Lemon, Sour Cream Fan Tans

(Improv Challenge: Lemon & Sour Cream)

Otherwise known as New England Buttermilk rolls or Yankee Buttermilk rolls.

Why do they call this a "fan" anyway? Ok, maybe it's because it fans out like a, well …. fan. But I think it looks more like an open book. Maybe I should just rename it, Flippin' Page Rolls! (Notice the yellow pages for props?)

And what's with the "tan" bit in the name? I googled it and found zip. Did a Mrs Tan create this? Or is it because the buns got tanned in the oven? Can somebody please enlighten me before I go nuts.

Anyway, the basic recipe calls for buttermilk (why else would it be called buttermilk rolls? Duh).

I didn't have any buttermilk so I've replaced it with sour cream and added an extra zing with some grated lemon zest to waken some senses at breakfast.

*Note: You can always make your own buttermilk. 1 cup milk to 1 tbs white vinegar. There are various other ways besides using white vinegar but that'll have to be another DIY post.

And when you have a tennis elbow that refuses to get any better, the trusty bread machine comes to the rescue!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup sour cream + milk to make a total of 200 ml (or 200ml buttermilk)

30 g melted butter

375 g high protein flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

grated zest of a whole lemon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tsp active dry yeast

20 g melted butter, for brushing

METHOD

Plonk first 8 ingredients into bread machine bin in the order they're listed (unless your bread machine instructions tell you otherwise).

Poke the dough setting.

Go have a nice cuppa coffee and make some nice comments on someone's blog post. You'll find out how time flies when you're doing that.

When the machine yells at you that it's done (the dough should have risen to twice it's size by then), remove dough from the bin, knock it around a bit for yelling at you and let it rest for another 10 mins.

Preheat oven to 200˚C. Butter muffin tin.

Roll out dough to a rectangle of sorts (I could never get it looking like a rectangle … more like a wreck-tangle) of about 20" X 13" X 1/8".

Brush with the extra melted butter.

Using a pizza cutter, cut wreck-tangle into 5 even strips of about 2" - 2 1/2" wide (if you can cut it into 7 strips, even better, that's the traditional number for the roll).

Place the strips in a stack, then cut them crossways into 8 even pieces.

Pinch the bottoms to seal. Place sealed side down into buttered muffin tin.

Leave to prove until doubled in size, about an hour or so.

Before dumping them in the oven, separated the layers a little so that the "pages" open out nicely. But be careful not to deflate the puffiness.

Bake for 20 - 25 mins or until golden.

Cool slightly on rack. Serve warm with lashings of butter!

* This was submitted to the Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen. January's theme is Sour Cream and Lemon.