Homemade Garlic Rolls, and Conversions!

I finally made the long awaited garlic rolls Sunday morning, and shared it with my family...only to get complaints by the little guys...my 4 little grandchildren. "What's all the green stuff?"...and too much garlic! Although, it was a hit by everyone else...meaning, the adults. Well, at least, all the rolls were gone, in one sitting....and as you notice, they are not tall, but at least they are fluffy, but short, packed full of chopped fresh garlic, Italian parsley, and rosemary.
The reason they are "little short guys" ...no excuses...but one. I used my Le Creuset large lasagna pan to bake the rolls in, and instead of 8 rolls, I had enough for practically double at least 14, so I sliced them thinner.
So thank you Suhaina for the amazing dry yeast from Singapore, and thank you, for the inspiration. Now, I can make this again, with less garlic, and omit the herbs, so my grandchildren will not complain...and make them taller,
using a smaller bake pan.
For the recipe, click on to Suhaina's My Singapore Kitchen

I didn't have cilantro, or sesame seeds, but I did have the parsley and rosemary, which I used, and also sprinkled grated Romano cheese on the top before I baked it. Also, the baking time took a little longer, because 350 degrees F. was not high enough for the heavy duty bake pan, so I raised the temperature to 375 degrees F. for a total of 35 minutes, instead of 25 minutes.

I must confess, I have never made these type of rolls before, so I have to pat myself on the shoulders that because of the fantastic yeast, and the step-by-step instructions, I did OK! I'm always marveling at Roxana's beautiful yeast rolls, and bread that make it to the Foodbuzz Top 9... Mina's amazing sweet breads, and rolls, and just recently, Mari's gorgeous 4 braided Challah bread, and Swathi's beautiful  whole grain and rye breads...it's a shame for me not to pursue more yeast dough baking. My daughter Lora makes quite a lot of delicious yeast breads, and perfect pizza dough, so I do have a good excuse to be lazy about my own yeast baking. Enough of that!

I'm linking this to Hearth and Soul Hop #51

I always had a bit of shying away from Metric measures, but I have a real helpful hint from the back of my New Basics Cookbook....so get your little calculator out, and start multiplying, and dividing!

ounces to grams: multiply ounce figure by 28.3 to get number of grams
grams to ounces: multiply gram figure by .0353 to get number of ounces
pounds to grams: multiply pound figure by 453.59 to get number of grams
pounds to kilograms: multiply pound figure by 045 to get number of kilograms
ounces to milliliters: multiply ounce figure by 30 to get number of milliliters.
cups to liters: multiply cup figure by 0.24 to get number of liters


There are more conversions and equivalents, but these are the most important ones to remember when you need to convert from Metric to the American system, and vica-versa.

Here's the Active Dried Yeast I received from Suhaiana.
So let's do the conversion: 125 grams x .0353 = 4.41ounces

Just look at the tiny pearl like pieces of this fabulous yeast...the minute you pop open the little canister, the aroma of fresh yeast hits you! Not so, with our powdered dry yeast in the little packets.

So here's the little science experiment. ! tablespoon of the dried activated yeast dropped into 1 cup of warm water, (water heated in the microwave for 45 seconds)

As soon as yeast was dropped into the warm water, it started to bubble up, even without stirring.

After about 1 minute, yeast bubbled up like this!

After a few minutes, while I was getting my ingredients together for the dough...it practically overflowed...Wow!...this kind of result never happened with dry yeast before...now I know, I'm on the right track!

This is after 45 minutes, covered in a greased bowl.

I have my Le Creuset pan...btw...this was too large for the amount of rolls, but I already had it prepared, and greased, so next time I will use a smaller bake pan with a rim...even a round one perhaps. I did add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, taken off the sprigs, and put all three, garlic, parsley, and rosemary.

In the meantime, I practically made pesto, in the food processor, it's OK to make a lot, just mix it up the amount you need with the extra virgin olive oil, and I will show you what to do with the remainder of the herbs.

Is this a perfect punch mark, or what?...ready to punch down the dough!

Now, you got the nice rectangle, and spread the herbs, with the garlic, and olive oil...I think I added a little too much herbs, garlic, and oil.

In the meantime, I opened up Suhaina's blog to double check on the step-by-step great photo instructions...already printed out recipe, but without the photos, so I made sure to check again...and yeppp...I did add too much herbs, but then again...there are NO TWO COOKS ALIKE...THERE ARE NO TWO BAKERS ALIKE...so every person is an individual, and you cannot expect it to be exactly alike...Let's not be "copy cats"...just be your individual self. That's what makes us unique in our own way!...So, moving on...still have a few more to show you!

I don't know how I ended up with so many rolls, but at last count, I think I had about 15 rolls, resting in the pan, and spooning more herbs and oil, on top, also egg wash, and sprinkling it with shredded Romano cheese. The rolls needed to be proofed another 20 minutes, or so!...(or so, meaning, maybe I didn't proof them long enough?)
Was 20 minutes long enough?

I started it out at 350 degrees F....after 15 minutes, nothing was happening, so I raised the temperature to 375 degrees F. and baked it for an additional 20 minutes.

This is how I save my extra fresh herbs and garlic, in a mason jar, filled with pure vegetable oil, or canola oil, whichever I have on hand.
Basically, this is not pesto, but when you are grinding the herbs with the garlic, the only difference is, you spoon it out, to put into a jar, and add the oil to it, which will keep it fresh for up to 3 wks. in the fridge, but you will use it up a lot faster, because there are many uses for the herbs, and garlic. All you have to do is spoon out the amount you need, and add olive oil, and/or butter to whatever your culinary needs are.

The rolls did turn out light, flaky, garlicky, and a distinct flavor of the parsley, garlic and cheese. What I also did was to drizzle an addition of my fruity extra virgin olive oil on the top, and I, myself ate 3 rolls alone...Delicious!