The Pentagon Wants Military Bases Ready for 90 Days Without Outside Help

For years, the official advice to American families has been to keep three days of supplies on hand. Now the Pentagon is planning for its own bases to survive 90 days without any outside help at all.

The effort is called FORTRESS, and it’s one of the clearest signals yet that the people responsible for national defense are taking long infrastructure outages seriously. It’s not a warning that an emergency is coming. But it does raise a fair question for every household: if the military is planning for 90 days, how long could you last?

What the FORTRESS Plan Is

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled FORTRESS in his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30. The name stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply and Survivability.

According to International Business Times, which summarized reporting by Fox News Digital, internal Pentagon documents describe a requirement for major installations in the continental U.S. to sustain essential operations on their own for at least 90 days. That covers electricity, water, fuel, and communications, not just power.

The plan also calls for strategic reserves of munitions, fuel, critical minerals, electronics, spare parts, and medical supplies. For the most critical items, it wants at least two separate supply or production sources, so losing one factory doesn’t stop everything.

Why the Military Is Doing This

Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell put it bluntly, calling reliance on civilian infrastructure an “intolerable risk.” He told Fox News Digital that without electricity, a base loses communications, water, logistics, and its command structure.

The concern is simple. Most U.S. bases run on the same civilian power grid, water systems, and supply chains as the towns around them, and a major conflict, cyberattack, or disaster could knock those systems out.

Potential solutions include microgrids, battery storage, solar, geothermal, and natural gas. Separately, the Army announced in August up to $2.2 billion in agreements to build nuclear microreactors at five bases, including Fort Bragg and Fort Hood.

What It Isn’t

It’s important to keep this in perspective. FORTRESS is a long-term resilience program, not a response to a specific threat or a sign that something is about to happen.

There’s no public budget or completion date yet, and a senior defense official said the Pentagon is still assessing energy needs across roughly 500 installations. The 90-day standard is a goal, not proof that bases can already do it.

From 14 Days to 90 Days

What stands out is how much the target has grown. In 2017, an Army directive on installation energy and water security set a goal of keeping critical missions running for a minimum of 14 days.

The new target is more than six times longer. When military planners extend their own timeline that much, it’s a good moment for families to look at theirs.

What This Means for Your Household

FEMA’s basic disaster supplies kit is built around at least several days of food and water. That’s a solid starting point, but it assumes help arrives quickly, and the military clearly isn’t counting on that for itself.

You don’t need to match a military base. But building your plan in stages makes a long outage far less frightening.

Stage One: Three Days

Cover the basics first: water, non-perishable food, medications, flashlights, a first aid kit, and a hand-crank emergency radio for news when cell service drops. Most households can get here in a single weekend.

Stage Two: Two Weeks

The CDC recommends storing at least 1 gallon of water per person per day, and a 2-week supply if possible. For a family of four, that’s 56 gallons, so stackable water storage containers make the job much easier.

Build your pantry to two weeks of meals your family actually eats, and keep a 30-day supply of prescription medications if your doctor and insurance allow it. Add a way to cook without power, like a camp stove with extra fuel stored safely outdoors.

Stage Three: 30 to 90 Days

This is where independence really starts, and where the military’s priorities offer a useful checklist. Power, water, fuel, and communications are exactly the categories to plan for.

For power, a portable power station with solar panels can keep phones, lights, and small appliances running without fuel deliveries. For water, think beyond storage to a renewable source, like a rain catchment system paired with a quality gravity filter.

For food, a deep pantry of rice, beans, oats, and canned goods, plus a long-shelf-life emergency food supply, stretches your runway. A garden, seeds, and food preservation skills will carry you further than any single purchase.

Take It One Step at a Time

A 90-day plan can feel overwhelming, so don’t try to build it all at once. Start with three days, then two weeks, then add a little each month.

The goal isn’t to prepare for doomsday. It’s to make sure that when the power, water, or supply chain goes down, your family has time to wait it out calmly.

The Bottom Line

The Pentagon isn’t predicting a disaster. It’s planning for the possibility that civilian systems could fail for weeks or months, and deciding its bases shouldn’t depend on them.

