{recipe} Cinnamon Rolls

Weekly Test Recipes: week 33!

I have been searching for the best cinnamon roll recipe for a few months now.  I previously tried Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, and thought they were just okay (a bit dry for my taste).  I've read many people on various blogs raving about Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, so I decided to try her recipe next.  CAUTION: her recipe, as posted below, makes A LOT of rolls....I made a 1/4 recipe and ended up with 16 smallish rolls.  Next time I'm going to make a 1/2 recipe and hopefully get bigger rolls.

CINNAMON ROLLS (Pioneer Woman)

DOUGH:
1 quart whole milk (I used 1%)
1 c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar
2 packages active dry yeast (approx. 5 tsp.)
8 c. (plus 1 c. extra, separated) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 scant tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. salt

FILLING:
4 Tbsp. melted butter
2 c. sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
gound cinnamon

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in yeast. Let sit for a minute, then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir until combined. Cover and let rise for at least an hour. After rising, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together.

To prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle melted butter over the dough.  Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. 

I suggest using probably twice as much cinnamon as you think you need.  Personal preferance though.  I like a strong cinnamon flavor.

Roll the dough in a neat line toward you, keeping tight.  Pinch the seam to seal it.  Cut the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and lay them in greased 9x13 pan.

This makes me happy.

Let rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375* degrees until light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

fresh outta the oven

FROSTING: (see PW's recipe for her maple frosting...I made regular old powdered sugar frosting a la the kind you make for frosting sugar cookies, simply because I couldn't find the maple flavoring required for the PW recipe.)

1 c. powdered sugar (to start; I always end up adding a bit more as I mix)
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1/4 c. milk
splash of vanilla

Mix all together, adding more powdered sugar if too runny and more milk if too dry.  Pour and spread over still-warm cinnamon rolls.  This recipe makes enough to cover the small batch I made.  It's a pretty forgiving recipe, so these proportions are guesstimated.  Fiddle around and taste-test until you find a combination you like.

Rating: EXCELLENT, especially if using brown sugar instead of granulated sugar in the filling

I brought these to work and completely forgot to take a picture before they were devoured - just one lonely little guy left!  He didn't last long ;)

{recipe} Mom's Homemade Buns

Weekly Test Recipes - week 32!  And it's a special one this week :)

My Mom was always baking bread.  It seemed every Saturday she was making bread, or buns, or kolaches, or raisin rolls, or caramel rolls, or muffins, etc.  The house always smelled soooo yummy!  My favorite thing she baked was homemade buns.  All my sisters and I had to have sandwiches on Mom's buns for our high school graduations.  They made the best Broiled Buns (family recipe - I'll share sometime :).  Whenever we took road trips (even if it was just a two-hour trip to the Twin Cities), we packed a lunch for the car, preferably with homemade bun sandwiches.  They are yummy, they freeze well, and they say 'home' to me.  This week I decided to attempt to make them myself.  I was a bit nervous, because I've heard some bad stories about baking bread - that there's a knack for it, that it can end up like bricks.  I've never been so worried baking something before.  It was very important to me that these turned out edible, and as close to Mom's as possible.

MOM'S HOMEMADE BUNS
3 c. lukewarm water
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. yeast
½ c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
~ 8 c. flour

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Add oil and salt. Gradually add enough flour to make dough stiff enough to handle. You don't want it to be sticky when you touch it, but don't want to add too much flour or you'll get dry rocks instead of buns. 

dough all mixed up - before first rise

Let rise, punch down, and let rise again. Shape and place on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise to about double. Bake @ 375* for 10 to 15 minutes.

after rising on the pan, ready to go in the oven.  these are not dough cookies, as my brother-in-law asked the first time he saw Mom baking buns

I made half of the above recipe and got 18 buns.  I also used half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.  Any additional flour added to make the dough stiff was all-purpose.  The rise times were much longer than I expected, but make sure you don't rush the rise.  It took 7 hours from the time I mixed the dough together to the time they came out of the oven.  I'd say each rise (the bowl rises plus the time for buns to rise after being shaped on the pans) took a good couple hours each. 

fresh out of the oven

I had 9 buns on each pan, and baked the first pan for 15 minutes.  They came out a bit darker than I wanted and the tops of the buns seemed rock hard when they came out of the oven.  I was crushed.  I thought I had failed, or maybe just overbaked them.  So I baked the second pan for 10 minutes and they looked much better, but still came out a little crusty on top.  However (hallelujah!), the buns softened up as they cooled.  Success!!  I had made yummy buns just like Mom's!!  You have no idea how happy this makes me!!!  These are definitely going in the regular rotation.

