Heavenly Cinnamon Rolls

This is a recipe I got off of the label for my new Nordic Ware sheet pan, although I didn't use the pans to cook 'em.  It's been my experience that yeast doughs need walls to attach themselves to as they multiply in bulk, so I used a 13 x 9 non-stick glass pan my hubby bought for me for Christmas/my birthday.  Has a whole lot of steps in it and the ingredient list reads long, but a lot of the items listed are repeated through out the recipe.  Additionally,I keep the rolls and frosting separate so that can reheat one at a moment's notice.   Nuke 'em for30 seconds (depending on how powerful your microwave is) or until tender and steamy.  Top with a dollop or two of the frosting and be prepared to loosen your belt for a second helping.  Bon apetito!

Makes 20 rolls of varying size (You'll see.  Unless you're a perfectionist, which I am not :-)). 

Dough: 

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 c warm milk (105 F) 

1/2 c sugar

1/3 c melted margarine or butter

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

4-5 c flour

Filling:

1 c brown sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 c butter, softened

Frosting:

4 oz Mascarpone or cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp margarine or butter, softened

2-4 tsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 c powdered sugar

In a small bowl, combine yeast, 1 tsp sugar and warm milk; stir until yeast is dissolved. Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.   In a large bowl, combine 1/2 c sugar, melted butter, salt, and eggs; mix until well blended.  Stir in 2 c of flour and yeast mixture.  Gradually add 2 more c flour; mix well.  Turn dough out onto floured surface, knead 5-10 minutes, adding enough remaining flour until dough is smooth and elastic.   Place dough in greased bowl and turn greased side up.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled*.  Punch down dough.  On lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 20 x 16 in rectangle. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spread dough with 1/2 c softened butter; sprinkle with brown sugar mixture, leaving a half-inch border around edge.  Roll the rectangle up tightly, beginning at the 20-in side.  Pinch edge of dough to seal.  cut roll into 20 1-in slices.   Place slices slightly apart in greased sheet pan.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes until doubled in size.  Heat oven to 375 F.  Bake 20-25 min, until golden-brown.  Cool 10 minutes.   In medium bowl, combine all frosting ingredients.  Blend well, adding additional milk if necessary.  Spread frosting over warm rolls.  Serve warm.  *Dough will not appear to change form very much in this stage.  In fact, when I went to check after 20 minutes, it looked almost like it hadn't moved, but do not dispair.  The magic takes place after the second rise, while the cut rolls await their final parade in the hot box.

My pizza salad

We went to dinner at Me n Ed's pizza parlor last night and brought home some awesome chicken, black olive and pineapple pizza.  If you're an avid pizza fan (especially if you make your own at home as often as I do) you always have a jar of banana/wax peppers and a container of black olives waiting for you in the fridge.  This salad is a perfect balance between the brininess of the olives, the tart and ever-so-slight bite of the peppers and the crisp, refreshing texture of the lettuce:

Ingredients:

1 medium head of lettuce

2 tbsp (or more if you like it tart) wax peppers, rough diced to make bite size pieces

1/4 c sliced black olives

Thousand Island, or dressing of choice

Slice lettuce into 1 inch slices and cut into bite size pieces.  Toss into bowl and break up any large pieces.  Top with diced wax peppers and black olives; dress lightly with Thousand Island.  Can be made ahead of time if you don't dress the salad.  

While eating this salad, I almost forgot to eat my pizza; it was that good.  I bet a couple crushed red peppers and some cheese would be awesome with this combo, too.  

 

Banana pancakes

I actually modified this from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com  The night before, I had prepared my usual pancake batter from an instant pancake mix and included 2 bananas.  For some reason, it came out watery and produced these awful soggy pancakes (blaugh!), so I did a quick search and found this recipe.  In my experience, I've found that a one to one ratio of wet to dry is too wet for pancake, especially if you're going to add fruit on top of the liquid asked for.  This is what I came up with.

Makes about 5-8 pancakes

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, well mashed
2 tbsp veg oil
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c milk

1 c plus 2 tsp self-rising flour
or
1 c a/p flour with 2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Combine bananas, veg oil and egg in the bottom of a medium bowl until well incorporated.  Mix in milk and set aside.  Sift in dry ingredients directly into wet and mix from bottom to top until dry is just wetted through.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes before cooking on a griddle set over low heat.

Dad's Chocolate Birthday Cake

Excuse the unimaginative title for this post, but that is just what it is: another chocolate cake.  But what sets it aside is the homemade chocolate/rum butter cream frosting, encasing, and dividing, two succulent layers of mahogany sponge, all guarded by delicate chocolate cookie pipe soldiers.  I'm definitely an amateur cake artist at best, but I thoroughly enjoyed dreaming this cocoa coma up and I hope Dad (and guests at our Wednesday night bible study) will enjoy demolishing it with me.

