Baking with yeast

So after stopping at Mary's on my way home from Indy this week, she treated me to a butterhorn that she had made.  And it was soooo good I decided it was time to try my hand at baking with yeast and make the famous Mrs. Zender's butterhorns. 

As I prepped for my baking day, I called Better Crocker (more commonly know as Mary Welden) to make sure I was buying the right yeast - fast or active.  Really why do they need two kinds?!  I'm still not sure. But I got fast because that is what Betty used.

Then home to start making the dough and activating the yeast.   As I started to mix the wet and dry ingredients together, I noticed that it looked very dry.  So I called the Better Crocker line again and this time sent a picture. 

Well I think in my old age of 31, I also might need glasses.  As the recipe clearly called for 1 and 1/4 cup of milk mixed with the yeast, and I decided that only 1/4 cup would be good enough.  And the result wasn't so good.  Through the laughter, Betty said to add the 1 cup of lukewarm milk that I forgot from before and it should be okay.  I wasn't convinced and decided to send another picture to Betty.

She said the dough looked good.  So in the frig it went.  The recipe said to leave it overnight, but I didn't want to wait that long.  So I gave it a few hours and then started to roll them out. And up until this point... everything was great!  Then you are supposed to let them raise in a warm room.  Okay, really?  It was 3 degrees outside yesterday with the wind chill... so no warm room.  So I turn the oven on and open the doors a little and let them raise.  Well - maybe it was too warm.  But I successfully made the biggest butterhorns ever!

They taste wonderful but I have some work to be done at baking with yeast and raising the dough.