Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

     Oh my Goodness! It's been a long time since I've posted a new recipe. It's not that I have given up cooking or blogging it's just that life has been a little busy and I've been a little tired. It seems that by the time I get done cooking or baking something I don't have the energy to sit down and blog about it.

     But that is going to change! I'm going to try and write a couple of blog posts a week. I miss sitting down and blabbing about my life in general and sharing the different recipes that I have tried out. I want to thank the people that have loyally checked my blog for updates and sorry it's been a while.

   I decided to kick start my reentry with a super yummy cinnamon roll recipe. I got the recipe out of the Feb/Mar Taste of Home magazine and thought that I would give it a try.

     I love the ease of using my bread machine for mixing up yeast bread dough and this recipe worked perfectly for this. The trick is to put all the liquid in first then the dry ingredients and then the yeast. It works perfectly every time.

     The one thing that I would definitely change is the amount of frosting. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I felt like it was too much sweetness. Maybe half as much frosting would be just as good.

     I also have to say that although these cinnamon rolls were good I don't think they were as good as my Cinnamon Caramel Rolls that I also happen to make in my bread machine. My family totally agrees that these rolls were good, but not as good as my original recipe. I've linked  my recipe so if you want to try that one too it's easy for you to find.

     Well here's the recipe. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Remember you can mix up the dough by hand too. I'll leave directions for that at the bottom of the page.

Happy Baking!

Can't Eat Just One Cinnamon Rolls

1pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 Cup water

1 Cup milk

1/3 instant vanilla pudding mix (half of a 3/4-oz pkg)

1 egg

1/4 Cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

3-3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

Filling

3/4 Cup sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 Cup butter, melted

Frosting

1 1/2 Cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 Cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon water

In a bread machine pan put water, milk, egg and melted butter in first. Then add flour, pudding mix, salt and sugar. Make a little indent in the flour mixture and place the yeast in this indentation. Put the pan in the bread machine and set it to dough. Let it do it's thing. If the dough looks too sticky you can add the extra 1/2 cup of flour to the dough.

Once the dough is done mix up the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.Melt the butter and set that aside.  Roll the dough out on a well floured surface into a 10X18 inch rectangle. Then spread the melted butter on and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the dough up to form a long log shape. Take a sharp knife and cut 12 rolls. 

Place rolls in a greased 9X13 pan. Cover and let rise. Or if your like me I cover it, let it rise and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning while I'm preheating the oven I place it on the stove and let it warm up and rise that way. 

Bake the rolls at 350 for 20-25 minutes.While the rolls are baking you can mix up the frosting. Beat the frosting ingredients in a bowl until creamy. Let the rolls slightly cool before adding the frosting.

If you don't have a bread machine

In a bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. In a bowl, beat milk and pudding mix on low speed for 1 minute. Let stand 1 minute. Add egg, butter, salt, yeast mixture and cups flour; beat on medium until smooth. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface, knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double, about 1 hour.  Now your read to add the filling.

Recipe adapted from: Feb/March Taste of  Home

  

Banana Bread Donuts with Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze

 

 

Banana Bread Donuts with Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze

     I have now found a new recipe to use those over ripe bananas. You know those 2-3 bananas that have now turned a little brown and no one wants to eat. Yeah, those! It happens to everyone. I think a lot of people just throw them away, but here's a recipe that will help you to put those old bananas to good use.

     I also like the versatility of this recipe. If you don't have the donut pans you can easily use a muffin pan. The donuts are most and taste so delicious with the glaze on top. Just imagine how a muffin would look and taste.

     The recipe originally called for Nutella in the glaze, but I didn't have any on hand. I did, however, have this chocolate peanut butter spread that I substituted instead. I would think that one could get the same result using a half peanut butter, half Nutella combination to get the chocolate/peanut butter flavor.

     The recipe makes only 6 donuts. I doubled the recipe to make an even dozen. This just made so much more sense to me since I had a couple bananas and the original recipe called for 1 small banana. Give this recipe a try, whether you make donuts or muffins I'm sure you will love it.

