Scout Baking

We've been doing quite a bit of baking for our Scouts!  Our Scoutmaster is expecting his first baby later this month, and the troop is throwing him a Baby Court of Honor (the Scout equivalent of a baby shower).

We made 3 dozen dark chocolate cupcakes.  They are filled with almond vanilla filling and frosted with baby blue raspberry frosting, topped with a chocolate fleur de lis (the scout symbol).  Recipe here.

When I say "we,"  I mean Klenda made the cupcakes, Mxyl made the chocolates, I made the frosting and filling, and everyone assembled.

We also made our daily ration of "Scout's Honor Rolls."

The main fund raiser for the troop is a charcoal chicken BBQ.  They grill half chickens and serve them with really great coleslaw, the best baked beans, and a really lousy roll.

Well that's something I can fix!  I set out to design a roll that would be the equal of the rest of the meal.

So, for the last few BBQs, we have made 300 plus rolls.  Again, that's not the royal we, everyone helps out!  We make one batch a day for 5 days to hit our quota.

These are too rich for everyday, too tender and buttery...  Mmmmmm.

Scout's Honor Rolls (64 rolls)

4 c. warm water
2 t. salt
scant 1 c. sugar
1 c. potato flakes
1 c. powdered milk
1/2 c. softened butter
4 eggs
3 T yeast
10 - 12 c. flour (I use 1/3 bread and 2/3 pastry, try all purpose)

I mix everything in the KitchenAid, leaving the dough soft and a little sticky.
Let rise until doubled (1 hour?)
I dump it out on a floured board cut it in half.  1/2 goes back in the bowl to cut up later.

That means the lump on the counter should make 32 rolls.  I cut that in half, setting aside half and keep cutting halves until I have 16 rolls.  Then I take the smaller set aside and make 16 from that.  While I'm cutting, the Zoomlians are grabbing hunks and rolling them into ropes.  They tie them in knots (get it, scouts tie knots!) and arrange them on cookie sheets while I keep cutting.

I preheat the oven while the rolls rise.  We bake at 375 for about 15 minutes, switching around the baking sheets for even browning.  As soon as they come out, we brush them with melted butter and let them cool.

When they are completely cool, we put them in batches of 20 in gallon ziplock bags and pop them in the freezer.

The night before the BBQ, we take them out to thaw.  On the big day we reheat all the rolls briefly  so that they are at their absolute peak!

And we always make one last batch for us... :)