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This just means that we can eat TWICE as many, right?

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We all know that math is not my strong suit.  Talking, yes. Reading, yes.  Wasting inordinate amounts of time figuring out new social media sites (Thats YOU, pinterest!), yes.    But adding together a string of numbers OR doing any subtraction, multiplication or division? Especially in combination with each other?  Better find someone else.

This is something my two engineer brothers especially enjoy.  Several years ago, we were having some stupid arguement about who was smarter – representing the arts folks (me) and the technical folks (brother David).  And he gave the clincher for that particular discussion (arts folks, you have my apologies): “Liz, I have 3 reasons why I’m smarter. College Algebra, College Algebra, and College Algebra.” That is an obvious reference, of course, to the THREE times it took me to get a decent grade in that class. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it’s close: the first time I was failing and dropped the class mid-semester, the second time I got a D, and the third time I took in over the summer at a different school and transferred that B. Whew.)

However, I always kinda thought that although I don’t particularly enjoy cooking and baking, I do a good job of it when I want to.

Until I met this recipe.

Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

On the surface, it looked like a fairly easy recipe.  The only reason I was inspired to bake homemade rolls on an 80+ degree day in the first place is because we were going to have dinner at a friends’ house.  Aaron asked, “Who are you trying to impress anyway?” And I said, “The G’s. And maybe myself.”  Just, you know, to reassure myself that I COULD still do this bread-baking thing.

And maybe a teensy bit because the G’s are so much more stylish & cosmopolitan than we are that it makes me a bit self-conscious, although they are nothing but completely gracious and lovely. I mean, dinner at their house included a cocktails, dinner music, and a kid-free environment (kids were in the porch with their own chit-chat.) 

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There I was, on Friday afternoon, trying a brand new recipe for dinner rolls.  And I have made this paticular type before, albeit when I was in high school.  I chose them because I thought Leah and Ben could help me make them.

The dough turned out just fine.  Maybe it could have had a smidge more raising time, but I was on a schedule, and it was Good Enough.

Then I got to the shaping step.  Here it is:

Lightly butter a standard 12-portion muffin tin. With your hands, roll the dough into a long cylinder about 18 inches long. Use a dough cutter to divide this in half and then cut each half into six equal portions. Divide each of these 12 portions into three sections for a total of 36 pieces. Each piece should be approximately the same size.
 
With your palms, lightly roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball. Cluster three balls of dough in each cup of the muffin tin. Brush with a little melted butter. Allow to rise for 40 to 50 minutes, or until doubled in volume.
 
The recipe says it’s supposed to make 12 rolls.  Anyone want to guess how many I actually made?
 
Twenty four.  As in, twice as many as I should have had.  And here’s why: “divide this in half and then cut each half into six equal portions. Divide each of these 12 portions into three sections for a total of 36 pieces.”  There is WAAAAY too much math going on there, folks!
 
Obviously I took that “cut each half” to mean “cut each half in half again”. 
 
The rolls were edible and rather tasty, but more “portion sized” that I had intended.  And cloverleaf rolls are supposed to kinda smush together while baking – my 3 sections were too small for that.  Some of them fell apart when I took them out of the muffin tins.  If I’d been thinking, I could have used a mini-muffin pan and maybe they’d have turned out better.  Who knows?
 
I know that next time, I’m going to DOUBLE check my math.
 
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Ever made a baking or cooking math error?  How did that turn out for you? 

 


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