Cooking out West

As I said yesterday, we have just returned from spending almost a month with my in-laws. Last summer, their house was in complete disarray; they were in the process of putting in an addition, as well as doing a complete kitchen remodel. Last summer, my mother-in-law moved all of her kitchen into her dining room and survived by cooking with only a microwave. But this summer, we got to enjoy the fruits of the labor, and I enjoyed every minute working in the new kitchen.


While we were there, my in-laws welcomed some friends whom they hadn't seen in twenty years. My mother-in-law and I had great fun preparing a dinner to feed 13 people, centered around her famous garden linguine recipe. I made two batches of Peter Reinhart's pain a l'ancienne (recipe here), most of which I turned into garlic bread. (A couple loaves were left plain for the non-garlic lovers.)

I also baked a batch of these banana split brownies to go with my sister-in-law's homemade Tagalong ice cream.


The next morning, my hubby baked a batch of his famous fancy scrambled eggs (eggs with onions, ham, and cheddar), and, having had both cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins requested, I made both! I used Peter Reinhart's all-purpose sweet dough recipe for the cinnamon rolls (recipe here) and a Cook's Illustrated recipe (via Tracey's site) for best blueberry muffins. I actually baked the muffins twice over our vacation; they truly are the best.


Finally, we took our annual camping trip to Yellowstone. In previous years, we've just brought cold foods in the cooler and visited Yellowstone restaurants, but this year, hubby decided we should actually cook at the camp site. As we pulled into the campgrounds, dime size hail began to fall on the car, and my intrepid hubby built our fire through a continuous rainfall.

For dinner, I'd prepared hobo packets. Hubby was expecting the traditional simple ground beef, potatoes, carrots, and a little butter, but since I was preparing them at home, I decided to go a little fancier. I was inspired by this post on 100 Days of Real Food, and I used her marinade (olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, and salt). In the packets, I included chicken sausage, onion, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and a green pepper (only in hubby's...the rest of us don't like peppers). With our packets, we had yogurt and fruit. We, of course (we were camping after all), enjoyed s'mores for dessert.

For breakfast the next morning, we made campfire eggs-in-a-nest, which was about the most delicious way possible to start our day.

Whole wheat cinnamon goodness

While planning for our unprocessed month, I followed a link that someone tweeted for 100% whole wheat cinnamon rolls. I meant to make them during our month, but never got around to it. Then King Arthur posted an apple-cinnamon pull-apart roll, and I knew that I could wait no longer.

My recipe was a total mishmash and a total success.

Dough: I browsed around for a 100% whole wheat sweet dough recipe, and found this one on the Fresh Loaf that looked promising (and used honey in place of processed sugar - double bonus!). I followed that recipe and method, using 100% white whole wheat, honey, and a combination of buttermilk and milk.

Filling: I made a cinnamon-sugar mixture, with about 60 g light brown sugar, 60 g white sugar, and 5 g fancy cinnamon.

Frosting: I used my usual recipe ~ about a tablespoon of milk and a tablespoon of unsalted butter, heated gently, and mixed with a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, and enough sifted powdered sugar to make a drizzle-able frosting

When the dough was finished, I cut it into several big chunks: I made a little pan based on my normal cinnamon roll recipe (brushed with melted butter, filled with some of the cinnamon-sugar) and stuck it in the fridge for later. 

I made two little trays of apple-cinnamon pull-apart rolls - one for dessert last night; one for breakfast this morning. I mostly followed KAF's process: I cut the dough into little chunks (I started out weighing and then gave up and switched to eye-balling), rolled them in butter (not included in the KAF recipe, but why wouldn't you?!), and dipped them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. I put three or four little chunks in a buttered muffin cup, put three or four tiny pieces of chopped apple on top, scattered a little streusel (based on this KAF recipe, but I didn't actually measure anything), and three or four more little pieces of dough. I baked one pan immediately and put one in the fridge; both turned out perfectly after 15 minutes at 350º. The rolls were easy to remove from the pan, even without wrappers, and I drizzled a tiny bit of frosting on each.