Banana Bread Donuts with Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze
2 C flour
3/4 C sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
3/4 C milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 t vanilla
1/2 C mashed banana ( about 1 small banana)

Glaze
1 C powdered sugar
2 T chocolate peanut butter
2-3 T milk

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a donut pan or muffin pan with cooking spray.
In an large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside. In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs, vanilla and banana. Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix well.
Fill the donut pan with the batter about 2/3 full.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

To make glaze
Whisk together the powdered sugar, chocolate peanut butter, and milk. Use a rubber spatula to spread the glaze on top of the donuts.

Adapted from Kitchenmeetsgirl.com

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

     Saturday morning breakfasts on a cold, chilly day calls for something hot from the oven. So how about some Banana Chocolate Chip muffins? They smell wonderful and fill the kitchen with the smell of banana bread baking, except this individual servings with a little kick. It's got mini chocolate chips. YUM!

     These muffins are super moist and have a delicious banana taste. I opted to use my large muffin cups to make these so I only got 6 muffins, but they were really good. The directions that I am going to give are for 12 regular sized muffins. I had to bake the large ones just a bit longer to get the middles baked through.

     I was lucky to find this recipe on Mr. Breakfast.com. If you haven't visited this site you should really check it out. He has some really good breakfast ideas on here.  I like going there when I just need something different to make for breakfast and it has so many good ideas on it.

     So here's the recipe. I of course modified it a bit to put my own twist on it. Enjoy some muffins on a cold, chilly morning.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 egg
3 large bananas- mashed with 1 and 1/2 t lemon juice
1 t vanilla
3/4 C sugar
1/3 C butter softened
1/2 C mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 12 count muffin pan with cooking spray or use paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl lightly beat the egg. Add the mashed banana, lemon juice, vanilla, sugar and butter. Mix well until combined and smooth.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixing well. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. A toothpick should come out of the center of a muffin clean (no batter).

Banana Oat Muffins

Banana Oat Muffins

    
It was such a wonderful morning today and I again I had those slightly browning bananas staring at me on the kitchen counter. I don't know what it is, but I just can't eat the bananas in my house fast enough and no one but me eats them at my house.

     Now bananas are one of my favorite fruits, but obvious not for anyone else in my family. However, they do like when I make baked goods with bananas. I am thankful for that. If they didn't I would be as big as a house or my coworkers would be eating very well, because I would have to take my baked goods to work.

     This recipe is a healthy and very yummy treat. It was hard not to eat a couple when they were fresh out of the oven. A little butter on them.....Yum!

    These are simple to make and do not take much time at all. Now give them a try I know you have some bananas just waiting to be made into these scrumptious muffins.

Banana Oat Muffins
1 1/2 C all -purpose flour
1 C old fashion oats
1/2 C sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 egg
3/4 C milk
1/3 C canola oil
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 C mashed bananas (about 2 bananas)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tine with paper bake cups.
Combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt.
In a large bowl beat the egg lightly. Stir in milk, oil and vanilla. Add the mashed banana, and combine thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined.
Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Pumpkin Donuts

Today has been such a lazy day. After three days of conferences at school I was really ready for some down time. It felt so good to lounge in my pj's this morning until 11:00. I don't get to do that very often.

The next couple of days are Education Minnesota Conference days. Days when I should go and check out some new teaching tips.  I was going to go today, but I needed to get my oil changed in my van and have a funky noise checked out, so I decide it was best to take the 3:00 appointment today.

Since I had vast amounts of time today I decided to try out a new recipe. The weather is wet and cold out and feeling very fall like. I also have pumpkins on my mind so I decide to try and make some pumpkin donuts.

I have already invested in the donut pans from Wilton and I've tried doing this before, but the donuts were only ok. This time I attempted to make pumpkin donuts. I didn't think I could go wrong with this flavor and I was right. These donuts are super good. It is hard to eat just one.

You could use this batter and simply make muffins if you want. You would have to bake them a little longer, but if you have these donut pans I say go for it.

After baking these donuts you can shake them in a sugar mixture, frost them or simply eat them plain. They are good no matter what you do.

If you are going to buy these pans I would suggest waiting until Michaels has a 50% off coupon on bakeware. They tend to have these coupons often and I don't know if it is worth paying full price for a specialty pan that you might not use a lot. That's what I do on all my bakeware pans for cake decorating and such.

Give this recipe a try whether you want to do donuts or muffins they taste great and make the house smell wonderful!

Pumpkin donuts

 Preheat oven to 350 and spray donut pans with cooking spray.

