Tonight I Iron-Chef-ed it. it’s St. Patrick’s Day, so I bought some Guinness stout on the way home and used it as the secret ingredient in every course. I ended up cutting two courses from the plan, actually, since the freezer drum for the ice cream maker wasn’t pre-frozen (so no Guinness ice cream) and corwin’s trying to lose weight, so at the last minute I decided not to make the Guinness cheese fondue after all. But I decided to go ahead with the dinner rolls I was making to cube up for fondue dipping.
The rest of the meal included Guinness-glazed chuck roast (the glaze consisting of a Guinness reduction with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar), Guinness-braised cabbage, Guinness-glazed carrots (glaze #2 consisting of Guinness reduction, butter, brown sugar, and a dash of sweet soy), herb roasted potatoes, and roasted sweet potatoes.
For the dinner rolls I looked at a recipe on Cooks.com for “quick and easy dinner rolls” and decided to up the amount of yeast, get rid of the egg, cut the sugar to almost half, use olive oil instead of melted butter, and add herbs. And Guinness. It made 11 rolls in the large muffin tins. Here’s the details:
Herb dinner rolls
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 scant tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
3 cups flour, sifted
Herbs — 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each of rubbed sage, thyme or rosemary, dash of paprika
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water in the bottom of the mixing bowl.
Add sugar, salt, and oil. Sprinkle in the herbs, get them good and wet.
Add half the flour, and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add rest of flour and beat again until dough balls up. If it’s too dry, here’s where the Guinness comes in! I added about a tablespoon. (A dash of water probably works, too.)
Spray muffin pans with spray canola and then fill half full with blobs of dough, let rise until double.
Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes, turning the pans halfway through.
Serve while hot and crusty!
Herb Dinner Rolls (with Guinness)
