Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Tasty Tuesday: Resurrection Rolls

My kids are ecstatic that Easter is quickly approaching. Jake has been looking forward to it ever since the excitement of Christmas wore off. He has had a countdown going since this past Sunday.  All week, when he wakes up in the morning, he first asks, "Where's baby Tyler?" and "Can I give him a hug and kiss?" Very next thing, he tells me how many days are left until we celebrate Easter. I wish I could tell you that he's looking forward to commemorating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or at least that he's eagerly awaiting the time spent together as a family. But no. Of course, he does understand the true meaning of Easter. He knows that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again three days later. But he's a kid. To him, it's all about the Easter basket and Easter egg hunt. What can I say, he's six.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure to put the focus on Jesus. I first heard of resurrection rolls a few years ago, but never made them. Until now.

The purpose of the rolls is to show a picture of Jesus' resurrection from the grave. (Full story and symbolization at bottom of post with recipe.) The ingredients are simple - a can of refrigerated crescent rolls, marshmallows, butter, cinnamon, and sugar. There's just one problem with that list. We don't buy refrigerated rolls. I make them from scratch. I had never made crescent rolls though. No biggie, there's a first time for everything. Sure, I could just have picked up a tube of rolls from the store, but where's the fun in that?


I love this thing. Dump all the ingredient in, select the dough/pasta setting, hit start, and wait for 90 minutes. Ah, simplicity.


Once the dough is ready, take it out, and punch it down a few times. Break it into two halves and roll each half into a 12" circle, or almost-circle. 


Cut the dough into 10-15 wedges. I made mine a little larger to cover the marshmallows. I tried a couple small ones though to see if they'd be big enough. They weren't.
If you're making regular rolls, you brush the dough with softened butter, roll them up starting with the wide end, allow to rise until doubled, and bake. We did that with one half of the batch. They other half, I let rise in wedges and then continued with the resurrection roll recipe.

Here is where I have a problem. You see, I took picture after picture of my little ones assembling the resurrection rolls and pictures of the finished product. But we can't find them. I looked on the memory card. No files found. I looked on another card. No files found. I had Leighton check. No files found. What's a girl to do? Continue with the post . . . without any picture proof. 

So, visualize with me. Can you see Jake dip his marshmallow into the melted butter? He's rolling it around . . . and around and around. There's Alyssa coating her marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar mixture . . . and sneaking a few tastes. There's Zac pretending to help, but really just licking his fingers every 3 seconds. They all place the covered marshmallows on the crescents and wrap them up.   

And here's where we run into trouble. Again. I could skip this part - you'd never know - but I can't. See, my dough was not doubled after an hour and a half and it was getting late. I warmed the oven to 250°F for 5 minutes, placed the dough inside, and let it finish rising. I realized after we tried to cover the marshmallows and the dough wouldn't stick closed that it was partially cooked. I never turn the oven off! It was cooking my precious dough for 10-15 minutes instead of allowing it to rise in the warmth. On a side note, I boiled 2 dozen eggs yesterday to dye this week for Easter. As I was drying them to put them in the fridge, I realized that I had used brown eggs. Kinda hard to color brown eggs! Yesterday just wasn't my day in the kitchen. Hey, it happens!

Anyway, back to the rolls. We wrapped them the best we could and baked them. And we ran into trouble. Yet  again! The rolls were browning, but the marshmallows were still there. Jesus can't still be in the grave! I let them bake until the cook in me could stand it no more. We simply couldn't eat overcooked rolls just for the sake of illustration. I removed the rolls with marshmallow oozing out. We did have a couple that were totally empty inside, like they're supposed to be. The kids were amazed that the marshmallows were gone! And they loved the almost-cinnamon rolls that were left. But honestly, the ones with the fresh, roasted marshmallow-melt tasted even better! 

While they enjoyed their rolls, I read them John 19:40-20:18. We talked in depth again about the story. Jake asked, "How many times did Jesus rise? Because it says He rose . . . again. Again means more than one time."


And again we have trouble - our rolls are all gone! We should probably make them a second time just so you can see the process through pictures. Or maybe I just want more than 1 measly roll!
  


Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated crescent rolls                       1-2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
8 large marshmallows                                                         2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
1. Take a triangle from the cresent rolls.
The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

2. Get a marshmallow.
This represents Jesus and His purity.

3. Dip the marshmallow in melted butter.
This represents the oils of embalming.

4. Roll the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar.
These represent the spices used to anoint the body of Jesus.

5. Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside, otherwise the marshmallow will leak out.)
This represents the wrapping of Jesus’ body after death.

6. Place in a 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
The oven represents the tomb where they buried Jesus.

When the rolls have cooled slightly, the you can open the cloths (rolls) and discover that Jesus (marshmallow) is no longer there, HE IS RISEN! The marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up, but like the tomb - it is empty!




Crescent Rolls
Ingredients:
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp)           2 eggs
3/4 cup warm water (110° F)                                                  1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup white sugar                                                                 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt                                                                        1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions:
1. Place the first 7 ingredients in pan of bread maker in order of manufacture's directions. Select the dough cycle.
2. When cycle is finished, remove and punch down dough. Divide in half. Roll each half into a 12-inch circle. Spread with butter. Cut into 10 to 15 wedge. Roll up the wedges starting with the wide end. Place rolls with point under on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double (about 1 hour).
3. Bake at 400° F for 12-15 minute or until golden brown. Brush tops with butter.
Recipe adapted from here.
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