Flaky Butter Pull-Apart Rolls

Anyone who knows me in real life knows this for certain: I love rolls. Let's be honest, I just like breadstuffs in general. But rolls? I mean, hold me back. I suppose I should add a caveat - they have to be soft and buttery and delicious. Those hard rolls you have to practically break a tooth getting in to? No thanks. That is not what rolls are about.

You want to see some good rolls? LOOK:

(Ignore the vitamins in the background. It's just real life.)

These are so good. If I hadn't been having some kind of weird stomach issue, I surely would've eaten way too many of them. That being said, they are sort of time intensive. But oh so worth it.

Flaky Butter Pull-Apart Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 Tablespoons (1 packet) instant yeast
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut into chunks
• 5 to 6 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, for glazing

Cooking Directions

1. Grease a 10-inch round springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Surely you can use a different size pan and still make these, but what's the fun in that? Place the pan on a baking sheet.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer (using the paddle attachment), mix the water and yeast briefly and then let stand until the yeast has dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the sugar, salt, eggs, stick of softened butter, and 5 cups of flour until the dough forms a soft mass. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour a tablespoon at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and shape into a ball, with your hands! It shouldn't be very sticky, but if it does a little, just make sure your hands are either wet or covered in flour. Spray a large bowl with non-stick spray, and place the ball of dough in the bowl, turning the dough over so both sides are coated. Cover loosely (I'd recommend a towel) and allow the dough to rise until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes. If you've got a drafty place, just stick it in the oven. The OFF oven.
4. Punch down the dough to deflate it, then leave it alone to rest for 20 minutes. Return the dough to the lightly floured work surface. If the dough looks like it rose back up at all, gently deflate it. Divide the dough into 12, 14 or 16 equal portions and roll into balls, then place them in the pan. You might think they won't all fit, but rest assured, they will, just squeeze 'em on in. Brush the tops of the rolls generously with the melted butter and then dust with flour. Cover the pan loosely and allow the rolls to rise for 20 or 30 minutes, until very puffed up.
5. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the round pan (which is on the baking sheet) in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. You may want to line the baking sheet with parchment if you don't want melted butter all over it, just FYI. Lift the round pan off the baking sheet and let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then unclasp the springform pan and remove from the rolls. Serve at room temperature or still warm. Delicious!

Recipe via Happy Go Marni

In photos:

Water and yeast bubble.

After you've added in the sugar, salt, eggs, stick of softened butter, and 5 cups of flour, it'll look shaggy like so.

Oh look, it's a bread dough alien! This is after it's been kneading with the dough hook, more Tbsp of flour added in.

Place the alien dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball.

Place that ball into a non-stick-sprayed large bowl.

Let it rise for 45 minutes. It'll have risen, like so.

To get this many rolls, I put the dough back on the floured surface, cut it in half with a pizza cutter, then cut those halves into 8 pieces each, rolled them up, and voila, 16 rolls.

Holy CRAP, that is a LOT of butter.

My! How much they rise in the oven! Mine could've really used probably a few more minutes in there, the middle was still a bit doughy.

Doughy, but delicious nonetheless. Mmmm.... seriously, if you like these types of soft rolls, you'll love these.

SYTYCD S9: Top 14 Perform, 3rd Elimination

After a two week hiatus, So You Think You Can Dance came back tonight with an interesting take on the top 14 performance episode. Every routine was a previous famous Mia Michaels piece from past seasons, with an additional cool group piece involving ropes that may have (un)intentionally evoked a certain terrible currently popular "novel." You may have been able to decipher my opinion on said "novel" by that statement, and that's where I'll leave that.

Joining Nigel and Mary on the judging panel were a couple SYTYCD newbies - the Ballet Boys Michael Nunn and Billy Trevitt, who had the interesting position of being the only people on the judging panel to not have seen these routines performed by their original dancers. Let's get to it...

Eliana & Cyrus - The Door routine (originally performed by Katee and Twitch in season four)
Still a great routine, but not as great with Cyrus in place of Twitch, I must say. Honestly I think Cyrus has been pretty lucky these last few weeks by not getting into the bottom, just based on personality alone. Personality can only go so far, however, and next week things could go south for him. Eliana, on the other hand, hasn't had a real chance to showcase her talent, though tonight I thought she killed it. Hopefully she gets someone awesome when they switch up partners next week. Oops, giving away that they both already made it through! Oh well.