Tradition growing up was to put a slice of Velveeta in a fresh-outta-the-oven bun and let me melt until yummy.  So of course I did just that!  Cheese bun!  Mmmmmmmmm....

Rating: EXCELLENT and comforting.

I'm linking to Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

{recipe} Creme Brulee French Toast

Test Recipes Week 17! (Can you believe we're already 1/3 of the way through 2010??)

Last week I was in the mood for some good breakfast food, so I did a trusty Allrecipes.com search.  Coincidently, French bread had also been the freebie item at the grocery store, so I decided french toast was the way to go.  I wanted something a little special, not regular egg/milk dipped french toast.  Here's what I decided on:

CREME BRULEE FRENCH TOAST (allrecipes.com)

1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 loaf French bread, sliced 1/2" to 1" thick
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. half-and-half (I used milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. brandy-based orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier®) (I used 1 tsp triple sec and 1 tsp OJ instead)
1/4 tsp. salt

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch greased baking dish. Arrange bread in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, orange liqueur, and salt. Pour over the bread.  (At this point, I spooned a bunch of the milk mixture over each slice to make sure they were nice and soggy.  All the liquid had been soaked up in the morning, so this probably wouldn't have been necessary.) Cover and chill overnight. Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the 350* oven, until puffed and lightly browned. (Can place under broiler for a couple minutes too at the end.  Some people in the comments mentioned flipping the slices halfway through baking...your call, I did not.)

This recipe was very sweet, very caramel-ly, very sticky, and VERY yummy!!  I rated it EXCELLENT.  Actually, the taste was pretty much just like a caramel roll/sticky bun, just a little less dense.  Although this french toast was really yummy, I probably will not make it very often because of the richness.  Honestly, I think I like regular plain french toast with maple syrup just as much, but this was a great change of pace.  It also reheated very well in the toaster oven, which made it an easy breakfast throughout the work week.  Do you ever eat Brinner (breakfast for dinner)?  I love brinner - especially pancakes and eggs - and the leftover french toast made excellent brinner a couple days later!

{recipe} Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Test Recipes Week 10!

We had another office party the week I made this bread.  We decided to have the party in the morning, with special coffee selections and breakfast items - Mexican pastries, granola, and a couple breads made by Yours Truly.  I made the traditional Mueller banana bread recipe, and also decided to try a lemon poppy seed.  I love lemon.  Lemon Meringue Pie. Lemonade. Lemon tea.  Lemon sherbet. Lemon Bars. *drool*

I've never made lemon poppy seed anything before, but have always been a fan.  After an extensive online recipe search, I narrowed it down to this recipe.

LEMON POPPY SEED BREAD (allrecipes.com)

BREAD:
3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/8 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract


GLAZE:
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds and 2 1/2 cups white sugar. Add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and lemon extract; mix until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour batter evenly into the three greased 8x4 inch loaf pans.  3.Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean. Cool loaves in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Combine orange juice with remaining 3/4 cup sugar and extract; stir well. Pour this mixture over the loaf while it is still hot. Allow loaf to cool completely before serving.
 
Makes three (3) 8x4 inch loaves.  I only have two loaf pans, so I made the extra into muffins.  I had one 'oops' moment when making this recipe.  I only had 3/4 c. oil in my cupboard.  When I was making the grocery list for this recipe, I just assumed I had enough oil.  Oops.  It was probably 9pm by this point, and I didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store just for oil, so I took a chance.  I substitued olive oil for the remaining amount of oil.  The bread baked like normal, and I thought it tasted good.  But in the end, I swore I could taste just a hint of the olive oil in the bread.  The bread was gobbled up at the office, and no one mentioned any odd flavor, so it may have just been my imagination.  Regardless, I'm eager to test this recipe again with only vegetable or canola oil to see if it tastes any better.  I'm going to rate it GOOD until I have a chance to retest it.