Brine and Potato Rolls Recipe

There are a few tips which will help you roast a perfect turkey. I brine my turkey for 24 hours before cooking. In case you want to do this to your Christmas turkey, I will show you my recipe. I made a 22 pound turkey so you can adjust this accordingly.

Recipe:

2 gallons of water
3 cups of apple cider
juice from two oranges
peel of two oranges
20 peppercorns
several bay leaves
fresh sage leaves
fresh rosemary (several sprigs)
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups of salt
5 garlic cloves

Bring this to a boil and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Set it aside to cool.

When you are ready to brine the bird, place it in a large zip lock bag and pour in the brine. Place the bag breast side down in a bowl or pot and refrigerate. When it is time to roast the turkey, drain off the brine. Pat the turkey dry and rub butter between the skin and the breast. Rub more softened butter over the bird and season with salt and pepper. Place the turkey breast side down in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees and turn the turkey breast side up and continue to cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Let the turkey sit at room temp for 20 minutes before carving. This will give you a turkey with very moist white meat.


I lose this recipe all the time. I always have to call my sister and have her send me copies of it. I have dozens of these pieces of paper stuck all over the place. This is the potato roll recipe. I bake dozens of these rolls around the holidays and give them to all my friends. Everyone is in love with these rolls.

Recipe:

Potato Rolls

1 1/2cups warm water
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. rapid rise yeast
2/3 c. shortening
1 c. mashed potatoes ( I make instant ones for this recipe because homemade is too heavy)
7-7 1/2 cups flour


Add the water to the bowl of your mixer.


Pour in the sugar.


Add the salt.


Add the yeast and then the mashed potatoes. Add 2/3 C. of softened shortening and 2 eggs.


Then begin mixing in the flour.


Add all of the flour . You will have a nice smooth, satiny dough.


Place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled. You can also refrigerate it and take it out to rise the next day.


After it has risen you can roll it out and make spirals or crimp off balls for whichever size roll you need. Allow the rolls to rise again, brush them with butter and bake in a 400 degree oven for 13-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. These rolls we on the small side and the recipe made 55 rolls. These freeze wonderfully too.

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