These rolls were absolutely delicious - everyone in the family loved them, even the little girl who normally balks at anything with cooked fruit. The whole wheat sweet dough was perfect; there is no way you could tell that it was made with 100% whole wheat and no refined sugar, even on the little pieces that weren't coated with filling.

I stuck the last bit of dough, the bowl of cinnamon-sugar, and the cup of leftover frosting into the fridge for some more cinnamony goodness this weekend. I can't wait!

What I've been up to: a mishmash

Oh, my, has it really been that long?! One post in October, zero in November, a few in December, and one in the first six weeks of the new year.

The funny reason that I've been so absent (besides the normal full-time-working-mother with a partner with a broken kneecap complaints of being busy) is actually technology. My work computer (my only computer) was ancient in technological terms: seven years old, too old to run our grading program, too old to accept any updates, too old to find the internet. I stopped bringing it home, instead relying on my iPad and iPhone, both of which I love and am addicted to, but neither of which is great for typing. And thus, no blogging.

Happily, when our building tech committee reviewed the applications for new computers, they chose me! And last Friday, my new computer was delivered. It is amazing: it not only finds the internet, but even jumps from site to site in seconds. Beautiful. So I'm hoping to get back into the swing of blogging...while it sometimes feels like a chore, I've missed writing about cooking and recording my baking adventures...and mostly, talking to like-minded food bloggers about food. :)

A couple of weekends ago, I tried these cinnamon roll muffins from Tracey's site. I liked the idea of cinnamon rolls that could be made on a moment's notice, as they are frequently requested here, and the kids are not always happy to hear that cinnamon roll dough takes a while. These muffins were incredibly quick. The kiddos weren't sure about them at first, but the dozen disappeared in a weekend, so I guess they were a hit. Even knowing ahead of time that they would be biscuit-like, I still missed the cinnamon roll texture, so I'll probably stick to the real thing in the future.



Although I haven't been blogging, I've still been talking to my Twitter pals, and I jumped on board when several people were baking these Asiago bagels from KAF a few weeks ago. I made them for bookclub, and they were a hit, although (no big surprise) the kiddos didn't like them. I am not a big cheesy bread person, so they weren't my favorite either, but it's always fun to try a new bagel recipe.









My friend Rebecca tweeted about these pretzel rolls a while ago; they are a favorite at her house. She talked about how easy they were to make, and how delicious they were. I asked for the recipe, but it took forever for me to try them. This Monday, the kiddos and I had the day off from school. We had some big plans, but ended up spending the entire day playing in our pjs, and I finally had a chance to try the pretzel rolls. As promised, they were easy, and had a delightful pretzely flavor and light, fluffy texture. Hubby and I loved them. We weren't able to finish them, so he brought them to school this morning, and I heard they were an absolute hit with his first block students.






I also made these scones for breakfast, subbing in strawberries for the raspberries, and adding a handful of white chocolate chips. I really think these are the best scones I've ever had, so incredibly moist. I baked one tray the first morning and froze the rest. They have provided us with a delightful breakfast treat on two other mornings, and I already have plans to bake another batch.







Finally, we've been reading a lot of Harry Potter around here, and after reading about the delicious butterbeer, I decided we had to try it. I found a bunch of recipes online, but eventually settled on this one, which is apparently served at Disney, and which (apparently) JK Rowling says tastes the way she imagines butterbeer tastes. I used the not-so-simple recipe at the bottom of the article, subbing in vanilla extract for the rum extract. Fun to make and fun to sip, but holy moly was it ever sweet! No one could have more than a sip or two at a time.

And that's the start of what I've been up to! I'm hoping to get up some other posts over the next few days...and hoping that will get me back into the swing of things. We shall see!

The gift of years

When I started this blog a little over three years ago, I was an enthusiastic baker (and cook), but not a very experienced one. I wanted to broaden my horizons, but was nervous to try new recipes, reluctant to stray from recipes as written, and quick to panic when anything didn't go as planned. I eagerly joined challenges (the BBA followed by the Modern Bakers and the Mellow Bakers), hoping to learn more.