Tiffany & George - Hometown Glory (originally performed by Katee and Joshua in season four)
What's funny about this one is that they made this big deal about the assisted run in this dance, and when it actually came to that part, it was a huge letdown, it didn't seem a showcase of the routine at all, but I'm not convinced it wasn't partially the camera's fault too. The judges really harshed on Tiffany, but I actually thought she was getting into character really well. Who knows.

Amelia & Will - Butt dance (originally performed by Randi and Evan in season five)
Now, I was never ever a fan of Evan in season five, so I liked Will in this so much better than I did in the original, but I have to say that I agreed with the judges on Amelia. There was something just not quite there, not as much butt, but not as much performance with the butt there was too. It's hard to take something that's become sort of iconic and make it your own but still pay homage too, which was sort of a theme of the night.

Janelle & Dareian - Bed dance (originally performed by Kherington and Twitch in season four)
I was reading about the whole tribute to Mia earlier today, where they listed all of the dances that were going to be performed, and they mentioned that in this one, they never actually touch, which I don't think I'd noticed before, but makes it all the more effective. Honestly this was the first time I thought Janelle was okay, and Dareian was pretty great if you ask me, though the ballet boys did get on his case about his feet again. Poor kid needs to get his feet under control. If he had them under control, the results may have been different. But I'm jumping ahead.

Audrey & Matthew - Father/daughter routine (originally performed by Lacey and Neil in season three)
This one got perhaps the most flack of all the routines of the night, and I'm not sure it was exactly fair. I think it was mostly because it's such an emotionally charged piece that people have become attached to, that it's hard on the dancers to get it just right for each person. That said, I liked the sense of innocence that Audrey brought to it that was different from the original. I did think that Matthew wasn't quite as expressive as Neil, and that was likely his downfall.

Witney & Chehon - The Bench (originally performed by Travis and Heidi in season two)
This is perhaps the most iconic of Mia's routines, perhaps just because it's really the first one that really made such an impact. That said, I thought these two did it justice pretty well. It was one of the better ones of the night, although Chehon did still get a little finger wagging for not letting himself go more. That's the ballet dancer in him, clearly. He likes to be in control of his movement. I enjoyed it, though. They did a good job.

Lindsay & Cole - Addiction (originally performed by Kayla and Kupono in season five)
I saw this routine in person when it was first performed by Kayla and Kupono, and I can honestly say that it is probably one of my favorites from the show, ever. And, OMG, what Cole did in that role was totally amazeballs. He did exactly what the judges had been wanting everyone to do and really made it his own. The twitchy nature of his movement, the sheer creepy scary sinisterness of it, I loved all of his choices. By far the best one of the night. Lindsay did fine in it too, though honestly I was just so drawn to Cole it didn't much matter.

After all was said and done, the dancers who were in danger after the last show's voting were:

Girls:
Amelia
Janelle
Lindsay

Guys:
George
Dareian
Matthew

Unlike the last few weeks, they actually had everyone perform solos. With the girls, it was pretty apparent even before they came out who I thought they were going to save, and there was no change after. Lindsay's in. I'm not really upset about the other two going, honestly I think Janelle out-stayed her ability already.

Out of the guys, however, I had an inkling who I thought they were going to save, but I wasn't sure, it could've gone any way. Matthew, however, sealed his fate by doing an ultra-flaily solo without a lot of dancing. George was controlled power, and Dareian had my favorite solo of the night. Honestly, if he didn't have his foot issue, I think that solo would've saved him. Alas, George is the one sticking around for now.

So that dwindles the number down to the top 10. Next week the partners are getting broken up, and the all stars are coming in to play. I'm not sure which all stars are going to be around, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. (Please let there be some Mark?)

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Winner! Supernatural: Rite of Passage Giveaway

And the lucky winner of the new Supernatural tie-in novel Rite of Passage is...

Grean, who had this to say about what they love about Supernatural:
"First it was two hot men shooting demons in the head, then it was two hot brothers and the stories about family and sacrifice. Then it was all about the whole angsty story wrapped up in two hot men. I don't know how much further it will morph or what form it will take but I love the ride, the two hot men are always front and center."


