Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls ready to bake.....

I continue to love my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book and have learned to use the authors knowledge and tweak things to my families liking.

I used 1 1/2 pounds Challah dough, rolled out into a large rectangle, 1 stick of butter softened and spread out, with 1/2 cup sugar and 4 T. Cinnamon spinkled around, roll up the dough long side to long side, cut in half then each half in half again and then in thirds, place into greased 9x13 inch pan, allow to raise overnight with greased plastic wrap placed loosely on top. In the morning place in oven at 350 degrees for approximately 50 minutes. In the meantime prepare your frosting. Any king you like.

For our friends and neighbors we created 4 breads that were highlighted in the Family Fun Magazine, December issue.

Date Bread, Apple Bread, Pumpkin Chocolate, and Lemon Coconut. Oh my were these yummy. I also took some to a work meeting and everyone ate well that day.

I made some minor adjustments to the recipes to suit our likes....

We wrapped each slice up and put and individual label on them, much like the magazine showed and then put 1 slice of each kind in a clear decorated plastic bag with two ornaments the kids made earlier in the month.

Almond, Banana, Chocolate Chip Biscotti

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 mashed, ripe banana
1 t. almond flavoring
2 eggs
3 t. baking powder
3 cups flour, (1 cup ww flour, 2 cups white)
1/4 t. salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (white chocolate would be good also)
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Mix sugar, butter, egg, almond flavoring until smooth and creamy. Add Banana, mix. Add baking powder, flour, salt. Mix in chips and almonds.

Grease your hands and cookie sheet, and grab approximately 1/2 of mixture and shape into a long, flat log, about has wide as you hand is long. Do the same to the second piece.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, until cooked through.

Cool for 20 minutes, then slice like a loaf of bread, laying each piece side ways on the cookie sheet.




Bake in 350 degree for 12 minutes on each side, remove from oven and let cool.

For extra yummy, melt white chocolate chips and place into plastic bag, snip small hole in the corner and squeeze...........

Custard

What do you do with the extra eggs, well...

4 cups scalded milk, ie hot but not boiling
1 t. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
6 eggs
1/4 t. salt

Cream eggs, sugar and salt.

Scald milk, add vanilla when removed from heat. Slowly add milk to egg, while tempering (ie. bring the eggs to the temp of the milk, continue to slow add milk, while stirring constantly. After the milk and egg mixture has been combined, pour into pan. (Make sure that you have a pan larger than the one with the mixture, because you have to put the dish into a water bath to bake.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until knife inserted into middle comes out clean.

Don't Cry Over spilt Milk

Well, where has the time gone since I last posted???? All I can say is that it has been busy, busy and more busy. I have canned, made more jam, preserves, work and wiped the floor numerous times since my last blog post.

Three days ago, my 2 year old reached into the Fridge and out came not only the juice jug but the juice as well, all over my floor, two towels later and no tears at this point I felt like I should just wipe down all the tile, 30 minutes later, I was done.

Two days ago my 4 year was helping himself to some juice but this time while pouring it into a cup, it ended up all over the counter and floor, needless to say, the floor was then again cleaned, this time by all of the kids and myself, 1 hour later. Yes I did say 1 hour.....Lets see, soap, rags, buckets and more soap, rags, buckets and of course bubbles.

Well finally I came to understand fate a little better in life at this time and knew that my daughter would soon spill something tragic on the floor, and of course today it happened, my tea all over the floor, from her coming and going out of the cup cabinet, she did not even know that the hit the tea pot and spilt it all over the ground, soap, rags, bucket... you get the picture.

I made cinnamon rolls from so dough I wiped up the other day from the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day, but this time did a spin on my own. I made the sweet bread and then turned it into cinnamon rolls, made powdered sugar frosting. Well 7 are missing from the photo. No I did not eat all, just 2... The kids had the rest, plus my mom and neighbor.

Some other photos of bread that I have made over the past few days.

Callah Bread

Crusty White Sandwich Loaf

We made the Sandwich Loaf for egg salad sandwiches.