That’s a reasonable lesson for any household. If the most powerful military in the world is planning to stand on its own for 90 days, three days of supplies is a starting line, not a finish line.

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Why Safe Water May Be The Most Important Thing I Store

If you asked me to choose between another case of food and another reliable source of safe water, I would take the water first. Food is the easy one, because people see an empty pantry and understand the problem immediately. Water is different because we are surrounded by it. It comes out of the faucet, […]

from Survivopedia

6 Less-Known Household Power Sources You Can Use in a Blackout

Back in February 2021, a winter storm pushed the Texas grid to the edge, and over four million homes and businesses lost power. With temperatures in the single digits, some families sat in the dark for three or four days while pipes burst inside their walls. People slept in their cars with the engines running to stay warm, and some of them never woke up because of the fumes.

Meanwhile, plenty of those same homes had stored power sitting right under their noses. Most had a car battery in the driveway and a few cordless drill batteries on a garage shelf. Some also kept a deep-cycle battery for the boat or the trolling motor. Put together, that’s enough to keep phones charged and a lamp burning for days. 

For many people, a generator or a pricey power station sounds like the only answer. So folks who can’t spend a thousand dollars figure they’re out of luck. Yet with a cheap inverter or the right cable, the gear you already own can carry you through a long outage. 

6. Cordless Power Tool Batteries Can Charge Your Phone and Run a Laptop

Anyone who has bought a drill or a leaf blower in the last ten years probably owns a couple of lithium-ion packs that mostly sit on the charger. But those packs hold more power than people give them credit for. A standard 18-volt, 5-amp-hour pack stores about 90 watt-hours, and a watt-hour is simply one watt of power running for one hour.

To put that in perspective, a smartphone battery holds roughly 12 to 15 watt-hours, so one tool pack can recharge a phone around five times. And the bigger 12-amp-hour packs some brands sell store more than double that amount.

All it takes is a small adapter that clips onto the battery the same way a tool would. Milwaukee makes one called the M18 TOP-OFF, which gives you one 120-volt outlet, a USB-C port, and a USB-A port, with 175 watts of continuous power. That’s enough to run a laptop or a small TV for the evening news. DeWalt and Ryobi sell similar inverters for their own batteries, so whatever brand you’ve stuck with, there’s likely an adapter that fits. 

Then once the packs run low, you can recharge them from your car with a small inverter plugged into the 12-volt outlet. That way, the car’s gas tank becomes the fuel supply for the whole setup.

To get the most out of this setup, the car battery is the real hero here. So if luck isn’t on your side and your battery is almost dead, don’t toss it just yet. Right now, while things are still in place, the smartest move is to learn how to revive a dead car battery in only 10 minutes, by watching the video below:

The method I mentioned also covers other useful skills, like testing a battery with a cheap multimeter first, so you don’t waste time on one that’s truly gone. And the same tricks work on golf cart and deep-cycle marine batteries. Don’t wait a day longer to add this to your skills, because it will be worth a lot in the next blackout. 

5. A Standing-Pilot Gas Fireplace Makes Its Own Electricity

If your gas fireplace has a little blue pilot flame burning year-round, it can heat your living room with the grid down. That flame sits against a part called a thermopile, and the heat from it makes a small electrical current, somewhere around 600 to 750 millivolts. It’s not much, but it’s enough to open the gas valve on its own. So the burner lights and keeps burning while the rest of the street sits in the cold.

The blower won’t spin without power, so the room heats slower than you’re used to. Even so, the firebox throws plenty of radiant heat on its own.

Newer fireplaces work differently, because they use an electronic spark to light the burner instead of a standing pilot. Many of those run on batteries when the power drops, and certain Majestic units light on two D-cells or four AA batteries. So pull out the owner’s manual tonight and find out which kind you have. If it takes batteries, tape a fresh set inside the control cabinet.

Rechargeable ones do the job even better there, since you can top them up from the drill-battery inverter instead of buying new ones. But not every battery is worth saving, so check the 10 types of batteries that can be brought back to life before you throw any of them out. A NiMH cell that reads zero volts usually comes back with a slow charge, while an alkaline that has leaked inside the cabinet is finished and will eat your contacts if you leave it there.