Jared and Jensen are very happy for you!

Please email me at freshfromjen at gmail.com to claim your prize!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

CLOSED: Giveaway! Supernatural: Rite of Passage

As you may have seen, I recently was given an advance copy of the new Supernatural tie-in novel Rite of Passage by John Passarella to review. I figured, rather than keep it for myself, I'd let one of YOU in on the fun!

 Check out my review of the book!

The Rules:

You can enter in up to 3 ways:

1. Leave a comment right here saying what you love about Supernatural

2. Like my page on Facebook and leave a comment on the page wall saying that you're entering to win the book and what you love about Supernatural

3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet that you're entering to win the book; make sure you include @jensayswhat so I see it

To be clear, that means you can have up to three total entries, so the more you do, the higher your chances of winning.

The contest will close Saturday, August 11th at 11:59pm PST, at which point I'll pick a winner at random and make the announcement on August 12th.

That's it! Good luck!

CONTEST CLOSED. Click here to see who the winner is.

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Book Review: Supernatural: Rite of Passage by John Passarella

What's this? A book review? Why yes! I was recently asked if I would like to review one of the upcoming Supernatural companion novels before it comes out, and I figured why not! I think I need to write a disclaimer before I actually review the book, though, and that is this: I've never read any of these companion novels before, so I will not be able to compare this new one to past ones.

Review:

Supernatural: Rite of Passage
by John Passarella
Releasing August 14, 2012

Synopsis:
Laurel Hill, New Jersey, is beginning to look like one of the unluckiest places on Earth when an escalating series of accidents and outbreaks hit the town. But Sam and Dean suspect it's more than just bad luck. Along with Bobby Singer, the brothers soon realize that a mysterious figure is at the center of the chaos. When they uncover a connection between the stranger and three teenage boys at the local high school who are experiencing some unusual growing pains, they know they will need far more than good luck to prevent an all-out disaster. Set during season 7 in between the episodes "Season 7, Time for a Wedding!" and "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters."

Overall, this novel was a fast read that became more engrossing as it went on. Stakes ratcheted, descriptions were strong, and there was no lack of violence for those who love that, though the ending seemed to all happen a little bit too quickly for me. I was actually pretty impressed with the writing, as my expectations weren't exactly super high. Let's be honest, we're not expecting Pulitzer Prize-winning prose in these sorts of novels. That being said, the writing is much better than some other "regular" books I've read recently. I was surprised how much I wanted to keep reading once I got into it. That did take a little while, though, probably about 100 pages or so before I was truly into it. Much of the beginning is focused on the monster and his wrecking havoc, which could get a little bit long-winded.

Here's the interesting thing, though: story-wise, Sam and Dean really aren't the main characters of this book. I would wager they are actually in probably 60% of the book on the whole, though obviously I can't be precisely accurate about that without nitpicking, but you get the idea. Instead, much of the story is focused on the point of view of the villain and the high school kids that become a part of the whole thing. While that may be a giant red flag for many who love Supernatural because of Sam and Dean, I have to say that much of the story of the high schoolers was pretty absorbing. Indeed, while there are stakes and danger for these kids, Sam and Dean are kind of relegated to side players.

And that's often the rub with these tie-in books, I imagine, since the authors are forced to get Sam and Dean back to their status quo by the end of the story. Because of that, there isn't a whole lot of character development for the brothers, it's mostly just them and Bobby going through the motions of trying to figure out what the monster is and how to kill it. There are some brief mentions of Sam dealing with the Lucifer hallucinations, and a tiny bit of Sam asking Dean how he's dealing with the hunter life at the end of the book, much like the patented roadside chats in the TV series, but it felt a little bit forced, a little bit like what would've been more interesting was to focus back on the survivors in the town rather than our erstwhile Winchesters. I almost feel like a better idea for tie-in novels would be to go into some past stuff before the show started, to allow the writers more wiggle room and a chance to make Sam and Dean the real stars of the show, but hey, I don't make these decisions!

If you enjoy reading tie-in novels aligning with the current series, I would say give this one a shot, particularly if you're a fan of the monster-of-the-week story format.