This Christmas, I really felt the difference the past few years have made. For one thing, I made everything - Christmas Eve dinner (chicken wild rice soup in bread bowls, salad with poppyseed dressing, doughnuts), Christmas morning breakfast (BBA cinnamon rolls), and Christmas dinner (glazed ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, sugared cranberries, rustic apple pie, and vanilla bean ice cream) completely from scratch, and without asking our guests to bring anything.



Recipes that just a couple of years ago gave me fits - Maida's big apple pie, which I swore I would never make again - came together without a hitch.

Mishaps were easily dealt with: when the roll dough I was working with (a new recipe that I'd altered slightly - still not sure what went wrong) just would not behave normally, even after an hour of doctoring/waiting, I tossed it and was still able to have fresh rolls on the table at 6:00.



I was able to add two new recipes: these sugared cranberries which looked beautiful and were a good way to use up part of a leftover bag of berries, and this from-scratch green bean casserole which I absolutely loved (but I'm glad I didn't try it for Thanksgiving because I don't think it would've gone over well with the traditionalists).

When I realized in the midst of getting ready to put the ham in the oven that I'd forgotten to buy apple cider, I confidently subbed in chicken broth, and wasn't upset when it meant that the final product wasn't quite as good as last year's.

I'm so happy that even though everything in my kitchen doesn't turn out perfectly every time, I now have the experience and confidence not to panic, or get frustrated and give up, or even worse, let it ruin the celebration. Because a happy, healthy family, gathered together around the table, laughing and eating, is of course what the holidays are really about.

Pecan sticky buns (TWD: BwJ)

Our second May recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is pecan sticky buns. I just knew these would be a hit in my family, and the recipe was perfectly timed for Mother's Day.

Unlike my usual cinnamon bun recipes which start with a sweet dough, these are made with brioche, an incredibly rich dough made with five eggs and a stick and a half of butter. The dough is mixed before the butter is added and it took forever for my butter to incorporate. But finally, using my mixer and a bit of hand kneading, the dough was ready to rise and then chill.

The next day, the dough is laminated, with another stick and a half of butter folded in. I actually only laminated half of the dough. I knew my kids wouldn't like the pecan sticky buns ("no nuts!"), so I used a quarter of the brioche dough to make plain ol' cinnamon buns for them (the other quarter is in the freezer to be used later).

The dough was really easy to handle. Once it was chilled, I rolled it out and then topped it with sugar, cinnamon, brushed egg, and pecans. I used a little less butter than called for (there was so much!!) and a little extra cinnamon and sugar. Then I rolled up the dough into a jelly roll. The recipe says to freeze it before cutting, but my dough was still quite cool from the fridge, so I just used my normal dental floss technique to cut it and it worked just fine.

My buns did not bake for as long as the recipe called for: the cinnamon buns were finished in 26 minutes and the sticky buns were finished in 30. I loved the look of the layers in the finished buns before I flipped them!

The texture of these was incredible: so light and fluffy. They weren't as sweet as our usual dough, and hubby and I didn't like them quite as much. Which is really quite a good thing, as they were a whole lot more work! Still, a delicious Mother's Day treat, enjoyed by all! :)

Check out the other TWDers' sticky buns here and check out the recipe in Baking with Julia, or on our hosts' blogs: Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday .

A day of hearts

I've always loved Valentine's Day...what could be bad about a day dedicated to chocolate, flowers, hearts, pink, and love?! (And the fact that it always meant yummy treats for my birthday never hurt, either.)

