Phew, I'm certainly being tested

A few days ago, while browsing through the lovely Nupur's equally lovely blog, I came across a reference to the Good Home Cookbook where she'd signed up to be a tester. That sounded interesting, so eventually I found my way there and signed myself up as a tester as well. It seemed like a fun way to get new recipes - and knowing that all testers will be acknowledged in print had nothing - nothing, I tell you - to do with it. Honest! :)

It was quite exciting, waiting to see what I'd draw as my "test" recipes... plus, it's the first time I've got involved in any such online food events. All those Sugar-High Fridays and EoMeoTes kinda scared me, although I absolutely LOVE reading everybody's blogs to see what they come up with - what imagination, patience, dedication and fun goes into each, by god! I'm always all admiration for the participating bloggers.

Anyway, when I got my three recipes (I didnt get overambitious and ask for 10 or more recipes to test, thank goodness), I had a mild panicky reaction - two of those involved baking! I'm not a particularly good baker when it comes to bread and pastries, although I could probably be classified under "hopeful" - as in hopeful that it will work at least THIS time... wont it?

Most worrying of all, one of the recipes was for peach pie, with the crust to be made from scratch as well. That recipe goes straight to the core of my fear of bread and pastry making - trust Fate to come up with just the thing!

So I decided to go first what seemed like the lesser of two evils - featherbed potato rolls. I wont give the recipe here in case it's against the rules or a breach of copyright or some such unknown factor. (If somebody knows different, please let me know too!)



The rolls turned out quite well (rose nicely in the bowl and browned to a lovely pale gold when baked) except that they were way too sweet for dinner rolls as far as Pete and I were concerned. I mean, the recipe specified 1/3 cup sugar for about 4 cups of flour. The texture of the rolls inside was soft and it smelt beautifully yeasty (I love it that way). I guess I will make this again, but with much less sugar, and possibly with some savoury herb added. Rosemary, probably. Or basil, which I like better.