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Preheat oven to 350° F.
Place the muffin tins in oven. Bake until rolls are golden, roughly 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven. Let stand until rolls are cool enough to handle-usually about 5 minutes-then pluck them out of the muffin tins.
Serve warm.
For all you purists, if you prefer working this dough by hand, feel free to do it. The only thing that’s different is that you’ll need to proof the yeast-that is, dissolve it in the warm water along with the sugar, and let it get bubbly-before you mix the ingredients. Then knead until smooth, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, punch it down again, put it in the pans, and continue as the recipe indicates.
SUGAR-CURED HAM WITH WHITE-WINE HONEY MUSTARD
Ham is the ultimate convenience food when you’re feeding a large group. It arrives in the kitchen fully cooked, seasoned, and sometimes even spiral sliced-though I much prefer slicing my own. All a cook has to do is warm it through and cut it up to serve it. Naturally, most chefs feel the need to put a more personal stamp on a ham, so there are thousands of recipes for glazes, garnishes, and rubs to augment the flavor of a purchased ham. Any of these will work, but I tend to go with pure simplicity: I like the flavor of a sugar-cured ham. And I find that a thin coating of plain old molasses augments the flavor perfectly. But if you don’t like molasses, feel free to glaze your ham any way you see fit. (I’ve got a friend who swears by dumping a can of ginger ale on the ham when he puts it in the oven. I’ve tried it. Surprisingly, it’s good.) The most important thing when serving this dish is to pick a good ham to begin with.
1 good-quality sugar-cured ham, sized to fit the crowd of people you’re feeding (I generally go with 3- 5 pounds for home use, but any size will do.)
1 cup molasses
Preheat oven to 300° F. (Ham needs a slow cooking process to keep it from drying out and the sugar glaze from burning.)
Wash ham well in cold water. Place ham, fat side up, in a roasting pan on a rack, and place in oven. Cook 15-20 minutes per pound. Pull ham out of oven and carve off any excess fat, leaving about ¼-inch fat layer on the meat. Carve into the remaining fat with any decorative pattern desired-I usually go with 1-inch crosshatches. Brush ham with molasses. Put back into oven for 20 minutes, until glaze begins to bubble and brown.
Remove from oven. Place on serving platter. Slice into serving-size portions. Serve warm with White-Wine Honey Mustard on the side, and rolls and corn muffins handy, in case any guest feels like making a sandwich. Most of them will-you can trust me on this.
WHITE-WINE HONEY MUSTARD
1 cup good Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons honey
Mix ingredients and chill. Serve with ham.
CHICKEN-FRIED BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH WHITE ONION GRAVY
This is an old-fashioned Texas crowd pleaser. In Texas, this is traditionally done with round steak, but here at the White House we upgrade to tenderloin. Feel free to use round steak, if you prefer.
Canola oil, for frying
2 pounds (roughly) beef tenderloin, cut crosswise into ½-inch steaks
1½ cups flour
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste (I use about ½ teaspoon.)
2 cups buttermilk
WHITE ONION GRAVY
3 small onions, cleaned and sliced into thin rings, rings teased apart
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 200° F.
This is a stovetop recipe, and you’ll need a big, sturdy skillet, preferably cast iron, though any heavy-bottomed metal pan will do. Place about ½ inch canola oil in the pan, and set over medium heat. The oil should be at about 300º, or hot enough to make a drop of water dropped in it dance and sizzle, to fry the steaks.
While the oil is heating, place each steak between two sheets of good plastic wrap. Pound the steaks with a meat mallet to tenderize and to make them thi
In a large resealable bag, pour in the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Close the bag and shake to mix.
Put the buttermilk in a bowl.
Place a steak in the bag of seasoned flour and shake to coat. Remove the steak and dip it in the buttermilk, then put it back in the seasoned flour and shake to coat again. Once all the steaks are coated, it’s time to fry them.
Place a few of the steaks in the hot oil-you want the steaks to fit easily, with room to move around and not touch. I find frying 3 at a time works well for me. Fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes, then turn over and fry until golden brown on the other side. Remove cooked steaks to a warmed plate, and continue frying the rest of the coated steaks until done. Place the steaks in the oven to keep them warm while you make the gravy.
To make the gravy, pour off some of the oil in the frying pan. Leave a layer of oil sufficient to cover the bottom of the pan lightly. Add onions, and fry until brown and tender, stirring occasionally, 6-8 minutes. Gently scatter the flour over the cooked onions, stirring constantly until flour begins to brown and turns into a thick paste, about 3 minutes. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Gravy will thicken. Taste, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve the steaks on the warmed platter, with a big bowl of gravy next to them, or plate the steaks individually, ladling a nice scoop of gravy over each.
BROWNIE BITES
¾ cup good-quality cocoa
¾ cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
24 pecan halves, for garnish (optional)
FROSTING
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup cocoa
1½ cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup milk
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place the cocoa, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into a large mixing bowl and stir until the cocoa is fully incorporated, and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Add dry ingredients all at once and gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together. Stir just until the ingredients are mixed. Too much stirring makes the brownies tough.
Place foil (paper cups will shred, so using foil is important) baking cups into 2 12-cup muffin tins. Spray with cooking spray or grease with shortening. Fill the cups two-thirds full with the brownie mixture.
Place in oven and bake until the mixture is just set, and lovely cracks appear on the surface of the brownie bites, about 15-20 minutes. Remove cups from tins and let brownie bites cool.