Sour Cream Rolls

I know there are thousands of yummy roll recipes out there, but I wanted to share this one from my friend Lisa Pett. It's so soft because of the sour cream in it. I like it because with my busy schedule right now with a newborn, it is convenient to break up the work ... make the dough at night ... and shape/bake in the morning. It just takes a little planning ahead. I've also done it all the same day - letting it rise 3 hours before shaping and 3 hours after.

Sour Cream Rolls from Lisa Pett

Ingredients:
1 large carton of sour cream (2 cups)
1/4 cup shortening
Heat them together in a little pan, but don't boil.

Place in mixing bowl and stir in:
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten

Directions:
Take 2 packages of dry, fast rising yeast (2 TBLSP) and dissolve in 1 cup of luke warm water. Then mix with other ingredients in large bowl. Add 7 1/2 cups flour, and knead.

Cover the bowl with aluminum foil and place a dishtowel over it. Place bowl and contents, well covered, in a refrigerator overnight (or in a cold oven for 3 hours) and until the dough has doubled in bulk.

Make rolls and place in roll pans, cover with dishtowel and let raise for about 3-4 hours. ***However, I have made them and let it rise in a semi warm oven to go faster and it works just fine too.

Don't make them too small. If you fold them over, put a little butter between the folds. Bake 9-12 minutes, depending on oven, at 350 degrees. Bake until rolls are light brown--not dark brown.

(tips from lisa:

**I cut the dough into 4 equal parts and then roll it out into a 16 inch circle. Then I use a pizza cutter to cut the circle into 16 even triangles. I roll them up like Crescent rolls and butter them with a melted butter and a pastry brush hot out of the oven.

This dough is an excellent base for cinnamon or orange rolls.)

Pear Crisp

Just wanted to give a shout-out to this Pear Crisp recipe from Pioneer Woman. I made it and it was tasty. As always, go to her site for scrumptious photos of this recipe.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 40 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 4

Ingredients

FILLING INGREDIENTS:
4 whole (to 5) Large Pears (Bosc Work Well)
⅔ cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
_____

Topping Ingredients
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
⅓ cups Sugar
⅓ cups Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
½ cups Pecans, Very Finely Chopped
1 stick Butter, Melted

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel, core, and dice pears. Place into a bowl and stir together with 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans. Stir together. Drizzle melted butter gradually, stirring with a fork as you go until all combined.

Pour pears into a baking dish; top with crumb topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Place pan on top rack of oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

Credit for this recipe goes to my sister Amy. She mentioned that she made these (original recipe found in the Nestle cookbook) and shared the recipe with me. I made them today and even the kids loved them.

CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Solid pack pumpkin
1/4 cup Melted butter
1 Egg
6 oz Semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup Finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 400. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; make a well in the center.

In a small bowl, combine milk, pumpkin, butter and egg; add to well in flour mixture.

Add chocolate chips; stir until dry mixture is moistened. Spoon mixture into greased muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full. Sprinkle 1 tsp. nuts over each muffin.

Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans, completely cool on racks.

This recipe makes 12.