Before you let the thermopile open that gas valve, keep a couple of things in mind:

• The pilot needs to stay lit year-round for this to work, so don’t shut it off every spring
• Vent-free fireplaces burn inside the room, which means a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector belongs in there with you
• If the gas smells off or the flame burns yellow instead of blue, shut the valve and leave it alone

4. The Computer UPS Under Your Desk Is a Battery With a Built-In Inverter

That black box your computer plugs into is called a UPS, short for uninterruptible power supply. Inside sits a sealed lead-acid battery and an inverter, which is the part that turns battery power back into regular household current.

Its real job is to buy you a few minutes to save your work, so it beeps like crazy when the power drops.

But once you unplug the computer, that same battery can carry much smaller loads for far longer. A typical home unit holds a 12-volt battery of about 7 to 9 amp-hours, which works out to roughly 85 to 110 watt-hours.

A modem and router together draw somewhere around 15 to 20 watts, so a UPS can keep your internet going for a few hours. Of course, that only helps if your provider’s equipment down the road still has power too.

An LED lamp drawing 9 watts will run even longer, and that’s plenty of light for reading after dark. Some larger business-grade units also accept add-on battery packs that plug into the back, which stretches runtime a great deal. You’ll see folks online wiring car batteries to cheap home units, but those chargers and fans weren’t built for that load, so stick with packs the maker sells.

Just remember that UPS batteries usually wear out in three to five years. And once that happens, all the box gives you in a blackout is the beep.

3. The Laptop You Shut Down Is a Phone Charger Waiting

That laptop sitting closed on the desk carries a battery of 50 to 90 watt-hours, which beats most of the power banks people buy for emergencies. A phone only holds 12 to 15 watt-hours, so even a laptop you’d call half dead has four or five full charges in it. The trick is remembering it before you open the lid out of habit and burn the whole thing watching videos.

Newer machines make it simple, because a USB-C port with power delivery sends charge both ways. Plug your phone straight into it with a USB-C cable and it starts filling, no adapter needed. Older laptops with only USB-A ports still work, though you have to leave the machine switched on and the screen eats power while it charges. So turn the brightness all the way down and close the lid if the setting allows it.

A couple of habits make this worth more when it counts:

• Keep the laptop charged to full during storm season instead of letting it sit at 40 percent
• Put it in airplane mode before charging anything, since the Wifi radio hunts for a dead router and wastes power
• Check whether your model has USB-C PD now, because the port looks identical whether it supports charging or not

2. A Dead LED Bulb Becomes a 12-Volt Lamp

When an LED bulb quits on you, the little LEDs inside are usually fine, since it’s almost always a cheap part on the driver board that gave out. If you crack the plastic dome off, you’ll find a flat disc with the LEDs set in a ring, and with two wires soldered to the plus and minus pads, that disc will run straight off a battery.

The tricky part is the voltage, because each LED needs about 3 volts to light. So a disc with four of them in a row adds up to 12 and glows nicely on a car battery, but one with a different count may not light at all. Counting the LEDs or putting a multimeter on the pads tells you right away if you’ll need a small resistor in the line.

These discs only draw 5 to 9 watts, so even the battery off your riding mower can keep one going for a couple of days. The light also fills the whole room, which a flashlight never does, and that’s how RV and boat owners have been lighting their cabins for years.

Before you start taking bulbs apart, let them sit unplugged for a while, since the capacitor inside can hold a charge that’ll give you a good jolt. Because a shorted wire on a car battery gets hot in a matter of seconds, you’ll also want a small fuse between the lamp and the battery.

If you’ve got a dead LED bulb and a spare car battery in the garage, you’re most of the way to a 12-volt lamp that keeps the kitchen lit for days during a winter blackout.

The video below walks through the whole thing, start to finish:

1. Your Landline Jack Carries Power the Grid Can’t Touch 

The old telephone jack on the wall still has electricity running through it, and it comes from the phone company’s batteries instead of your breaker panel. Copper landlines run on about 48 volts of DC, fed from a central office with big battery banks and a backup generator. That’s why the corded phone in the kitchen kept working during blackouts years ago, long after the rest of the house went quiet.

