flavor)
1 egg
5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or bread flour
oil for bowl

In bowl of stand mixer with flat attachment combine water and milk powder; stir until milk dissolves. Add yeast, then sugar, salt, butter, egg, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until ingredients are wet, then for 2 minutes at medium speed.

Add 2 more cups of flour; mix on low speed until incorporated, then for 2 minutes at medium speed. (Dough will be getting stiffer so switch to kneading attachment at this point). Work in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is soft, not overly sticky, but workable and not stiff. (You probably won't use all the flour).

Scrape the dough off the sides of the bowl and pour about a tablespoon of vegetable oil down the sides. Rotate the dough ball so that all sides are covered. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise til double in size (about 45 minutes).

Flour a surface for rolling out the dough and turn the dough out. Roll and cut as desired and place in a greased pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise again until double in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the rolls in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Brush tops with melted butter immediately when removed from the oven. Serve warm with honey butter.

NOTE: The Lion House cookbook suggests rolling the dough into a rectangle that is 8 inches by 12 inches then cutting that once down the middle the long way, then cutting that into two inch wide strips (to make 12 2 inch by 4 inch strips). Then just roll the strips up from their short end and place into the pan seam side down. It will look like you rolled individual cinnamon rolls and placed them in the pan on their sides.

Makes 1 to 1 1/2 Dozen Rolls

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Lion House Honey Butter 

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup honey

Whip softened butter. Add vanilla and honey gradually. Beat for 20 minutes or until light and fluffy. Makes 1 cup.

 

credits:

Lion House Bakery book cover

Lion House rolls rising

Lion House rolls recipe

Butternut Soup

Nothin' beats warm soup and homemade bread on a cold, blustery day. We're talking comfort food, baby!  I'm finding out that soup is pretty souper super -- it's healthy, low-point eating, and better yet -- great for a tight budget. So, we're trying to incorporate soups into our menu planning a little more these days.

Here's a little autumn soup we tried not too long ago. Loved the flavor of the roasted butternut! Perfect for the season. Give it a try and tell me what you think...

 
Butternut Soup

2 points per serving

1 medium butternut squash (about 3 lbs.), peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes

2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 large onion, chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

2 Tablespoons minced fresh sage, or 2 teaspoons rubbed sage

3 cans (14.5 oz. each) reduced-sodium chicken broth

cooking spray

 

Place squash in a 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray. Drizzle  with 1 Tablespoon oil; sprinkle with pepper. Toss around to coat. Bake uncovered, at 425° F for 30-35 minutes or until tender, stirring it every 15 minutes.

In a Dutch oven pan, saute the onion, the celery and the sage in the remaining oil until tender. Stir in broth and reserved squash. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Cool slightly.

In a blender, puree the soup in batches until smooth. Return to the pan; heat through if needed. Serves 8.

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This recipe comes with Parmesan croutons to go with it. We chose not to make the croutons when we served it, but here's the recipe in case you do! Adding the croutons makes the soup a 3 point dish.

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Parmesan Croutons
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2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon minced fresh sage or 1 teaspoon rubbed sage

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups French bread (1/2 inch cubes)

additional grated Parmesan cheese, optional

cooking spray

In a small bowl, combine the cheese, oil, sage and garlic. Add bread cubes and spritz with cooking spray; toss to coat. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425° F for 5-8 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Serve with soup and sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese if desired.

recipe credit: Healthy Cooking magazine, October/November 2009, p.40

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Get these cookies away from me. For reals.  These are so good! I can't think of a better way to get me off my weight watchin' plan.  It's the whole peanut-buttery, milk-chocolatey kissy, slightly crispy sugary thing that gets me. Every time. I'm gonna type out this recipe for you, and then go get my workout clothes on.   See ya!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

makes 37 cookies

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1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 9 ounce package milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Cream the peanut butter, sugar, butter, and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Sift the salt, baking soda and flour together. Combine with the wet mixture. Shape into balls; dip into additional white sugar.

Flatten balls with a fork. Bake 8 minutes, remove from oven and press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Return to oven; bake another 3 minutes.
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Hints:

♥  We put the additional sugar in a ziploc storage bags and toss 3-4 dough balls around in there at a time.

♥  Flatten the dough balls with a fork, but not too flat! Barely flatten the cookie. Makes for a better peanut butter cookie...

♥  We keep our chocolate chips and chocolate kisses stored in the freezer...(must be a thing leftover from our Texas days) and it works well for this recipe. We unwrap the frozen kisses and plop them on the cookies. They keep their shape and don't melt.

♥  Stick to this recipe. Click here to see what happened when I tried to substitute candy corn kisses for the chocolate ones! LOL