Thursday, May 5, 2011

Recipes for May's "Cinnamon Roll" show down!

Dear CCB bakers for the month of May we have decided to do a cinnamon roll show down! This means that you will need to make both the recipes posted below and tell us which one you think is better, so this means not altering the recipe by leaving out certain ingredients. One of the recipes is from your truly (The DeL Sisters) and the other from some dear friends that go to our church. May the best Roll win!



Cinnamon Roll # 1

2pkg. Yeast
1c. warm water 105-115
2/3 c. sugar and 1t. of sugar
1c. warm milk
2/3 c. melted butter
2t. salt
2eggs lightly beaten
7c. flour

Filling:
1c. melted butter
1 3/4 c. sugar
3 T. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups walnuts chopped

Cream Cheese Glaze
  • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  • 2 tablespoon butter, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoon milk


Place warm water, yeast and 1t. sugar in a bowl. Let sit so it will get foamy.
In a mixer, mix milk, 2/3 c. sugar, melted butter, salt. And eggs; stir well. Add yeast mixture. Then add ½ of the flour and mix till smooth. Stir in enough flour to create smooth but slightly sticky dough. Knead. Put dough onto a lightly floured counter and roll dough into a large rectangle. Pour ½ c. of melted butter onto dough and sprinkle with 1 ½ c. cinnamon sugar sprinkle with nuts. Roll jelly roll style, cut in to 15 pieces.
In 2 13x9in. pans, pour remaining ½ c. butter, sprinkle with ¼ c. sugar. Place rolls in pan. Let rise 45min. Bake for 25min. more or less. Until golden brown. Cool slightly, spread with glaze.



Cinnamon Roll #2

Dough:

1 quart whole milk

1 c. veg. oil

1 c. sugar

2 pack. (4 1/2 tea.) active dry yeast

9 c. all-purpose flour

1 heaping tea. baking powder

1 scant tea. baking soda

1 T. salt

Filling:

2 c. melted butter, plus more as needed

1/4 c. ground cinnamon for sprinkling

2 c. sugar, plus more as needed

Maple Icing:

2 lbs. powdered sugar

1/2 c. whole milk

6 T. (3/4 stick) butter, melted

1/4 c. strongly brewed coffee

dash of salt

1 T. maple flavoring or maple extract

1.) For the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat; do not allow the mixture to boil. Set aside and cool.

2.) Sprinkle the yeast on top and let sit on the milk for 1 minute.

3.) Add 8 cups of the flour. Stir until just combined, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a relatively warm place for 1 hour.

4.) Remove the towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1 cup flour. Stir thoroughly to combine. Use the dough right away, or place in a mixing bowl and refrigerate for up to 3 days, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl.

5.) Yo assemble the rolls, remove half the dough from the pan. On the floured baking surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 30x10 inches.

6.) To make the filling, pour 1 cup of the melted butter over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly.

7.) Generously sprinkle half of the ground cinnamon and 1 cup of the sugar over the butter. Don't be afraid to drizzle on more butter or more sugar!

8.) Now, beginning at the end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly toward you. Use both hands and work slowly, being careful to keep the roll tight. Don't worry if the filling oozes as you work; that just means the rolls are going to be divine!

9.) When you reach the end, pinch the seam together. When you're finished, you'll wind up with one long buttery, cinnamony, sugary, gooey log.

10.) Transfer to a cutting board and with a sharp knife, make 1 1/2-inch slices. One log will produce 20-25 rolls.

11.) Pour a couple of tablespoons of melted butter into the desired pie pans or baking dishes and swirl to coat.

12.) Place the sliced rolls in the pans, being careful not to overcrowd.

13.) Repeat the rolling/sugar/butter process with the other half of the dough and more pans. Preheat the over to 375 degrees. Cover the pans with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise on the counter top for at least 20 minutes before baking. Remove the towel and bake for 13 to 17 minutes, until golden brown. While the rolls are baking, make the maple icing!

14.) In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee, and salt.

15.) Splash in the maple flavoring.

