Butternut Squash Rolls

Oh how we love pumpkin season.  You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right?  Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin…. We anxiously anticipate it every year.  ~Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

And we do too! Wait for the pumpkin season. My little pumpkin, eagerly awaits the pumpkin season so she could gobble up all the pumpkin goodies. Does that make you think that I have a child who does not give me grief about vegetables? You are SO Wrong! She does! Every now and then. But not during the pumpkin season. And I do have these squash rolls to thank! She loves them. Eats them with soup, butter, cranberry sauce or chutney or if she is home when I take them out of the oven.. she gobbles them straight up.

We have had our share of having a battleground at the dinner table. We still do, but not as often as before. We the parents learned that “you need to eat all your veggies” or “clean the plate” or “you can not move from the table until you finish that” or “one more bite” has not really helped. The ‘other side’ of the battle has learned that the “testing and tears” “crying and tantrums” have no effect on “this” set of parents.

Juggling between all things – school, homework, extra curricular, play dates, sleepovers, work,keeping a house that is almost clean (at least on some days)finding an extra ounce of energy at the dinner table to battle it out was just not our thing. So we drafted a truce and we made a pact.

For every new dish at the dinner table, the kid would get a known dish. For every unlikeable but healthy food (read turnips, parsnips,broccoli etc) the kid would get a small helping of choice food. And one day a week, the kid helps choose a menu and sometimes even helps make it. It did end up with we the adults eating mac and cheese on some days, but we would also ensure the kid got some spinach or broccoli with it.

And then came the pumpkin season and I was invited to learn to make these butternut Squash rolls at  a fellow foodie’s home. Roberta lives in Longmont, Colorado and bakes the most amazing breads. I came back home with the bread I had baked. I warmed the butternut squash rolls up and diced some butter, put the jam out and waited with baited breath. Careful at first, the little pumpkin noticed the golden color. Seeing that I was not offering any or making her eat it, she asked me what it was. “it’s just bread”. Can I have some? That was almost 4 years ago. Now it’s “when will you make the butternut squash rolls again mom”?

It’s music to ears!! Really!

Print

Squash Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 C Milk
• 1 C cooked squash [butternut pumpkin]
• 1/2 C unsalted butter
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tbs yeast
• 1/2 C water
• 1 Egg for egg wash .. beaten and mixed with a tbs of water
• 6- 7 C of all purpose flour

Instructions

1. Warm milk, add the butter. Mix
2. Add sugar and let it dissolve.
3. Warm the water, add yeast to proof.
4. Once the yeast is ready in about 15 minutes, mix all the ingredients and make the dough
5. Let the dough rise to almost double - about an hour
6. Shape into rolls, line them on a pastry sheet covered with parchment paper.
7. Let them rise again, covered ,for about 30 minutes, brush with egg wash.
8. Bake at 350* F for 15- 20 min

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