The Democratic Chemical Engineer Congressional Candidate Roll Recipe
(Better Known as “Bebob’s Rolls” )
I, Bob Scott, asked my mother, Katherine for the recipe for the wonderful rolls she made when I was a boy and she couldn’t remember it but she said it came from an All-Bran cereal box. My mother quit making rolls because they took a lot of work (hand kneaded) and her children ate them voraciously.
So I experimented with making dough in our bread machine. I wanted fat free and sugar free rolls- so I added no fat and relied on the yeast to eliminate the sugar. I am a chemical engineer so I didn’t mind adding a non-nutritive sweetener (my wife of 53 years, Julia told me the amount of sweetener to use- I respect her opinion about sweetness since she is my sweetheart). To get fiber in the bread I did what my mother had passed on to me and added All-Bran cereal. Since I have worked in chemical laboratories for years, I measured everything with a scale and I measured in GRAMS! This is where most cooks turn to another recipe- teaspoons and cups were what Eve used after she left the garden.
My friend Fred said that in baking school everything is measured by weight so I am in the forefront. When you buy a scale get one that measures negative weights as well as positive and use the gram scale. There are some good inexpensive scales available but some of the kitchen scales do not measure negative weights.
Putting aside the preamble, here are the instructions:
I put the breadpan on the scale and set the scale to zero ( push the tare button)
honey 38 grams
set the scale to zero
water 380 grams ( yes, I weigh the water )
set the scale to zero
All-Bran 54 grams +/- a few grams
whole wheat flour 100 grams +/- a few grams (total is now154 grams)
bread flour to make a total of 540 grams of flour and All-Bran
add some salt (I put some in the palm of my hand and toss it in)
add about 1gram of stevia ( a little less than a level teaspoon?)( I formerly used Splenda)
add a package of yeast ( actually half a package really works as well)
I set the bread machine for dough and roll out the rolls when the machine is finished ( you can see that I sometimes have help).
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I make about 40 Parkerhouse rolls and let them rise for an hour in our warming drawer on a cookie sheet. If you don’t have a warming drawer (or never use it) you have to find a warm place for the rolls to rise. In the days before warming drawers I used an oven turned down VERY low.
I cook the rolls at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and then let my wife, Julia, decide if they need to cook a little longer. Since Julia is not always available, you may have to make the call yourself. ( I have a tendency to overcook the rolls- I call it thoroughness.)
The rolls are famous as “Bebob’s rolls”. My name is Bob Scott and one day my young grandson Calvin called me “Bob”. I said “Calvin , you can call me grandfather.” Calvin said “No, grandfather you will be bob.” So I am still Bebob to some of my favorite people.
I have grandchildren who consider the rolls a delicacy to be gorged on just like I considered my mother’s rolls so many years ago ( pardon my teary eyes).
I, Bob Scott, am a candidate for U.S. Representative in the Second Congressional District in Tennessee and my well financed opponent’s dynasty has ruled the seat for half a century. My opponent feeds the multitudes barbecue but I say “feed a person barbecue and they will be filled once but teach them to make rolls and their cook will keep them fed for a lifetime.”