 Breakfast: Heart-shaped cinnamon rolls (sweet dough from ABED & pink frosting)

 Lunch: (For my little Valentines) heart quesadillas & strawberries

 Dinner: Emeril's cola pot roast & Dorie's basic biscuits (BFMYTY)

 Dessert: Iced heart-shaped cookies (from KAF)

and a romantic Valentine Death Star for my main Valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Cinnamon pull-apart bread

My hubby celebrated his 36th birthday a few days ago. Normally he picks special foods for me to make for his day: a fun breakfast bread (or two), maybe a fancy bread for a picnic lunch, a special dinner, followed by his favorite chocolate cake with fudge sauce (an old family recipe from his grandma). This year, we were visiting my in-laws on his birthday, so we went out to lunch and hubby's mom cooked him a fancy dinner and baked his cake. I offered to make a special breakfast treat ~ my first time baking in someone else's kitchen ~ and he picked cinnamon rolls.

I used the all-purpose sweet dough from ABED, and although I was nervous at first, it was actually kind of fun to bake without my normal tools, kneading by hand, etc. I used 2/3 of a recipe to make a 9x13 pan of cinnamon rolls.

This morning, I knew the last third of the dough needed to be used, but I wanted to make something new. I'd first heard about pull-apart bread last spring, but had never actually seen a recipe until this one appeared on Tracey's blog last week. I thought it might be a fun use of our leftover bread.

So this morning, I rolled out the dough into a big (12x20") rectangle. I used my fingers to spread out two tablespoons of browned unsalted butter on the dough, and then sprinkled a little over 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon on top. I cut the dough into six strips, stacked them, and then cut the line into six again. I dumped them into a 9x5 pan sprayed with cooking spray, poured the rest of the cinnamon/sugar from the counter on top of the loaf, let it rise for about 30 minutes and then baked it at 350 F for about 40 minutes.

This was a winner: super easy and we all loved it!

Monkey muffins

When I suggested to my family that I make monkey bread for a breakfast treat, my little one wailed: "But I don't eat monkeys!!!"

My kids have never had monkey bread; in fact, I'm fairly new to it myself. I've only had it a couple of times (at my mother-in-law's), but I remember the tasty, caramely goodness and I remember that everyone devoured it. Seemed like it might be fun on a lazy morning when I didn't have to work (I took the day off for the little guy's preschool party).

I mixed up the dough yesterday evening and assembled my mini monkey muffins before bed. This morning, I pulled the pans out of the fridge, warmed them briefly until they rose slightly, and then baked them.

Some recipes I found suggest frosting monkey bread, either with a cream cheese frosting or a sugar frosting...hubby and I agreed that monkey bread is best eaten plain, so that's what we did.

All-purpose sweet dough
adapted slightly from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
400 g unbleached all-purpose flour
7 g  salt
45 g sugar
8 g instant yeast
240 g whole milk (warmed to 95F)
60 g melted unsalted butter
5 g vanilla extract (1/2 tbsp)

Topping
adapted from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
113 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (1 stick)
10 g vanilla extract (1 tbsp)
150 g sugar
175 g light brown sugar
3 g fancy Vietnamese cinnamon (2 tsp)
2 g salt (1/4 tsp)
finely chopped pecans (optional)


1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar for the dough in a mixing bowl.
2. Whisk the yeast into the warmed milk, and then pour into the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and melted butter.
3. Stir until mixture forms a coarse ball.
4. Knead with dough hook (or knead by hand) for three or four minutes, until the dough is soft and supple.
5. Put dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for an hour or two (until doubled); I gave it a stretch and fold after about 45 minutes.
6. Lightly grease your pans (I used a muffin tin and a mini bundt pan).
7. For the topping, mix the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, and place in a shallow bowl. Put the melted butter in another shallow bowl.
8. Cut the dough into small, fairly equal pieces and roll them into tight balls (I aimed for the size of a walnut, but some were smaller; I wasn't too particular).
9. Dip the balls into the butter and then roll them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place them in the prepared pans. (I put three balls in each muffin cup. I used about 6 - 10 in each mini bundt pan.)
10. If using pecans: coat pecan pieces in a little butter, then toss with a little of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Pour them into the muffin cups before putting the dough balls in.
11. Cover the pans and let them rise OR put them in the fridge overnight (that's what I did). In the morning, briefly preheat the oven to warm it up, then turn it off and put the covered pans in for an hour or so, until the dough is nice and puffy.
12. Remove pans from oven and preheat oven to 350 F. Bake buns for about 15 minutes until the dough is golden and the caramel is nice and bubbly.
13. Theoretically, cool them for a few minutes...or at least try not to burn your fingers and mouth when you instantly devour them.