16.) Whisk until very smooth. and add in more maple, sugar, butter, or other ingredients as needed until the icing should be thick, but still pourable.

17.) Take the rolls out when timer goes off.

18.) While the rolls are still warm, generously drizzle icing over the top. Be sure to get it all around the edges and over the top.

19.) As they sit the rolls will absorb some of the icing's moisture and flavor.

20.) ENJOY!!!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

DeL Sisters


These PB cups were very yummy, though next time we would cut out the coconut oil, it came though a little too much for our liking:-) We also made the chocolate from scratch by using coconut oil, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Next time we are going to use 90% dark chocolate bought from the store!

The "T" Sisters








This was an amazing recipe! They tasted surprisingly similar to Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and I will definitely be making them again. The one thing I would change next time, is I would put in some cereal, like Rice Krispies, to make them less dense and to add extra “crunch.” But other than that, they were scrumptious!

Merrit Sisters


These little rounds taste quite good and are not hard to make--hurrah! I definitely want to make them again and double the chocolate (never can have too much of that), and probably use less coconut oil, since our current batch of coconut oil has a very strong flavor. I used semi-sweet baking chocolate and Hershey's dark chocolate combined instead of unsweetened chocolate, and used much less honey in the chocolate part. I also used regular sized muffin tins, since we don't have mini ones right now, but that doesn't affect the taste, only makes for fewer trips to the freezer. *smiles*
-Melissa for the Merritt Sisters

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Merrit Sisters



My sister and I had fun making these, laughing at ourselves as we used a ziplock-bag wrapped hammer to pound the chicken and two large mixing spoons to crunch up the croutons into bread crumbs. (Annie said we should have gotten a video of it, but I don't know about that!) We used Pepper Jack cheese instead of Swiss, though it didn't taste too spicy. The large pieces of meat were not as tasty or moist as the small ones--perhaps because more of the egg mixture saturated the small ones. Overall I think they were good, and I might try them again sometime with a variety of ingredients. We made a large batch and had leftovers the next day, which is why my second photo has better, natural lighting.

-Melissa for the Merritt Sisters

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

April Recipes!

Margherita Burgers
You can change the given quantities of pretty much any of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

2 lbs lean ground beef
1 egg
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 to 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes, in oil, chopped finely
2 tbsp of the oil the tomatoes are packed in
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Hamburger buns
Slices of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, for garnish

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, sun dried tomatoes, oil, onion, chopped fresh basil and salt and pepper. Mix well and form 8 patties. You can cook the burgers on the BBQ, in a pan or, as I like to cook them in my panini press, it takes half the time as they cook on both sides at the same time! Just cook them from 8 to 10 minutes per side or until the internal temperature of each patty is 160F. Let the burgers rest a few minutes before serving them.

Heat or toast the hamburger buns, place a patty on each bun, then top with mozzarella, tomato slices and fresh basil leaves.

Ultimate Veggie Burger Recipe
These make great do-ahead meals, and you can store shaped, ready-to-cook patties in the refrigerator for a week's worth of work lunches. Sprouted garbanzos are becoming more readily available, but if you can't find them, canned or cooked garbanzos (chickpeas) will work great. Sprouting boosts their already fantastic nutritional value even more...

2 1/2 cups sprouted garbanzo beans (chickpeas) OR canned garbanzos, drained and rinsed
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 onion, chopped
Grated zest of one large lemon
1 cup micro sprouts, chopped (try brocolli, onion, or alfalfa sprouts - optional)
1 cup toasted (whole-grain) bread crumbs
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (or clarified butter)

If you are using sprouted garbanzos, steam them until just tender, about 10 minutes. Most of you will be using canned beans, so jump right in and combine the garbanzos, eggs, and salt in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a very thick, slightly chunky hummus. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the cilantro, onion, zest, and sprouts. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. At this point, you should have a moist mixture that you can easily form into twelve 1 1/2-inch-thick patties. I err on the moist side here, because it makes for a nicely textured burger. You can always add more bread crumbs a bit at a time to firm up the dough if need be. Conversely, a bit of water or more egg can be used to moisten the batter.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium low, add 4 patties, cover, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. Turn up the heat if there is no browning after 10 minutes. Flip the patties and cook the second side for 7 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the skillet and cool on a wire rack while you cook the remaining patties. Carefully cut each patty in half, insert your favorite fillings, and enjoy immediately.

