Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter and Basil

So basically my sister, Melanie, and I are getting a bit obsessed with making gnocchi and I don't really know why. Yes, its delicious, but its insanely time consuming. Maybe its also because most of the ingredients are already available in your refrigerator or cabinet (other than maybe a potato/sweet potato or ricotta - but if you have milk and lemon juice you can make that too!) The first time I made it I didn't even have ricotta. I had cream cheese. So I made it with that. And it was so good! For my second attempt I wanted to keep things a bit more traditional to see if it made a big difference and I guess it did and it didn't. Both were honestly so good I would remake either! My next attempt will be with sour cream or something. I really like the idea of being able to use what you already have, and I feel like those can be interchangeable. I definitely need to practice more though to find out. 

Both times I made gnocchi though, I had a lot of extra time to spare and was really hungry too early in the day to start eating. I needed something to do with my hands before I started snacking up the waz. This is was the perfect solution. Most of the time when I'm cooking I lick my fingers, snack on the ingredients or frequently taste what i'm making, but that doesn't work with dough. (Unless you have snacks on the side...) So turn on Keeping Up with the Kardashians and get it work. It's worth it I promise, and so incredibly satisfying. You're ultimately making your own pasta. Who doesn't want to brag about that, right? 

Gnocchi Ingredients 

1 cup all purpose

1/2 cup cake flour

2 sweet potatoes 

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 1/2 tablespoons of honey 

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

(additional flour may be needed during the shaping process)

-or-

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon honey

1 sweet potato

1/2 teaspoon salt 

dash of pepper 

egg

2 tablespoons cream cheese

**olive oil for boiling water

Browned Butter Glaze

3 tablespoons butter

dash of italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon oregano

teaspoon chopped basil

truffle salt (if you have it - I'm obsessed with the stuff so naturally I try and put it on everything)

pepper to taste 

freshly grated parmesan 

Directions:

(I used microwave sweet potatoes because it is so much easier than baking and takes a fraction of the time)

In a medium sized bowl, mash up the cooked sweet potatoes. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well. Add the flour and stir gently until the dough forms a soft ball. 

On a floured work surface, break off small pieces of the dough and roll it into snakes like you used to do with play dough. (this may required additional flour because it sticks easily to the counter). With a knife, cut the dough snake into small bite sized pieces about a half an inch. (although this depends on the thickness of your dough snake - use your best judgement and just try and make all of the pieces roughly the same size)

Using your finger, roll each piece individually and the press it against the back of a fork or press the fork into the dough (either way works. I actually found pressing the fork into the dough was easier, even though I feel like thats not how they do it on TV etc.)

Gently toss the shaped gnocchi in flour and make sure not to stack them too high on top of one another because they tend to stick. 

Boil water in a medium sized pot. Add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil to prevent sticking. Gently place some of the gnocchi into the water with a slotted spoon. The gnocchi will float to the top when it is ready. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl or on a plate to the side. Continue to do this until all the gnocchi has been cooked. Don't try and do too much at once to prevent them from sticking to one another. You also wanted to guarantee that they all cook evenly. 

Heat the butter over medium high until golden brown (this happens quickly so be careful) Add the cooked gnocchi along with the other ingredients and let sit so it can get a nice crispy edge for several minutes. Add some freshly grated parmesan and serve immediately.  

Savory Rosemary and Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

This year for Thanksgiving I was in charge of the pie (as always) and bread. Every year we always freak out about the bread because we almost always burn it. Both houses. I just don't get it. Is it just our family or does everyone struggle with this? Thus, I thought it would be fun to make homemade rolls instead. That way it would be nearly impossible for us to burn them because I would be watching them like a hawk.

Since I had never made dinner rolls before, I thought I would try out two recipes to give everyone more options aaannddd to have a backup in case one completely backfired. I think they both turned out great, but it was clear that the sweet potato rolls were everyone's favorite (myself included). I think if the rosemary ones were saltier, they definitely could have given the SP-rolls a run for their money. (so you if want to give these rolls a try, I suggest increasing the salt by at least a teaspoon)

This recipe was moderately adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com

 

Sweet Potato Rolls  

Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast

4 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 can sweet potato puree

1/2 cup warm water

3 tablespoons margarine, room temperature

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

*This recipe is best made with a stand mixer. I’ve made bread with a hand mixer before and it just doesn’t work as well.

Directions

Mix together the water, yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar on a large bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes until frothy.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, sweet potato puree, margarine, salt, and whisked eggs and mix well. Mix in 1 cup of flour and then add the remaining 2 cups. Mix until the dough comes together, but is still sticky

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 2 to 3 minutes and add just enough flour so that the dough is no longer sticky. Don’t over knead. When the dough comes together (and no longer sticks to your hands) roll it into a ball.

Place the dough into a well-greased bowl and turn it until the entire dough ball is lightly greased in oil. Cover with a towel and place in a low lit area. Let it rise for at least an hour (2 is better). The dough should almost fill the bowl at this point. After the dough has risen, punch it down with your fist and let it sit for 2 minutes.

Pinch and roll the dough into 16 balls and place them into well-greased pans. (I used a 9.5x13 inch glass pan). Cover the dough again and let it rise for another 2 hours, or until the balls have doubled in size.

Bake at 375˚ for 15 to 20 minutes.

 this recipe is adapted from Confections of  Foodie Bride 

Savory Rosemary Dinner Rolls 

Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

2 Tbsp oil (vegetable, canola, or olive – I used olive) plus more for greasing bowl and pan

1 large egg

3 Tablespoons sugar

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt (I suggest adding another teaspoon to amp the flavor)

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

2 Tbsp melted butter

Directions

Stir together the warm water and yeast in a large mixing bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until frothy 

Add the oil, egg (scrambled), sugar, salt, pepper and rosemary to the water/yeast mixture. Stir.

Freshly picked rosemary from my step-mom, Stephanie's, amazing herb garden

Add the flour in two increments and mix on low speed until the dough comes together and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.

On a lightly floured work surface, knead the dough for about 5 minutes. You can use the mixer and increase the speed to high but I personally think the gluten forms a more successful crisscross pattern when it is done by hand.  (The crisscross pattern in the gluten helps it rise and makes it soft instead of tough) 

Place the dough back into a well-greased bowl and cover with a damp towel. The recipe I used said to let the dough rise for an hour. I did this recipe twice however and found that the dough I let sit over night was much softer and made much better rolls so I suggest letting it sit for as long as you can (at least a couple of hours) 

After the dough has doubled in size, pinch off pieces of dough and roll them into balls. Place the smaller dough balls in a well-greased cake pan or glass baking dish (either works well) making sure to leave space for them to rise and expand. 

Preheat oven to 350˚

Recover the balls of dough with a damp towel and let rise again. (About another hour) 

Brush the tops of the dough balls with half of the butter and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until lightly brown. After you remove the buns from the oven, brush the tops with the remaining butter. 

My brother, Joseph

Joe-Joe wanted to take the dinner roll glamor shots to a new level... just to mix it up a bit...Maybe he would start a revolution for my blog I mean who knows. Like little sisters do, I tend to think everything my big brother does is brilliant and hilarious so... I decided to go with it....

just noticed the fake gun in the corner.....we're so country

I think the juxtaposition of the buns in each photograph was simply superb.