A Recipe and a Book Recommendation...

Good morning and happy Monday, friends! I hope that you enjoyed a nice, relaxing weekend. We had an early Christmas get-together at our house on Saturday. My parents, Justin and his girlfriend Hailee came over for lunch and to open presents. We ate waaaaay too much and had a great time visiting. :)

Today I'm going to share with you a fabulous recipe for white bread/rolls that was given to me by my sweet friend Robbi R. With Christmas just a little over a week away, you might want to bake some of these tasty rolls up to serve with your holiday meal:

Ingredients:

• 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups of flour
• 2 packages of yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/4 cup soft butter
• 2 1/4 cups very hot tap water

Method:

Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast together and blend well. Add butter and combine with flour mixture. Add hot tap water all at once. Mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and beat on high for 1 minute. Add remaining flour and, with dough hook attachment on mixer, and combine until a soft dough forms. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, cover with plastic wrap and towel. Allow dough to rest for 20 minutes and then punch it down. Shape into loaves or rolls and place in a greased pan. Rub surface with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 to 48 hours and let stand for 10 minutes before baking at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until a light golden brown. If you want to make the rolls immediately after rising, rather than refrigerating the dough for later use, then cut the baking time to 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Rub tops of bread or rolls with a stick of butter upon removing from the oven to keep them soft.

Serve warm with butter and/or Christmas jam. (Click HERE for Christmas jam recipe.)

Lastly, I want to share a Christmas book with you called Christmas Treasures of the Heart by Cheri Fuller. (Shown in the photo at the top of this post.) This is a wonderful little book chocked full of short stories and simple Christmas celebration ideas to inspire and enlighten you during this holiday season. My sweet sis-in-law, Lea Ann, gave me a signed copy of this book many years ago, and I re-read it and place it on my coffee table every year for visitors to look at if they want. I think you would enjoy this book as much as I do, and it makes a terrific little gift to share with teachers, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc.

Have a blessed week!