Saturday in Betty's Kitchen

My daughters came to spend Saturday with me. What a special treat! I don't have a routine for Saturdays so am ready to have different things happen. We decided we would bake buns and while the dough was rising we chatted and laughed, just enjoyed being together.

When the dough had risen Alison punched it down. She remembered that I had let her do this when she was little. And you can tell she enjoyed doing it again! I would also give them each a ball of dough and they could form a small pan of their own buns which sometimes took the shape of little teddy bears. We laughed about that as sometimes the dough took on a grayish look when they were done! She talked about the memories of the smell of fresh baking wafting throughout the house and of eating the buns hot from the oven with the butter melting into them. Another memory..that I let the buns rise in the sunshine by the  living room window and that they had to be careful as they ran around in there so they wouldn't knock them over. 

When baking buns for my family many years ago I would always bake a pan of sugar buns as a special treat on baking day. My Mom used to do the same when I was a little girl, although she did not add cinnamon to the sugar. I continued the tradition for my children and my grandchildren. It still is a favorite and they are best hot from the oven.
Sometimes I made fry bread, taking pieces of dough, flattening them out and deep frying them. Very good with Roger's syrup. They can also be shaken up in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon which I found out much later that they are quite popular and known as beaver tails.

The sugar buns have risen and are ready to bake. The tea towel belonged to my mother. I treasure these things from another generation.

Here is Brenda taking the first pan of buns from the oven. She is enjoying the wonderful aroma of fresh buns! She remembers that she could hardly wait to have buns hot from the oven with butter and Roger's syrup. As a little girl she had always wondered why the buns I formed were so much smoother than hers, she just couldn't get them looking as smooth..later on she realized that probably her little hands just couldn't form them properly. Another thing she remembered was that the dough had to make a 'peep' sound when done kneading:) When I was first married the first few batches of buns just didn't turn out very well and a friend of mine told me what she did and one of the things she told me was that the dough had to make 'peep sounds' when it was finished kneading. (squeak sounds from the air bubbles that form in the dough while kneading) Thank you Frieda:)
This Saturday we enjoyed the buns hot from the oven with a bowl of summer borsht that had been simmering on the stove.
We had a very fun day together, thank you to my dear daughters.
Now you want to bake buns too right?  Here is my recipe for Einback / White Buns.
We are planning more Saturdays together in the kitchen!

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