Butter Horns

 Butter Horns
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This was not my mother's but my grandmother's recipe.  I have memories of her coming from California to visit us in Texas and she always made butter horns.  My mom would freeze some so that we could have them between visits.  I was about 5 when we moved to Texas.  In Texas we have an animal called a longhorn.  It is the mascot of our state university.  So, at 5, I got confused and started calling the Butter Horns "longhorns" and the name stuck and became a family joke.  

I actually creamed the shortening and sugar at the same time.  It wasn't until later that I re-read the recipe and saw I was supposed to cream the shortening first and then add the sugar.

The eggs turned the white color to a nice, buttery yellow.

I did not like the consistency of this mix.  It looked like curdled milk.  But in the end it all was okay.

I used an automatic bread maker on the "dough" setting to knead the dough - something my grandmother never did.  So once everything up to the flour was mixed together I poured it into the bread pan, put it in the machine, and added the flour in about 3 or 4 portions.

My machine has a 20 minute knead cycle.  I was worried it would be too long but it was just perfect.  I looked at it after about 15 minutes and there was a whole lot of flour on top.  So I got a spatula and started mushing the flour down and scraping the sides.  It seemed like the machine appreciated the help because as soon as I did that it soon turned into a ball of dough instead of a pulsing pan full of dough.  Amazingly, after assisting with the spatula, the last 5 minutes was enough to mix it in completely.

I warmed the butter slightly in the microwave before creaming with the sugar.

I used walnut chips because I had gotten them free when I bought pie filling at our local grocery store that always runs "combo locos".

My daughter and I had planned to do holiday baking together this year.  So on a cool, rainy, December morning, after the dough had been kneaded and was on the rise cycle for only about 5 minutes, I unplugged the machine and put it in my truck on the floor so the floor heater could blow on it and keep it warm.  I didn't remove the pan from the machine so that it could be like an incubator.  1 1/2 hours later the dough was doubled.  It was the perfect consistency to work with.

We used a pizza cutter to cut it into 8 balls and, of course, a rolling pin to roll it into a 9" circle.  We didn't have a ruler so we used a regular sheet of paper and made sure the dough stuck out a little on each side of the 8 1/2" direction.

I spread the filling around with a spatula.  It is not a thick coat.  When I remember these made by my grandma I don't even think of the filling.

We told Alexa to set an alarm for 2 hours later and had them rise on top of the oven where we were baking cut out cookies.  They were nicely risen.

I compared them to Pillsbury crescents which, I think, bake for 11 - 13 minutes so we started these for 12 minutes.  Since we had pans on 2 racks we set a time for 6 minutes, changed the pans around, and went for another 6 minutes.  They weren't quite golden so we went for 1 more minute and then they looked beautiful.

I remember these being very crescent shaped.  I think my grandma did not use muffin tins but just regular cookie sheets.   She made a glaze out of powdered sugar and butter and a little vanilla and milk and drizzled it over them.  Since we planned to freeze ours until Christmas morning we did not glaze but will make a fresh glaze when we reheat these yummy treats.