Place the following in a mixing bowl:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus a heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Beat everything together until smooth.

Add 1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) flour, stirring just until smooth.

Fill donut pans about 1/2 full with batter and bake 15 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing and cool on a rack. While still slightly warm shake in a sugar,cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg mixture. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

A pan of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Just when I was going to be diligent about posting regularly I hit a snap foo! Yes I said a snap foo! Not that it was anything bad, but it took me a little off guard. You see I got, in my eyes, this amazing job offer from out of the blue. I am a teacher by trade and I have longed to be a classroom teacher. These past seven years I have been a reading specialist, teaching reading mainly in the primary grades. I have so wanted to have a change and teach a regular classroom and I guess this was the year for that change.

Well after a few days of talking back and forth I finally accepted this new position of 1/2 time reading support and 1/2 time kindergarten. It was sad to say goodbye to all my friends at my previous school, but I just couldn't pass up this great opportunity.

I am now working 1.3 miles from my home in a district that I have wanted to work in for years. I had worked for this district as a para before I got my teaching license so I already knew a ton of teachers within the district. It was like going home.

Well since I am kind of new to this whole kindergarten classroom teacher thing I've been a little busy. Especially since I started there in the middle of the week for teacher 's professional development week. I just now feel like I'm catching up a little. I still have some work to do this weekend, but at least my lessons are written, it's just a matter of some fine details.

So this morning I actually had time to bake some muffins. I made some Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. They are so good. I hope you enjoy them.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 large egg
1/3 C softened butter
3/4 C sugar
3 bananas mashed
1 t vanilla
1 C flour
1/2 C wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line with muffin papers a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a large bowl combine egg, butter, sugar, and bananas. Mix well. Add vanilla. Set aside.

In a separate bowl combine the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt. Mix well.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing well. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins. The ice cream scoop will help you to get the right amount of batter in each muffin tin.

Bake the muffins for 15-20 or until golden brown.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Well I know that on Facebook I promised to post this recipe last week, but life kind of got in the way. I had very good intentions of posting the recipe asap, it's just that I have been a little under the weather. I've got this terrible cold and congestion thing going on that took the fight out of me for a few days.

I'm just now starting to feel a little better and not needing to take a nap and then also feeling like I need to go to bed early. I did not know that I could sleep so much. Those days have been long since gone when I could sleep forever.

Well I'm back and I'm feeling good (except for the little cough thing I've got going on) and I'm ready to post that muffin recipe.

So I found this recipe via Pinterest. It linked me to The Curvy Carrot blog. Who got the recipe from Taste of Home, but tweaked it a little. Then I took the recipe and tweaked some more.

The bottom line is I added one little ingredient to add a little bit more flavor and it ended up being a real hit at my house. I simply added peanut butter and it gave it a bit extra to make them want to gobble them up. In fact they were gone by the next day.

Even Bella wanted a taste.

Here's the recipe. I hope you enjoy them!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Servings: 12 muffins
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Line one cupcake pan with liners, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4.  In another large bowl, combine the egg, sour cream, peanut butter, melted butter, and vanilla extract, mixing well.
5.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined.
6. Gently add in the chocolate chips until thoroughly combined.
7. Evenly divide the batter among the prepared cupcake liners (I use a large ice cream scoop for this) so that the liners are about 3/4-full.
8.  Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

It's time to use that sourdough starter that I got going last weekend. I've been very good about stirring it at least twice daily and it's looking really good. The starter didn't take very long to ferment and is now ready for some baking action.

First up on the list is Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls. Cinnamon rolls are one of my sons favorite things for breakfast and since he's home from college for spring break it's a perfect time to make them. Now I usually make a different recipe for cinnamon rolls, so this is the first time I'm going to make these and I'm hoping they will pass the test.

The original recipe called for pecans in it. I just love pecans, but my son is not a fan of nuts so I just left them out. If you want to try it with the nuts please do and let me know how it tasted. Maybe next time I make these I'll add the pecans.

I also made these rolls the day before. Let them rise then placed them covered in the refrigerator overnight. I did, however, let them warm up a bit before baking them. Just place the pan on the stove top and preheat the oven. Once the oven beeps to let you know it is ready wait an additional 10-15 minutes more before placing them in the oven to bake.