The current is small, around 20 milliamps, so this won’t run a lamp or a fridge. Even so, it’s enough to trickle-charge a big power bank day and night, and it keeps going as long as the line stays live. All it takes is an RJ11 cable, a 5V step-down regulator and a USB board, soldered together for about fifteen dollars.

Just know that fiber and cable “phone” service won’t do it, since those run off a box in your house that dies with the grid. If you still have copper, watch how to turn your phone jack into a forever charger and put it together this weekend.

In Case You Don’t Have Access to These Power Sources

You can still make your life a lot easier when the next blackout hits, and that matters more this year than usual. Last January, a single winter storm knocked out power for over a million homes across the country, and plenty of folks sat in the dark for days. With fuel prices where they are and the grid getting older every year, this winter could turn out even darker.

That thought keeps me up at night, so I didn’t stop at figuring out how to charge a phone and run a lamp. There’s still the house to heat, the family to feed, the pets and the livestock to look after. That’s why I spent the last few seasons building a handful of old-school projects around the place, and now the tools are sitting there ready whenever I need them.

Here’s what I’d suggest you put together while the weather still lets you work outside (click on the project for more info):

• Build an electricity-free fridge. A clay pot cooler keeps vegetables and dairy fresh for days with nothing but sand and water doing the work. Click here to see how.
• Build a backyard root cellar from a plastic barrel. You bury a food-grade barrel in the yard and the ground holds it near 50 degrees all winter long.
• Make a space heater that works on used cooking oil. Restaurants give their waste oil away, and it burns hot enough to keep a room comfortable.
• Build a backyard power plant. This one runs the appliances the grid used to handle, and it keeps going when the lines come down.
• Build a solar oven in a box. Cardboard, foil and a sheet of glass will cook a pot of beans on any sunny afternoon.
• Make oil from plants. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds from your own garden press into cooking oil, lamp fuel and more.
• Make biodiesel from used cooking oil. The same waste oil runs a diesel truck or a generator once you’ve filtered and treated it.
• Learn how to heat your home without electricity. There’s more than one way to keep a house warm when the furnace sits dead.

Late last January, that ice storm took my road out for three days, and I got by on drill batteries and an old bulb lamp. But this winter it won’t go that way again, since I spent the year building these projects as a backup, and now they’re sitting out back ready to go. 

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The post 6 Less-Known Household Power Sources You Can Use in a Blackout  appeared first on Ask a Prepper.

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How to Make Homemade Extracts

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

If you’re an avid baker or cook, chances are you’ve either used extracts or come across recipes calling for extracts. High-quality commercially available products are expensive, hard to come by, and often come with additives, preservatives, and ingredients whose origin is impossible to be certain of.

If you’ve never considered making your own or think that it must be too complicated or require special equipment, then you’re in for a sweet surprise. Making your own extracts is easy as can be. Once you see how simple it is, you’ll never go back to store-bought.

A Few Tips Before You Start

Before you dive in, here are a few things to know that will make your extracts turn out great every time.

Use at least 80-proof vodka. Anything weaker won’t pull as much flavor out of your ingredients, and it won’t preserve your extract as well. There’s no need to buy the top-shelf stuff, though. A cheap, plain vodka works just as well, since the whole point is a neutral base that lets the flavor shine.

Start with clean jars and bottles. Wash them in hot, soapy water (or run them through the dishwasher) and make sure they’re completely dry before you begin. Dark amber or cobalt glass bottles are ideal for storing your finished extracts because they protect them from light.

Label everything. Write the type of extract and the date you started it on a piece of masking tape or a label. Trust me, after a few weeks in the back of the pantry, every jar of brown liquid starts to look the same.

Know how long they’ll last. Alcohol-based extracts will keep for years when stored in a cool, dark place, and many even get better with age. Glycerin-based extracts have a shorter shelf life, generally around a year, so make them in smaller batches.

Expect glycerin extracts to taste a little different. Vegetable glycerin is naturally sweet and doesn’t pull out flavor quite as well as alcohol does, so your non-alcoholic extracts will be sweeter and a bit milder. You may need to use a little extra in your recipes. On the plus side, they’re a great choice for anyone avoiding alcohol entirely.