Verdict: These were so yummy...and not too overwhelmingly sweet. I did have a bit of a struggle removing the ones from the mini bundt without them falling apart; I think I'll just make muffins next time. The kids prefer our normal cinnamon rolls, but they still happily ate their monkey bread. This is such a fun, easy thing to do with leftover dough. These will definitely be a repeat!

The cinnamon roll experiment: The final chapter

Needing to make dozens of cinnamon rolls and transport them across the country for my sister-in-law's day-after-wedding brunch, I solicited the advice of my fellow Mellow Bakers and Frieda (from Frieda loves bread). Several weeks ago, I tried a couple of different techniques for making and freezing the rolls ahead of time, and then hubby and I had a taste test and made a plan.

In my research on freezing and transporting food, I read that it's important for the food to be frozen for two days prior to transport. So last weekend, I made two double-batches of P.R.'s cinnamon rolls from the BBA and filled them with melted butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. I purchased a bunch of disposable aluminum pans and placed 6 or 7 rolls in each one. The quadruple recipe made eleven trays (8" rounds).

Each tray was double-wrapped with plastic wrap, wrapped once with aluminum foil, and then placed into a jumbo zipper bag. We stuck the bags in the deep freeze in the basement.

The morning we were headed out of town, hubby placed the wrapped trays in our best cooler and drove immediately to a supplier of dry ice. They were very helpful, talked to hubby about our plans, assured us that 10 pounds of dry ice would be sufficient, and sold the pack to us for $10. We put the dry ice on top of the stack of trays; a few trays wouldn't fit underneath the ice, so we placed them sideways in the cooler. Then we shut the cooler tight and didn't open it for 36 hours as we drove across country.

When we arrived at my in-laws, we barely took time to say hello before opening the cooler. The trays that had been under the dry ice were still frozen completely solid. We transferred them immediately to my in-laws' deep freeze. The trays that were along side of the dry ice were slightly defrosted. We debated and debated . . . and eventually my mother-in-law convinced me to stick them into the deep freeze, too, and see what happened.

Last night, I removed the plastic bags and put the trays into the fridge. This morning, I took the rolls out of the fridge, removed the foil and one layer of plastic wrap, and let them rise on the counter for about three hours.

Then into a 350 F oven for the usual 23 minutes.

I glazed them slightly after cooling with my usual glaze (6 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/2 cup half-and-half, 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp vanilla, and enough sifted powdered sugar to make it drizzle-able). Once the glaze was slightly hardened, I carefully separated the rolls and put them into a parchment-lined basket, just in time for the guests to arrive.

The verdict? Just about as good as fresh cinnamon rolls, these met with rave reviews. And with the exception of the worry about whether or not the whole experiment would work, it was pretty darn easy! My brand-new brother-in-law even said that they may be the best cinnamon rolls he's ever tasted!

To review:
1. Follow recipe to make the cinnamon rolls up to two months in advance.
2. Fill and slice cinnamon rolls and place them into pans.
3. Wrap each pan with a double-layer of plastic wrap, a single layer of foil, and place in a zipped plastic bag. (I'm not sure all of these precautions are really necessary, but I didn't want to take any chances!)
4. Stick into the freezer until ready to use.
5. If transporting, place the wrapped pans into a cooler, and be sure that all trays stay directly under the dry ice. When planning for the dry ice, we were told we'd need 5 pounds per 24 hours of keeping the food cold. Place into freezer upon arrival.
6. Move trays from freezer into fridge the day before you plan to bake.
7. Allow trays to sit out at room temperature for 3-4 hours before baking.
8. Bake, glaze, and enjoy as usual!

