Weekend Recipe: Filled Crescent Rolls

Nutella filled crescent rolls

When I plan to bake for the first rehearsal of a show, I always have to think about quantity and price.  For The Last Days of Judas Iscariot which begins rehearsals on Monday, we are expecting close to 40 people at the first read through – a cast of 14, Creative team of 10, and five companies that are coming together to co-present it each sending a handful of people to the reading. It’s a lot of people. But yeast dough is cheap, easy & plentiful and this recipe for filled crescent rolls has made its way to many rehearsals/auditions over the past year.  My favourite variety so far has been the pumpkin filled one.  It is delicious with a little drizzle of cream cheese frosting, too!  For Judas I made two varieties: pumpkin filled & Nutella filled. Now, if you are lazy you can always go to the local grocery store, buy a package of Pillsbury crescent rolls and fill them in this same manner.

Ingredients:

1 cup warm (but not hot!) water
1 tbsp yeast
1./2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup skim milk powder
4 cups flour
zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Pumpkin filled crescents!

Directions:

1. Place warm water into mixing bowl. Do not use a metal mixing bowl. Add the yeast to the water and allow it to sit until the yeast dissolves.
2.  Add the sugar, lemon zest & oil. Mix well.
3. Add 2 cups of flour & the skim milk powder.  Stir until smooth.
4. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour. Mix as much as you can with a spoon.
5. When you can no longer mix it with your spoon, get your hands in, kneading the dough until all the flour is absorbed.
6. Drizzle a small amount of oil over the dough. Flip the dough around in the bowl until it is covered in oil. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let sit in a room temperature environment until it has doubled in size (about an hour).
7. Divide the raised dough into quarters or halves – depending how much it raised.  You need enough dough to make a 10″ circle.
8. Using a pizza pan as a guide, flatten out one chunk of your dough into a circle.
9. Spread your filling over the “pizza”.  I’ve used Nutella, Pumpkin Pie Filling, or various jams.
10. Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle into 9-12 slices.
11. Starting with the wide (outside) edge of each slice, roll the each slice up and place onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
12. Baked at 375 for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.