"Unexpectedly raunchy" and buttery buns
A little bit of self promotion before I start! (I mean, it's my tinyletter, the whole thing is self-promotion, but you all know what I mean). This week, THE WEDDING DATE got its first trade review, and Kirkus had great things to say about the book! Including the quote from the subject line, which I'm going to love forever. Also, there's another Goodreads giveaway for a galley of the book (now out January 30, 2018!), so enter before Sunday! Or you could just go ahead and preorder it, if you haven't already!
The chill (even in the Bay Area) has set in, and it's starting to be that time of the year where all women I know ask around about heavier moisturizers for skin that's battered by cold dry air outside and hot dry air inside. I've already recommended this to three people in the last two weeks (one of whom bought it immediately and thanked me profusely the day after she started using it), and I thought I should share the love with my tinyletter friends: this Origins "overnight mask" is fantastic. I don't know why they call it a mask, it's just a heavy duty night cream, and it's moisturizing and not irritating and it makes your skin feel great. A little goes a long way; I bought this last year around this time and I still have some left in my tube, because I only tend to use it occasionally (especially when I travel). If you have special winter skincare (for face or body) secrets, now is the time to share them with me!
Earlier this week I wrote a small thing about how I've survived this pretty awful year, which I won't spoil now (though if it never gets published, I'll put it here later, don't worry). There were a few things I thought of that have kept me going this year, and the one I didn't write about was how I've read a vast number of mystery novels this year. I think I've said this here before, but I think one reason I can't stop reading them is to experience bad guys getting found out and punished in the end, unlike the terrible reality we're currently living in. I've read and reread a bunch of mysteries (most set in other countries, it's nice to have some distance from America) and this week I read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for the first time, which I knew basically nothing about going in, and I'm so glad I didn't. I was legitimately surprised at the ending (I never try to figure out endings of mysteries, but it's always fun when they surprise me). Thanks to the friends who told me to read it, and if you have other favorite Christies (or favorite other mysteries -- I've read all of Sayers and Marsh and Tey) please respond to this email and tell me what to read!
Thanksgiving is next week! I tend to go, um, a little over the top about Thanksgiving, which is a thing I've been trying to work on myself about for the past few years. This week, when my mom and I were having one of our Thanksgiving planning phone calls and discussing the menu and spreadsheet (the spreadsheet is key), I said "I was just about to say how calm I'm being about Thanksgiving, but then I realized I need to add making the rolls to the spreadsheet and you're going to yell at me." Look, I was going to try to buy the rolls instead of making them, but then I looked up the recipe I make and love, and just...how pretty are these??? I know, making homemade rolls for Thanksgiving seems like it would drive you out of your mind (okay it's done that to me before) but if you do everything the day before, all you need to do is take them out of the fridge and let them rise for an hour or so before you bake them, and then you have beautiful, buttery, hot rolls for dinner. (There are a ton more tips and tricks about these buns on the King Arthur site!) Or you can make these the day AFTER Thanksgiving, and use them to make all of your little day after Thanksgiving sandwiches. Sometimes I make slightly smaller buns (so the recipe makes more like 24 instead of the 16 it says) and sometimes I double the recipe to make a whole lot of buttery buns. Man, I'm having a lot of fun with the word buns today, I'd better get to the recipe.
Golden Pull-Apart Butter Buns
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons potato flour or 1/4 cup instant potato flakes
3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk*
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons soft butter
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
*Note: I've had trouble finding dry milk powder before (and let's be real, I would only ever use it for this recipe) so I looked up on the handy internet how to replace it, and the advice was that to replace 2 Tablespoons dry milk, you replace 1/2 cup of the water in the recipe with milk, so I just use all milk as the liquid for these instead of the water and it's fine.
Combine all of the dough ingredients in a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, and mix well to make a soft and smooth dough (this takes probably about 3-5 minutes with a mixer, and more like ten with your hands). Place the dough in a greased large bowl or other container, cover with plastic, and allow it to rise in a warmish place for 60-90 minutes until it's about doubled. Transfer the dough to a greased or floured work surface divide into 16 equal pieces by dividing in half, then in halves again (this is why, when I make smaller buns, I usually make 24, because the dividing math is easier). Tuck each piece into a smooth ball. Grease two 8 inch round cake pans, and put the buns together in the pans. Cover and let rise until they're puffy and all touching each other, about 60-90 minutes. (Or cover and put in the fridge and pull them out about two hours before dinner to give them time to rise and then bake them). Uncover and bake them for 22-24 minutes until they're golden brown on top. Remove from the oven, and immediately brush with melted butter. Turn them out of the pans after they've absorbed all of the butter, and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Have a great weekend, and an early Happy Thanksgiving to all of us celebrating! This weekend I'm going to make a bunch of this pie dough I talked about in an earlier tinyletter to prep for the big day.
Jasmine
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