The cinnamon roll experiment

My sister-in-law is getting married in a couple of weeks, and my mother-in-law asked me to help bake for the Sunday brunch on the day after the wedding. I am happy to, of course, and have been thinking about how to get most of the work done ahead of time . . . the complication: my in-laws (where the wedding will take place) live a 19-hour drive away.

I asked for help on our Mellow Bakers forum, and was pointed over to Frieda's website and her post about brown-and-serve rolls, which multiple people have tried with success. Frieda's recipe is for making dinner rolls ahead of time, parbaking them, storing them in the fridge for a week, and baking them before eating.

I needed to make cinnamon rolls a few weeks ahead of time, freeze them, and then bake them. I made a double-batch of the BBA cinnamon rolls for our end-of-school breakfast, and held six rolls back. I had a couple of disposable aluminum pans in the cupboard, so I shaped the cinnamon rolls and then placed three in each pan. For one pan, I wrapped it well in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil, and then put it in a zip-top bag and stuck it in our deep freeze.

For the other pan, I used Frieda's instructions as a guide, parbaked the rolls at 300 F for 15 minutes, then let them cool, wrapped them, and put them in the deep freeze.

Last night, we moved both pans into the fridge to thaw overnight. Four hours before baking, I pulled the raw rolls out and put them on the counter; two hours before, I put the parbaked ones on the counter. I baked them both at 350 F, the parbaked ones for 15 minutes and the raw ones for 23 minutes.

And the results (parbaked on the left, frozen raw on the right):

I was surprised by how different the two sets of rolls looked; I think the parbaked ones (on the left) look neater and tidier. Taste-wise, they would both be very acceptable to serve and people would be delighted with them; clearly, either method works. Evaluating the texture more closely, I think the parbaked ones taste like they were reheated day-old cinnamon rolls, while the frozen raw ones taste like fresh-baked, just out of the oven cinnamon rolls. Which is good because that method is certainly the easier of the two.

So this weekend, I will be assembling trays of cinnamon rolls and then packing them into the deep freeze before we head out west next week. And we'll see how the experiment does when taken on the road!

Some notes on BBA #5 and #9

I can't believe that last year at this time, I'd only baked three yeast breads ever and this week alone, I have baked four! I wanted to use my winter break to work on my BBA Challenge and managed to get #20 multigrain bread and #21 pain a l'ancienne finished. I also remade casatiello for our friends' New Year's Eve party and then remade cinnamon buns for a New Year's brunch with a group of my girl friends from high school.

One thing I noticed in my recreations was that it was kind of freeing to bake without photographing every little step. Unlike many of the food bloggers I read, I am not a photographer. I have a little point-and-shoot digital camera that I use mainly for taking quick shots of the kiddos. Although I will admit that after months of perusing food blogs, I have started to get an itch to learn more about photography and perhaps invest in a slightly better camera.....

In fact, while I enjoyed not photographing everything, I couldn't resist snapping a couple of quick pictures of my casatiello, which I attempted in muffin tins (regular size and mini) this time. They were really cute!

When looking back at my original posts for casatiello and cinnamon buns from way early on in the Challenge I was disappointed in myself; while I gave detailed descriptions of how things went for me, I was very reflective on the process, while not including any specifics that would've been helpful to recreate the bread (for example, which ingredients I used when he gives a choice, how long things needed to cook, etc.). Gr. I'm hoping that I've learned my lesson, and that my posts in the future will include more specific concrete details, both to help others who may be reading and to help myself when I want to make a bread again . . . which I most definitely will!

For my own record, here are some notes about try #2 with casatiello:
* 4 oz salami, 1 oz pepperoni, 6 oz provolone
* dough rise: 90 minutes
* 1.5 oz mini-boules for regular muffin tin, 1 oz mini-boules for mini muffin tin
* second rise: 40 minutes for minis, 60 minutes for muffins
* cooked 22 min for regular muffins, 20 min for mini muffins - all overdone!!! 210+ degrees internal temp

Results: Pretty dry and nowhere near as good as I remembered. Is it because they really didn't taste as good as last time or because I've made so many other wonderful breads since then?

