Dress the bread basket with four leaf clover rolls

There is something special about the month of March. It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Those who prepare the meal for his Irish holiday know in advance that they will be serving up corned beef and cabbage. But there isn’t anything green about that dinner choice. So let’s add a little green to the table and dress up the bread basket with some four leaf clover rolls. This will get the attention of everyone sitting around the dining table. How cute and clever are they? Now you are thinking the answer to that question is non other than very clever. Instead of adding imitation food coloring here we’ll add the color naturally while adding a healthy vegetable that will go unnoticed except by the baker. Spinach is a healthy addition to these four leaf clover rolls. It will provide vitamins, nutrients, of course an extra serving of vegetables and natural color from the spinach. These rolls will be a hit at the dinner table and the raves will tell you that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when you see everyone enjoying them.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of regular milk
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 package of fry active yeast
• ¼ cup of margarine or butter
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• ½ cup of thawed and drained frozen chopped spinach
• 1 tablespoon of melted margarine or butter

Directions:

1. In a medium sized saucepan warm the milk slightly.
2. Turn the burner off.
3. Then stir in the sugar and yeast.
4. Let the milk mixture sit for 15 minutes to activate the yeast and get a slight frothy look to it.
5. Melt only ¼ cup of the butter in the microwave and add it to the milk mixture along with the salt and drained chopped spinach and stir in well.
6. Transfer the contents of the saucepan to a mixing bowl and gradually add the flour while mixing.
7. Once the mixture starts to resemble a ball of dough change the beaters to dough hook.
8. Let the mixer knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
9. Grease a large bowl and place the dough inside.
10. Cover with a clean dish or cheese cloth.
11. Let the dough sit for 1 ½ hours until it has doubled in size.
12. Once the dough has doubled punch it down and split it into four sections.
13. Each quarter should be split again in 12 more pieces.
14. Roll all the separated dough parts into balls similar in size.
15. Grab 4 dough balls and place them into each muffin pan cup.
16. Once the muffin pan is filled drape the cheese cloth over it and let it sit for 1 ½ hours to rise again.
17. Preheat the oven to 400’.
18. Melt the remaining butter and use a pastry brush to lightly coat each clover leaf roll top.
19. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the tops of the rolls are golden brown.
20. Remove the muffin pan and let it sit for 10 minutes.
21. Then transfer the rolls to a wire cooling rack.
22. Let them cool for a bit before placing in a bread basket and serve.
23. Enjoy!

Suggestions:

• Recipe makes 12 clover leaf dinner rolls.
• Double the recipe at holiday times to accommodate a larger family gathering.
• Delicious as is or you can also spread on some extra butter.
• Serve with stew or soups and soak up the broth to get every last drop in the bowl.
• Soy milk can be substituted for whole milk in the recipe too.

Jackson residents can shop at any of these local grocery stores Reeves Grocery, Stringers Grocery, J & M Grocery, Pick’n Save or Wal-mart for all the ingredients needed for this recipe.

© 2013 Beverly Mucha / All Rights Reserved

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