Okay, let's dive in. Here are 4 homemade extracts you can make with or without alcohol.

1. Vanilla Bourbon Extract

This is your basic vanilla extract, with the addition of some rich bourbon flavor that adds a little depth to your cookie or cake recipes. You will need a mason jar, bourbon, vodka, and three whole vanilla beans. The rule of thumb is 3 beans per cup of alcohol. You can also use smaller bottles if you like, just make sure you have one vanilla bean per bottle.

Instructions:

1. Cut the vanilla beans in half with a sharp knife to expose the seeds inside.
2. Place the cut-open beans into the jar or bottles– for a mason jar use all the beans.
3. Combine vodka and bourbon in equal amounts in a container that is easy to pour from.
4. Pour the alcohol into the jar or bottles so that the container is completely full.
5. Place in a dark, cool place for four to six weeks, shaking from time to time.
6. Once the color of the liquid is dark brown, you’re done. Enjoy!

As you use up the extract, you can top it off with more vodka, and it will continue to extract– the gift that keeps on giving.

Vanilla beans are the priciest part of this recipe, but there’s a way to save money. Look for “Grade B” or “extract grade” vanilla beans. They’re drier and less pretty than Grade A beans, but they’re cheaper and work just as well for extracts. And if you like a bold, rich vanilla flavor, don’t be afraid to add a few extra beans. The more beans you use, the stronger your extract will be.

Non-Alcoholic Vanilla Extract

For the non-alcoholic version of this recipe, use food-grade vegetable glycerin in place of alcohol (3 parts glycerin to 1 part water) and let the extract work it’s magic for a minimum of 8 weeks instead of 4-6.

2. Homemade Cherry Extract

If you are lucky enough to have a cherry tree, then you do not want to pass up the opportunity to make a cherry extract. Wonderful for use in baked desserts or drizzled over pancakes or ice cream, the store bought version is too expensive to use willy-nilly, but when you make it yourself you can use it liberally or even give it away as a very special handmade gift. You will need cherries, vodka, and a mason jar.

Instructions:

1. Measure out 12 ounces (a pint) of vodka.
2. Pit 2 cups of fresh cherries, tossing them into a jar as you go.
3. Cover the cherries with vodka, seal the jar, and shake vigorously.
4. Place the jar in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks, shaking every few days.
5. After 2 weeks, strain cherries out and pour extract into a glass bottle and store it in a cool, dark place. Voila!

Don’t throw those cherries away! After two weeks soaking in vodka, they’ve turned into boozy little treats. Spoon them over ice cream, stir them into a cocktail, or chop them up and fold them into a cake batter. Just keep in mind they’re still packing a punch, so they’re for the grown-ups only.

Non-Alcoholic Cherry Extract

For the non-alcoholic version of this recipe, use food grade vegetable glycerin in place of alcohol (3 parts glycerin to 1 part water), and let the concoction brew for a minimum of 3-4 weeks instead of 2.

3. DIY Almond Extract

This traditional extract tastes so much better when you make it yourself that you won’t believe you’ve ever paid for the prepackaged stuff. If you happen to have an almond tree, then you really have no excuse. You will need a glass pint jar, almonds, and vodka.

Instructions:

• Take 15 raw almonds and drop them into boiling water for exactly 1 minute. Remove them and rinse them in cold water.
• Squeeze almonds from skins, discard the skins and allow the almonds to dry completely.
• Once dry, chop the almonds coarsely and place into your pint jar.
• Pour 2 cups of vodka over the almonds, seal the jar, and give a good shake.
• Let the jar sit in a cool, dry place for 6-8 weeks, shaking every couple of days.
• Strain your extract through a coffee filter and store it in a dark glass jar or bottle (if possible) in a cool, dark spot.

Keep in mind that homemade almond extract won’t taste exactly like the stuff from the store. Most store-bought almond extract gets its strong, marzipan-like flavor from bitter almond oil, which isn’t something you can make from regular almonds in your kitchen.

Your homemade version will have a softer, nuttier, more natural flavor. Many people actually prefer it, but don’t be surprised if it’s milder than you expected. Also, don’t swap in apricot or peach pits to boost the flavor. They can be toxic.