Makes 12 mini burgers.





Homemade, Healthier Peanut Butter Cups
If you use another nut butter, you may need to add more honey. Peanuts are naturally sweet. For that matter, this is definitely a “to your own taste” recipe! And you can easily adjust the sweeter to satisfy you.

3/4 cup of peanut butter, toasted and salted (or use nut butter of your choice)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (if you are making this gluten free, make sure to use gluten free vanilla)
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/3 cup of chopped soaked and dehydrated nuts, or toasted (I used a mixture of chopped almonds and pumpkin seeds) *
4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
2-4 tablespoons honey *
1-In a small bowl combine the peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla, first two tablespoons honey, and nuts. Mix until well combined.

2-Drop by the heaping teaspoon into mini cupcake pans. Place in freezer.

3-Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in the top of a double broiler (or, like I do, in a heat proof bowl that fits on top of a pot you have). Mix in the honey. Bring about two inches of water to a boil in the pot and place the bowl on top. Watch the chocolate carefully so that it doesn’t burn, stirring gently while the chocolate melts. When there are just a few chunks left in the chocolate, take off of the heat and allow it to melt completely.

4-Drop by the teaspoon over the peanut butter mixture and place back into the freezer. Freeze for 20 minutes. Take out, and using a butter knife pop them out. Keep in the freezer or refrigerator and enjoy!

*To toast the nuts, place in a dry pan over medium-high heat. Stir almost continually until they are starting to brown. Take off of the heat.

*I used only one tablespoon honey to sweet the chocolate, but we decided that it needed to be sweeter! So I have put two to four tablespoons, depending on how sweet you want it to be.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The DeL Sisters








It was so fun being able to make both recipes this time!

Stuffed Chicken
As you can see from the picture, we ended up not breading it before baking/cooking. Instead we stuffed them with basil pesto and mozzarella cheese wraped them in bacon and grilled them! It was sooooo good, next time we would like to try some other kind of other cheese, maybe something with a little more zing/bite to it:-)


Pancakes
Well, we had the same problem as Hannah T. When you put the cinnamon center in it just all came running out and burned!!!! Oh well, our family still really enjoyed them and even liked them with no filling/ swirl:-) We were trying to think of a way to make a filling but not have it come all running out when it got warm......still needing to do some experimenting in the kitchen though.....

The Marshall Sisters


Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

This recipe is really yummy! If you're not careful, the cinnamon falls out when you flip the pancakes, which results in a slightly burned taste on a few. Overall, though, we will definitely make them again! Maybe with pecans, whipped cream, and cinnamon syrup!!

The Marshall Sisters

The Yen Sisters


We made the broccoli cheese stuffed chicken this month. It was fun to put together! I ended up having to use shredded swiss cheese, which made it a little difficult, so I would definitely use slices next time. Overall, though it was good, it seemed a bit bland to me. Next time around I would have added more salt, and some garlic. Otherwise we really liked it!

Kathryn & Tara Y.

Tracy Rickstrew


Ok, I know that my photography leaves much to be desired. I've been having camera problems. Couple that with the time of evening I was ready to take this picture gave me no option but to use the dreaded flash. Yet, despite my lack of photographical proof...this was delicious! I will certainly make this again. Changes I made include: 1) not being very precise in my measurements, 2) two large chicken breasts cut in thirds, 3) mixture of mozzarella and asiago cheese, and 4) two pieces of whole wheat bread mixed with approximately 2 T. Johnny's Garlic Bread & Seasoning (from Costco). On the plate, I added salt as I thought they needed more. We had leftover buttery jasmine rice so we out them over rice and served with a spring salad. This is a great basic recipe. I'll definitely keep this one and keep trying new fillings. Next, I'll think I'll add sun dried tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms with the mozzarella/asiago mixture! Yummy.
 

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