Homemade Hawaiian Rolls

I haven't been sulking after Denver's Super Bowl loss.  All that much.  Actually, if you've been a Denver fan long enough to remember the heartbreak of Denver's Super Bowl losses in the late 80s and early 90s, well you've probably learned to effectively cope with the grief.  It's really all about compartmentalizing.   After you get past the initial shock that the team has lost it within the first 12 seconds of the game, you begin to the road to acceptance that it's going to be another one of those.  It get's easier with each blowout.

So homemade Hawaiian rolls.

There are a bazillion recipes out there for Hawaiian rolls--I found this recipe that the blogger said were the fluffiest rolls she'd ever made.  That's just a recipe begging to be made in my book.  Seriously, these are the fluffiest, softest rolls I've ever made as well.  They are not as sweet as the store bought ones but that's a plus in my opinion.  

The sweetness in these comes from brown sugar and pineapple. That's definitely a good start to any recipe. 

I adapted the recipe to use coconut oil instead of olive oil because I am swimming in Costco sized coconut oil over here.  Knowing that there's dough rising on the counter almost ready to bake makes be absolutely giddy.  Is there any kitchen smell that's better? Okay, maybe cinnamon rolls.

When I make rolls I pull the dough around and pinch tightly at the bottom to make a ball shape.  I think I learned once that this forms a tension on the top of the rolls that helps them keep their shape (as opposed to just rolling them like you are rolling cookie dough).  

You can already tell just from the rising that these are going to be super soft and fluffy right?

These rolls are pretty fantastic filled with Hawaiian pulled chicken, but really, they're pretty fantastic straight out of the pan as well.  Try to eat just one. 

Homemade Hawaiian Rolls

adapted from Yammie's Noshery

Ingredients:
1/3 cup milk warm milk
1 packet instant dry yeast
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted coconut oil, plus additional 2 tsp for bowl and pan
4 tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup pineapple in juice
4 cups bread flour (all-purpose would also work)
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

For the tops:
1 egg
1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Heat milk in a small saucepan until warm to the touch or about 100-105 degrees.  Add yeast and let rest for 5 minutes. 
2. Add the oil, butter, pineapple, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and milk mixture to a mixing bowl and mix on low until combined. 
3. Add flour and knead for 10 minutes on medium speed and using dough hook. This dough should be  a bit sticky.   
4. Grease a large bowl with melted 1 tsp of coconut oil.  Add dough and turn to coat dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled (about 45-60 minutes depending upon your kitchen temp). Punch the dough down and divide into twelve equal balls. 
5. Grease  9x13 inch pan with 1 tsp coconut oil, roll dough into balls and let rise again until doubled (45-60 minutes). 
6. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat together the egg and water for the top and brush the tops of the risen rolls with the egg wash. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden browned.

Super Bowl Sunday Orange Super Smoothie

Brooklyn's ready, are you?  Super Bowl Sunday is always happy but today is a day that makes a girl squeal with delight.  

The Super Bowl is a lot like Thanksgiving and Christmas in that it's just so much food and eating.  I haven't recovered from all of the Holiday baking so the blue and orange baking, while so much fun, has left me less than excited to eat any of it.  I bake the sweets and force them on others.  

What I can definitely get on board with is an Orange Super smoothie in honor of the game of games (and let's face it, the team of teams) tonight.  

This smoothie starts off innocently enough...1 orange peeled and chopped in half, one large handful of pineapple,  and a handful of mango.  The standard unit of measure for smoothies is indeed the "handful."

To get that orange though,  you need something extra orange.  Enter 2 handfuls of carrots and.........eeek.....deliciously beautiful orange beets.   You can leave the beets out of course.  I often add red beets to my smoothies if I'm using spinach because spinach and berries makes an ugly brown color, but a bit of beets keeps it all looking red and fresh.  I'm not going to lie to you here though, while spinach doesn't taste like spinach in a smoothie, beets do taste like beets.  Use sparingly or if you don't like beets, leave them out.  For this smoothie I also added a glop of honey, a quick pour (2-3 tbsps) of red cherry juice concentrate, 1 tsp chia seeds and 1 cup of ice cubes.  

I used about a quarter of an orange beet to get a kick of color...love those natural produce colors. 

If you are not so much on board with the Super Bowl smoothie and need some sugary goodies for your festive orange and blue table, it's not too late if you have a box of cake mix and some food coloring. 

Homemade Broncos whoopie pies are of course phenomenal,  but more time consuming.  The ones I made earlier in the season are more cookie like but if you want it fast and quick and more cake like,  you can make them with cake mix...this version worked well for me when I made these a few weeks ago.  I bake faster than I blog it seems. 

I couldn't bring myself to smoosh that much canned frosting between such little cakes though so I made a marshmallow buttercream instead (recipe below). 

Whew.  And thus comes the end of orange and blue food for another 7-8 months.   Unless you are this kid. 

Marshmallow Buttercream

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter room temp

1-2 tbsp milk
1 small container of Marshmallow Fluff
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Beat together butter and Fluff  on med until smooth 
2. Slowly add in powdered sugar with mixer on low.
3. Add in 1 tbsp milk and beat until combined, add additional milk if needed. 
4. Spoon into piping bag, cut tip and fill one half of whoopie pie on flat side and top with additional cake/cookie.