Non-Alcoholic Almond Extract

For the non-alcoholic version of this recipe, use food grade vegetable glycerin in place of alcohol (3 parts glycerin to 1 part water), and let the almonds marinate for a minimum of 8 weeks instead of 6-8.

4. No-Fuss Orange Extract

For anyone who has ever loved orange-infused confections, you will not believe how easy it is to turn a waste product into a delicious extract. For this recipe, you will definitely want to make sure you use only organic citrus. If you prefer lemon, lime, mandarin, or even grapefruit, you can substitute them in the recipe. Any citrus will do. You will need vodka, citrus fruits, and a mason jar.

Instructions: 

• Begin with 4 organic oranges, or a number of citrus fruits with a similar amount of surface.
• Using a peeler, carefully peel the outermost layer of the skin from the fruits, without getting any of the white pith.
• Place the peels in the bottom of a mason jar.
• Pour one cup of vodka over the peels, put the lid on tightly, and give the jar a hearty shake.
• Place the jar in a cool, dark place for 8-12 weeks and shake it from time to time.
• Once the peels have lost much of their color, strain them out and bottle the extract in a glass container and store away from direct sunlight. Bon Appetit!

Even with organic citrus, give your fruit a good scrub under warm water before peeling to remove any dirt or residue. If you can only find conventional citrus, scrub it extra well to get rid of the wax coating. And don’t let those peeled oranges go to waste! Peeled fruit dries out quickly, so juice them or eat them within a day or two.

Non-Alcoholic Citrus Extract

For the non-alcoholic version of this recipe, use food grade vegetable glycerin in place of alcohol (3 parts glycerin to 1 part water), and let the citrus skins soak for a minimum of 12 weeks instead of 8-12.

In case you haven’t picked up on the gist of these recipes– it is extremely easy to make extracts at home. Almost any aromatic spice or herb can be made into a potent extract using these same techniques.

Just use your imagination and your harvest of lavender, mint, cinnamon, basil, even rose petals. Similar techniques are used to make medicinal tinctures as well, so bear in mind that extracts can be used for more than just baking and cocktails.

If you want to try herbs, here are a few tips. Use fresh leaves if you can and gently bruise or crush them before adding them to the jar to help release their oils. Loosely fill your jar about halfway with herbs, then cover them completely with vodka. Mint and basil usually only need four to six weeks, while woody spices like cinnamon sticks can take a little longer.

If you’re making lavender extract, be sure to use culinary lavender, and use it sparingly. A little lavender goes a long way, and too much can make your baked goods taste like soap.

If you have an aromatic herb, pungent fruit, or interesting spice around, feel free to experiment. Extracts are a delicious way to extend the season of your garden or just increase your level of self-reliance.

You May Also Like:

• How to Make Vanilla Extract at Home
• How to Make Antibiotic Extract
• How to Make DIY Dish Soap
• DIY Vanilla Mosquito Repellent
• 23 Common Foods That Can Be Poisonous

The post How to Make Homemade Extracts appeared first on Homestead Survival Site.

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Easy-To-Make Dinner Rolls For Two

These are my easy-to-make dinner rolls for two! Have you ever craved something super delicious but didn’t know where to start when making it? Some of my readers are in the same boat. I like to give my readers some ideas of fun things to make and how to do them. Dinner rolls are a favorite around our home, and I don’t need to make a big batch because it’s just Mark and me.

I’m concerned about what I see at grocery stores, such as empty or nearly empty shelves. I’ve been married 57 years this year and worry about our food chain. I’ve never seen grocery store shelves as empty in my entire married life as I’m seeing right now. And don’t get me started on the higher prices. There are no words.

Please learn to make bread and teach your kids and grandkids how. If you have fresh ingredients, YOU can make bread. Bread, biscuits, and tortillas fill the belly and put smiles on faces.

I’ve updated this recipe and am reposting it in hopes that you and others will enjoy this super-quick, easy roll! There are so many meals you can serve dinner rolls with, such as soup, chili, and salads. Have fun making these; you’ll never buy dinner rolls at the grocery store again.

