BUNNY ROLLS!
I have had the opportunity to participate in and manage the Kitchen Stage at the Minneapolis Home & Garden Show for 3 years in a row. Each year Marjorie Johnson, our beloved MN Blue Ribbon Baker puts on a grand show with delightful stories and winning baking tips (For Free!) She is an absolute riot and fun to be around. She exudes a kind and genuine demeanor. She is a small, but mighty woman, who is fiercely in love with baking. Marjorie allows me one glorious moment of feeling tall-ish. One of the few people in my life that I don’t have to stand on my tippy toes to hug. Each year she chooses 1-3 baking items from her cookbook for our team to prepare as she demonstrates the recipes on stage at the show. In recent years, she has done banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, date bars and many other popular (yet easy) baked goods. This year? Well, it is over Easter Sunday, soooooooo… How do I put this…We were given the opportunity to spend the entire Saturday prior to Easter Sunday (8 hours) mixing, rising, punching, rising, rolling and baking Bunny Rolls. I was under the impression that homemade dinner rolls were time consuming only having to roll a few dozen balls to let rise and bake. OH No No No… a ball for the head, a ball for the body, ball for right arm, ball for left arm, ball for left leg, ball for right leg…ball with pointed tip for left ear and ball with pointed tip for right ear. Not stopping there we added eyes, nose and a mouth. Yikes! We eliminated the mouth and nose and went with an anime looking face with vertical eyes. That…my friends was only 1 bunny. 99 more to go, plus a large bunny for stage and 8 hours later, I still had a friend who is genuinely still my friend. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they went on vacation next March/April. 🙂 All in all a wonderful experience and fantastic challenge to a newly formed friendship, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world! Enjoy the recipe below for Marjorie Johnson’s Bunny Rolls found also in her cookbook Sold Here
If you do in fact make these funny little characters, please post a photo and any tips you may have for other bakers and readers…Thank you in advance.
Happy Baking!
“Whatever it is you are searching for…I hope you can eat it!”
Jessica Tijerina
Bunny Rolls
Ingredients:
- Batter
-
- 1 cup water (105F-115 F. degrees)
- 1/3 cup dry milk
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 3 1/2-4 cups flour
- 1 egg slightly beaten (to brush over bunny rolls just before baking)
Method:
Place in an electric mixer bowl the water and yeast. Let stand for a few minutes till the yeast is dissolved. Add dry milk, butter, sugar, salt, eggs and 2 cups of the flour. Blend together on low speed then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. Add rest of flour and knead with bread hooks or by hand to make a soft smooth elastic dough. Place in a greased bowl, cover, let rise in a warm place about 80 degrees till double in bulk.
Punch down, let rise again till double. Punch down and make into bunnies.
Take about 3 oz. of the dough and take part of it and make a ball and press down for the body on a greased cooking sheet. Take a smaller piece of the dough for the head. Take 6 smaller pieces of dough, make balls and use two for the front paws and put next to the side of the body part. Put 2 at the end of the body part and then put 2 by the head to form the ears, shaping the pieces of dough to point at one end to look like bunny ears.
Currants or raisins may be used for the eyes and nose. A small piece of candied cherry for the mouth. Cover and let rise till double Just before baking brush with the beaten egg. That gives it a golden brown color when baked. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove from baking sheet. Brush with butter and place on wire rack to cool.
Makes about 1 dozen bunnies.
Recipe provided by Marjorie Johnson from the Blue Ribbon Baking Cookbook.