How to mix up natural peanut butter

Natural peanut butter has a tendency to separate.  You will see a layer of peanut oil floating on the top.  When we first made the switch to natural peanut butter I would use a knife to mix the oils back in.  This was a slow and usually somewhat messy process and I just knew there had to be a better way.

One day it hit me to use the dough hooks on my hand mixer!  Now, I have to tell you that I usually laugh when I call these dough hooks.  I own a Bosch mixer with the American Dough Hook.  Now that is a dough hook, these are just plain wimpy by comparison.

But, I digress, here is the mixer with the attached dough hooks.  They fit nicely into the jar.  Push them in just a few inches and be sure to hold on tight to the jar when you turn on the mixer.  Start it on low and gradually increase it as you go deeper into the jar.  Be sure to scrape the sides and especially the bottom of the jar.  Let it mix until no more oil is visible.  If you do it right, you'll be incorporating air and making the peanut butter nice and fluffy.

This is what mine looked like right after mixing.  You should always keep natural peanut butter refrigerated after opening and this is important after mixing because it will keep it from separating again.

Here is the same jar after it has been in the fridge.  Can you see how fluffy it looks?  It also stays on the knife much better because it isn't runny when cold.

Fancy Dinner Rolls

Chloe and I will be making 200 whole wheat rolls for the Kent/Goforth wedding this weekend.  The mother of the bride simply requested rolls that are about 3" in diameter.  I wanted to try and find a way to make them pretty.  So, we made a few last week and slashed the tops in different ways to see how they would turn out.  I wasn't satisfied with the results.  So, I went to the internet to find a "fancy" roll method and came up with Kaiser or Rosette rolls.

So that I would remember what we did, I decided to make a few videos to show the process, rising, and finished product.  I posted them on FaceBook directly from my iPod.  If I can figure out how to do it, I'm going to share them here. Unfortunately, the videos require a flash player, so those using iPods are out of luck. You'll just have to come back and visit from your PC when you get the chance.