8 Large Hard Boiled Eggs, shredded with cheese grader

1/3 Mayo

1 T. Dijon Mustard

3 T. Pickle Relish

1/4 Cup Celery, chopped small

1 t. pepper

1 t. salt

Oh Yes and the yummy jams and preserves, I have photos of some Kiwi Jam, peach preserves. I did make pear jam, but it did not make it into the photo.

And the pickled beets.........

Baking the Day Away

Oh I am so in love with my new book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I tackled more of the bread shapes today, enjoying one for breakfast and the other with dinner.

New Tea Pot Asian Beef for Dinner

I made a new dish for dinner. I placed a 2.5 lb pot roast in the crockpot when I was making bread this morning and it cooked all day. At dinner time, I began creating a new dish.

Asian Beef

4 Romaine Hearts, chopped

1 scallion, tiny chops

1 Cup of chopped carrots

Small handful of sesemae seeds

2 cups of shredded and/or chopped beef

Dressing: 3/4 cup chicken broth, 2 T. Peanut Oil, 3 T. Red Wine Vinegar, 1 dash of Soy Sauce and Pepper to taste, if you like more spice, add 1 t of red pepper flakes. Poor dressing over salad and serve with bread.

So the photo of the new Tea Pot is important, because we recently bought one and the bottom cooking portion developed a pin like hole in it. I contacted the company Copco and they gladly replaced the tea pot. I will standby this company from now on, because they stood by their consumer.

I made strawberry jam for the first time and amazingly it turned out well. I hope to make more in the coming days.

Wine and Bread

Today was the day that my husband returned home from a week long chemistry class, today was a reunion for the kids whom missed their daddy in addition to my husband turning another year older.

Yesterday I packed up the van with the kids plus my neice and nephew and we went to the mall in seach of a book that I have been lusting after, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day . Well after throughly reading through I tackled the basic recipe and lo and behold, we had bread appetizers before heading to the local wine vineyard. We sampled numerous wines, drank a bottle their and brought 2 more bottles home. Yummy, we loved everything we tried.

Ciabatta Loaf

This is what I saw on TV and was hooked. I love bread and everything associated with bread.

All in a days work

Today started early with some lawn mowing exercises. I moved the yard for the 3rd time in 4 years, I thought it was getting a little long even for GREEN people. Mowing was followed by filling the bird feeders, hummingbird feedings and weeding the 6 gardens. My 2 year old was with me every step of the way, his favorite part is to water when we are all done.

We finished the yard work, just as the crockpot had our Sweet and Sour Pork Chops done. All I had to do was cut up summer squash and cook some rice with almond silvers and we had lunch.

I thought since all the activity occured this morning we would hide out in the house today baking. We had some excess blue berries from my fathers generosity so I decided to make Blue Berry Buckle.

Cream 1/4 c butter, 3/4 c sugar, and 1 egg.

Combine 2 c flour, 2 t baking powder, and 1/2 t salt.

Alternate adding dry mix with 1/2 c milk total to creamed mixture.

Add 2 T flour to 1 pint blue berries and then fold into thick mixture.

Make crumb topping, by squashing 1/4 c soft butter, 1/2 c sugar, 1/3 c flour and 1/2 t. cinnamon with a fork. Sprinkle on to batter.

Bake at 375 degrees for approx 1 hour, start checking at 50 minutes with a chop stick or something thin. I recommened using a grease springform pan like you would use for cheese cake.

The kids make what they call Sushi Balls while I mixed up the Blue Berry Buckle.

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

2 t. cocoa powder

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup coconut

1/2 mini chocolate chips

Combine all and refridgerate for 2 hours. Take a cookie spoon and drop into a bowl of coconut flakes (1c), roll into hands forming a ball, then roll in sesame seeds and flax seeds (2/3c) and then roll into cashews crushed (2/3 c). The dip measurements are approximate, as some kids can get more to stick to the peanut butter rolls. Place the Sushi Balls on the cookie sheet and then refrigerate to harden and then you can place them in a covered dish in the fridge to store.