We start with the cake... : 

1 18.75 oz boxed German Chocolate Cake (I used Pilsbury)
**To make absolute sure that everything falls into place perfectly, I like to do this step the day before I decorate my cake, but if you are an early bird, you can do it in the morning**
Cut out two identical rounds of parchment or wax paper to fit the bottom of 2 well-greased 9-inch round straight sided cake pans.  Press into bottom of each pan and spritz lightly with cooking spray.*   Whip batter up according to back-of-the-box directions** and divide between as evenly as possible between the two pans.  Cook at 350 F for 25-30 minutes each, turning both rounds once half way through cooking (around the 15 minute mark).  Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before de-panning.  Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

*Trust me, if you don't do this part, you might just spend a few hours doing a chocolate cake puzzle instead of using your precious time to decorate the cake.  You'll want to invest in this little trick, as the parchment/wax paper allows to simply loosen the sides of the cake when it is cooled invert the entire sponge round out in one luscious piece.

**Instead of water, I always try to add some element of coffee into my chocolate cakes, either through strongly brewed joe or the granulated freeze dried form.  Brewed coffe swaps out perfectly for the water most box cake directions ask for.  I've always got a cup or two of cold coffee left from my a.m. shlep, and what better way to waste not then to make a good cake fantabulous?

 Hmm... Looks like a rather large Oreo Cakester... 

... with lots of choco'-rum frosting. 

 Here, I added my "artistic" touch with the extra frosting I didn't use to encase the sponge.  My frosting "roses" need lots of help. 

Cutting up those delectable straw cookies 

... followed by the frosting:

I used a recipe called "Creamy Chocolate Frosting" that I found in a search via Google Chrome (it is listed on allrecipes.com).  This frosting was amazing, light and fluffy, and VERY chocolatey.  Of course, I had to modify it, but if you want you can go to the site and look it up yourself.

1 stick of room temperature unsalted butter
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 3/4 c confectioners sugar
A pinch of salt
6 tbsp heavy cream or half and half or whatever creamy goodness you have on hand (I venture to say that coffee creamer would work, even the flavored stuff if that's your bag)
1 tsp rum extract (or vanilla)


In your stand mixer or by hand, whip butter until light and airy, about 30 seconds.  Sift sugar, salt and cocoa together.  Mix cocoa/sugar/salt mixture and cream alternately on low speed until everything is incorporated.  Beat in extract of choice; once there is no discerning powder from liquid, raise the speed to medium, then high and beat the tar out of that frosting until light and airy, about 2 minutes.  Careful not to go over this time, no one likes chocolate flavored sugar butter (maybe the REAL chocolate fans might..??).  Set aside and prepare your other decorations like...

And of course, we embellish with abandon: 


20-30 Pirouette cookies or something similar (I used chocolate, but whatever flavor you prefer would be good also)
A small handful of white chocolate chips
Extra cocoa powder
One long strip of orange zest.  Careful to extract as little of the white pith as possible, as even a decoration can lead to extra flavor and ruin.
Caramel sauce

Decorate as you wish, with or without these items.  From start to finish, the decoration stage of this cake took about 1/2 an hour.  Worth every hot minute of it.  Decorations not only add beauty to your work of art, but they can add extra flavor and depth where the cake might be lacking.  Once I got the frosting on, I couldn't hardly keep conjuring ideas of what to put on my cake next.  The sky truly is the limit.

The final product: Try getting this at your local supermarket bakery for less than $10! (an exorbitant price compared to what I actually spent... wouldn't you like to know? ;-))

The Presentation:

Cooking, particularly baking, is all about helping people find happiness through their tummies.  I was able to share this tasty morsel with not only my father in law, but other attendants of our usual Wednesday night bible study.  It was a dream to travel with (all 15 minutes of my grandma-esque piloting) and an even more indelible angel to serve, as the slices came out picture perfect and practically crumb free.  And the taste?  Oh boy, you'll just have to make your own to find out.  This is a no fail kind of cake, the only kind I like to make.  Not to say that I don't make mistakes (and enjoy making them, especially in my humble kitchen), but it sure is and has been fun to share with you.  

Final words:

• Clean as you go.  My mother pounded this into my head and I never cared for the moniker until I became obsessed with cooking (and raising my kids).  It is one way for you to fall in love with cooking and naturally to practice feng shui
• Tweak recipes and be creative, but not outrageous.  Observe others in how they do what they do and use their pointers.  Don't be afraid to experiment, even if the guinea pig isn't always willing to nibble.
• Find your cooking stuff on clearance and stock up.  I got my straw cookies on a 50 % off after Christmas sale at the local pharmacy.  They're every bit as delicious as the name brand, just much less painful to purchase.  Also, buying things in bulk (sugar, flour, chocolate chips) will save you time and money, especially if you are an avid cook.  I don't like to run to the store for flour when I need it most.  
• No matter what the purists say, I like my box cakes and buy them on clearance, in all sorts of flavors, whenever I see them.  Don't be embarrassed to do the same.
• Find off brand items and even name brand items at dollar stores and discount marts.  Found my parchment paper (normally $2.99 at my local sprawl mart) for just 99 cents at the 99 Cent Store.  These little details really do add up and are worth the trek, in my book.

Any more tips?  I'm sure there are more, but you'll have to keep reading my posts to find out what else is on my mind.