These Easy-to-Make Dinner Rolls for Two are simple and require few ingredients. The best part is that you won’t waste food, either, since this recipe only makes four rolls. I’m a big proponent of not wasting! I’ve tried to follow the adage “waste not, want not.” It took me a while to perfect this recipe and ensure I didn’t waste any rolls by making too many.

Make This Recipe for a Small Batch of Rolls

I promised some of you I would devise a smaller dinner roll recipe. This is perfect for one person, a couple, or college students.

The nice thing is that you don’t need a Bosch bread mixer or a KitchenAid stand mixer. We only need a bowl and a Danish Whisk! Squeals are so easy to make; anyone can mix them with fresh ingredients. My bread, dinner roll, or cinnamon roll recipes are no-fail. Anyone can make these.

In case you missed my post: Easy-to-Make Soft Dinner Rolls (8 dinner rolls).

Ingredients

• Milk: Due to its fat content, milk helps produce softer bread and enriches the flavor; it also browns the dough while cooking.
• SAF Instant Yeast (this is what I use) is a leavening agent that helps to produce the needed gas that causes the bread to rise. It feeds on the added sugar, expelling carbon dioxide in the rising process.
• Dough Enhancer (optional): Makes your bread and rolls light and fluffy and helps strengthen their texture.
• Salt: Added to help tighten the gluten in the flour and act as a preservative.
• Sugar: When used in yeast bread, sugar provides food for the yeast. It also helps shorten the rise time in the rolls and maintain moisture, creating a softer roll.
• Eggs are a great source of protein. They help bind the bread dough together, creating a moist, soft dinner roll. They also increase browning during cooking, adding a rich, delicious flavor and helping extend the life of the dinner roll.
• Oil helps prevent the dinner rolls from crumbling and keeps the water from evaporating, creating a moist, soft roll.
• White All-Purpose Flour (I use Bread Flour): All-purpose white flour has a lower protein content. Bread flour has more protein, which helps to hold the shape of the dinner roll and adds more nutrients. I use bread flour for all of my baking tasks that call for flour.

Kitchen Items You May Need:

The items you need for these rolls are fundamental. You probably already have most of these kitchen items in your home. Just imagine making rolls from scratch with simple ingredients. I picked these items up quickly so I could make rolls any time I wanted.

Don’t miss out on making these rolls for two. You’ll LOVE them, I promise!

• Large Mixing Bowl
• 11-inch Danish Whisk (I prefer the 11-inch whisk because it fits inside a wide-mouth quart mason jar)
• Dough Scraper
• 6-Inch Cake Pan or a small muffin pan
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Dough Enhancer (it makes your bread and rolls fluffy)

Easy To Make Dinner Rolls For Two

These Easy-to-Make Dinner Rolls for Two are easy for anyone to make. You don’t need special cooking skills to make your rolls delicious—just follow my recipe! If you’ve never made rolls before, you are in for a treat because these are just so simple.

Sometimes recipes are too hard, and you don’t feel like messing with them. If there are just two of you, then make sure you give this recipe a try! I think you’ll like the simplicity and yumminess of these rolls.

Step One – Gather Ingredients

Gather your ingredients so you’re ready to start. You should have fresh ingredients; that’s a must if you want great results. I only buy enough white bread flour for 12-18 months.

I store my flour in 5-gallon food-grade buckets with red Gamma Lids. Yes, I still color-coded all my food storage and emergency preps. You can buy the buckets just about everywhere or online.

I keep my SAF Instant Yeast and Dough Enhancer in the refrigerator; the excess stays in the freezer. As mentioned, I only buy enough bread flour for 12-18 months.

Step Two – Grease Pan and Dump Ingredients into Mixing Bowl

Grease a 6-inch round cake pan and set aside. Grab a bowl and a Danish Whisk. Dump everything in a large mixing bowl. Please note that this is where I “whisked the one egg.”

Step Three – Stir Ingredients Thoroughly

Stir until mixed thoroughly. If the dough is too sticky, add additional flour if needed, but don’t add too much; we want a fluffy, soft dough.