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
1 C Sourdough starter (replenish after use)
1/3 c water
1 egg
3 T honey
1 T butter
3 C bread flour
3/4 t salt
1 1/4 t active dry yeast or bread machine yeast
1/2 C chopped pecans
1/3 C granulated sugar
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
2 T butter, melted
1/4 C whipping cream

Add the first 8 ingredients to the bread machine according to the manufacturer's directions. Select the dough cycle. When cycle is complete, remove dough frommachine. Punch down. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
In the meanwhile prepare the filling. In a small mixing bowl stir together the pecans, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12 inch square. Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with, filling. Roll up into a spiral; seal edge. Cut into 12 slices. Place , cut sides down, in a greased 13x9x2-inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 30 minutes or until nearly double. (This is when I put it in the fridge.) Drizzle whipping cream over rolls. Bake rolls in a 375 oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan about 5 minutes; invert onto a wire rack. If desired, drizzle with Powdered Sugar Glaze.

Powdered Sugar Glaze
In a small bowl stir together 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in enough milk (1 to 2 tablespoons) to make a glaze of drizzling consistency.

Replenishing sourdough starter
For each cup of starter used, replenish remaining starter by stirring in 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 3/4 cup water, and 1 teaspoon granulated or brown sugar. Cover; let mixture stand at room temperature for at least 1 day or until bubbly. Refrigerate. If not used within 10 days, stir in 1 teaspoon granulated or brown sugar. Repeat every 10 days, unless starter is replenished.  

Glazed Donut Muffins

Glazed Donut Muffins

I am anticipating the big snowstorm that is suppose to start sometime today after 8:00 in the morning. Even though I don't really care for snow and was really getting use to the nice warm weather, I'm looking forward to being snowed in for a day.

I've already been making plans for what I'll do on Wednesday with the day off. Some of it of course involves baking. It just wouldn't be a snow day without baking something sweet and delicious in the oven. I'm thinking on Wednesday it'll be something chocolate too.

Well in anticipation of the upcoming snow I decided that I would post a recipe for muffins. Doesn't that just sound yummy on a cold winter day? These will be a perfect breakfast treat and they are quick and easy to make.

These muffins resemble the taste and kind of the look of glazed donuts. They are wonderful and I'm sure you are going to like them.

Glazed Donut Muffins
1/4 C of softened butter
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
3/4 t salt
1t vanilla extract
2 2/3 C flour
1 C milk

Glaze
3 T butter, melted
3 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 T hot water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin or line with paper muffin cups and spray with non stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl cream butter, oil, sugars together. Add eggs and beat to combine
3. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla.
4. Stir in the flour and the milk, alternating to make sure everything is combined throughly.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. Fill cups 2/3 full.
6. Bake muffins for 15 minutes.
7. In a medium bowl combine melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and hot water. Whisk until smooth.
8. Dip cooled muffins in glaze. Let it harden and dip a second time.
9. Keep muffins in an airtight container.

Cinnamon Caramel Rolls

Well this is my first post for my cooking blog, so I thought I start out by sharing one of my families favorites, Cinnamon Caramel Rolls. These rolls are super easy to make. I simply use the bread machine to make the dough and refrigerate these rolls so all you have to do in the morning is preheat the oven and bake.This recipe is one I found online years ago, but I tweaked it a little bit. I hope you enjoy these rolls as much as my family does. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Caramel Rolls
Dough
7ounces of milk
1egg
3 cups bread flour
4 T sugar
1 1/2 t salt
5 T butter
2 t yeast

Caramel
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vanilla ice cream

Topping
2 T butter
Cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar

Place all dough ingredients in bread machine in order given. Set on "dough" setting and turn on machine. Let the machine do the rest.
Once dough is done it's time to make the caramel.
Melt 1 stick of butter and add 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup of vanilla ice cream in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for a couple of minutes. Pour this into a lightly greased 9x13 inch cake pan.
Remove dough from bread machine and place on a lightly floured board. Pat the dough into a rectangle. Don't be afraid to use a little more flour if it seems sticky and make sure you flour your hands a little too. Once you have it into a rectangle spread the butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and the brown sugar. Roll the dough up and seal the edges as best as you can. Cut into 12 pieces and place in prepared pan. If you want to bake these rolls the same day let them rise until double in size. I always put them overnight in the refrigerator and bake in the morning. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. These rolls warm up great in the microwave the next day too.