Butter horns — Probably a Disaster

[Italiancook]

I've been obsessing about making Butter horn dinner rolls since I learned about them in "Mennonite Community Cookbook." The recipe called for a cake of yeast, which is nonexistent around here. Recipe said to roll the dough to the size of a dinner plate. Given this is the 65th anniversary of the cookbook, I didn't know whether the dinner plate should be a modern one, or a smaller one, which would have been in use decades ago. So I went to the Internet for recipes. Discovered that if you bend the ends of butter horns, they're called crescent rolls. Also found out from the website, "Mennonite Girls Cook" that there's a sweet, round roll called butter horns that are sorta like a Danish, but smaller.

Found a Butter horn recipe on a website that I won't name, because the recipe caused me angst. This morning, when I started this project, I intended to make the Butter horns from "Mennonite Community Cookbook," because it used less flour than the internet recipe. As I started, I noticed that the cookbook recipe calls for 3 eggs. That sent up red flags because of the phosphorus in egg yolks. So I decided to use the Internet recipe. As I started it, I realized that the amount of milk was probably too much calcium for my medical condition, but I forged ahead, because it used only 1 egg. Always a trade off when you have a special diet.

Everything went smoothly until the dough was prepared. It was sticky, as the recipe said it would be. But the Internet recipe called for quite a bit more flour than the cookbook recipe. I found that the dough was too heavy for me to lift out of the mixer bowl because of the stickiness and all the flour. Thankfully, my husband was home, and he helped me k put the dough into a waiting, greased bowl. It also helped that I had eventually put olive oil on my hands to deal with the stickiness.

This dough is refrigerated overnight. I fought with the plastic wrap to cover the bowl and succeeded. After the bowl was in the fridge, I realized I had forgotten to grease the top of the dough. I was too worn out to fight with the plastic wrap again, so I decided to do nothing. The top had been upside down on the greased bowl bottom. I'm hoping it picked up enough grease to be okay and not crusty on top tomorrow. But I'm not overly optimistic after all the trouble with this dough. So my first attempt at savory Butter horns may be a disaster.

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• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Italiancook.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Italiancook.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook: I had a similar issue with a butterhorn kind of recipe from The Great Scandinavian Cookbook. After the same thing happened with another recipe (which Cass thoughtfully balanced for me), I now know to hold back some of the water until I know that the dough can take it. It may be that the author measured her flour differently or used a different kind.

[Italiancook]

Have any of you worked with a refrigerated dough to troubleshoot, if there's a problem?
A few hours after I put the dough in the fridge, it had nicely puffed up over the edge of the bowl. It looked full and lively. Now, it has shrunk down to the edge of the bowl. We were opening & closing the refrigerator to put away groceries, so I don't know if that caused the dough to collapse a little. Aare refrigerated doughs supposed to collapse a little after they puff up? Or, was opening and closing the refrigerator door a no-no?

[Author]

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