Step Four – Flour the Countertop and Knead the Dough

Flour your countertop, then scoop the dough mixture out onto it. Knead on the counter for about 3-4 minutes. This kneading step helps to develop the dough so the rolls will be soft and moist.

Step Five – Cut Dough Into 4 Sections

Divide the dough into four sections (never stretch your dough). I use a Dough Scraper.

Step Six – Mound Each Section Into a Ball

Mound each section into a ball, and place the four balls in the greased pan. I generally “grease” my pans with a spray of vegetable oil.

Step Seven – Let Dough Rise

Cover with plastic wrap or a warm, wet towel. Let it rise for about an hour.

Step Eight – Preheat Oven – Bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Sometimes I let the dough rise a second time for my bread, but it’s not needed with these rolls. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Lightly brush the tops with butter after baking for softer dinner rolls. I use a baggie slathered with melted butter to spread on the warm rolls. Let cool. Store in bags to keep the dinner rolls soft. Enjoy.

Easy-To-Make Dinner Rolls For Two

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Easy-To-Make Dinner Rolls for Two

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Let It Rise 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings 2 people

Author Linda Loosli

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup warm milk
• 1/2 teaspoon SAF Instant Yeast (this is what I use)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dough Enhancer (optional-it makes the rolls fluffy)
• 1/4 scant teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 to 1-1/8 cups white all-purpose flour (I use bread flour)

Instructions

• Gather all of your ingredients.
• Grease a 6-inch round cake pan and set aside. Grab a bowl and a Danish Whisk. Dump everything into a large mixing bowl.
• Stir until mixed thoroughly. Add more flour to the dough if the dough is too sticky. Do not add too much; we want a fluffy, soft dough.
• Flour your countertop, then scoop the dough onto the countertop. Knead for about 3-4 minutes.
• Cut the dough into 4 sections (never stretch your dough).
• Take each section, mound it into a ball, and place the four balls in the greased pan.
• Cover with plastic wrap or a warm, wet towel. Let it rise for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (176 °C). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Lightly brush the tops with butter after baking if you want soft dinner rolls
• I use a baggie slathered with butter to spread on the warm rolls. Let cool. Store in bags to keep the dinner rolls soft. Enjoy.

Can I freeze these dinner rolls before baking them?

You can, but I don’t recommend it. These have no preservatives and don’t contain ingredients that would make them rise after being frozen.

Can I freeze these dinner rolls after baking them?

I bet you won’t have any left with this small batch! All you have to do is freeze them in freezer bags. Thaw at room temperature before you enjoy them.

How do I store them after baking these dinner rolls?

I store mine in freezer bags on the countertop. They will stay soft for about 3-4 days. Remember, they don’t have preservatives, so eat them within this time frame.

Is it okay to store these dinner rolls in the refrigerator after baking?

The fridge will dry out the rolls. It’s best to store them in freezer bags at room temperature on the countertop.

Can I use a different flour to make these dinner rolls gluten-free?

I wish you could, but most gluten-free recipes have so many ingredients I can’t even pronounce. I’m so sorry, no gluten-free flour will work for bread 1:1; only cakes and cookies can use that ratio for flour. Now, I just heard, but have not tried this one: King Arthur Bread Flour 1:1.

Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant rapid-rise yeast in this easy-to-make dinner roll?

I like to use instant yeast because it eliminates unnecessary steps. Instant yeast can be added directly to the dry ingredients, whereas active dry yeast must be dissolved in warm water before being added to the dry ingredients. It’s all about simplicity, right?

Here are some other delicious dinner roll and bread recipes to try!

• Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
• No-Fail Dinner Rolls
• Soft Dinner Rolls
• No-Fail Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
• Cinnamon Rolls for Two
• Croissant Rolls

Final Word

Please let me know if you can make my easy-to-make dinner roll recipe for two of you! Small-batch dinner rolls are the best when there are just two of you, when you’re a college student, or when you live alone.

There is something incredible about grabbing a bowl and dumping the ingredients in to make dinner rolls at the last minute. Ohhh….and the smell of homemade dinner rolls right out of the oven! Don’t even get me started!

We need to teach this skill to our kids and grandkids so they can make bread, regular rolls, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, and tortillas. May God bless this world, Linda

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