Some notes about cinnamon buns:
* used buttermilk (1/2 cup of dry mix; 9 oz water) - way too wet, should've used 8 oz water
* used unsalted butter not shortening
* used bread flour, not all-purpose
* dough took forever to rise; was still really sticky and not as nice to work with as I'd remembered (too much water!)

What I did:
Divided the dough in half. Rolled each piece out to a 9x9 square. Melted 6 tbsp of butter.
On one: Brushed with melted butter. Sprinkled cinnamon and sugar (2 tsp cinnamon + 1 1/2 tbsp sugar - note: try brown sugar next time!).
On the other: Brushed with melted butter. Spread 2-3 tbsp of orange marmalade. Sprinkled 1/4+ c brown sugar. (Adapted from Pioneer Woman's orange marmalade rolls)
Both: Rolled into a log. Divided into 9 - 1 1/4 inch pieces. Put into 9 in round pan lined with parchment paper brushed with melted butter.

I remembered that I didn't really love either the cinnamon bun glaze or the sticky bun caramel from Peter Reinhart, and that I found Pioneer Woman's orange marmalade rolls too sweet.

So I made a base glaze:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 c whole milk
1/8 tsp kosher salt

I heated these gently in a saucepan and then divided the liquid between two bowls. Into one bowl (for the cinnamon buns), I whisked in 1 cup of powdered sugar, sifted, and 1 tsp vanilla. Into the other bowl (for the orange marmalade rolls), I whisked in 1 cup of powdered sugar, sifted, and 1/4 cup orange juice.

Result: Delicious dough (as I remembered) and much better glaze! Yum yum! I will be making these yet again!

Cinnamony goodness: BBA #8 & #9

BBA Challenge #8: Cinnamon buns & Sticky buns
Made this one on a weeknight, while also making mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for the kiddos. It was a little hurried and hectic, but I have to say that overall (especially using my trusty stand mixer), it was a really easy recipe.


As usual, I didn't feel like the stand mixer could finish the job; the dough just never feels right when it comes out of there. So I finished up on the counter (while the kiddos cried from hunger - just kidding - sort of)...I checked for windowpane a few times and never got it, but I achieved the proper temperature and finally I just had to slap the stuff in the bowl and feed the kids dinner.

I don't have a lot of experience with rolling out dough, so I did my best and checked: exact measurements on the first try! I had to take a picture.


We really wanted fresh baked rolls that night, but by the time the rolls were rolled and ready to proof, it was 9:30, and we still had 90 minutes of rising, 20-40 minutes of baking, and 20 minutes of cooling left, so we decided to stick them in the fridge and bake them the next night.

We couldn't agree on whether to make cinnamon buns (hubby's request) or sticky buns (my favorite), so we made a few of each. Three hours on the counter to finish proofing, 23 minutes for the cinnamon rolls (perfect), and 35 minutes for the sticky buns (also perfect). The buns themselves: OMG yum. The glaze on the buns was fine, nothing great. (I did use vanilla extract instead of lemon as per hubby-request.) And the caramel, while yummy, did not have enough nuts (in my opinion) and was hard enough to set my teeth on edge; I'm thinking of cutting down or eliminating the corn syrup next time (I don't really like cooking with that stuff anyway). Funnily enough, I preferred the cinnamon buns while hubby said the sticky buns were the best ever: go figure!

fresh out of the oven (after the dropping-on-the-floor-incident, which we will not discuss because it was too traumatizing)

and frosted

sticky-bunny goodness

Hubby just came over to tell me he could eat them all right now because they are that addictive, so I'm figuring these will be made again.

BBA Challenge #9: Cinnamon Walnut Raisin Bread
Because hubby was home this weekend (no football: WAHOOOOO!!!), I decided to go for it and bake a second bread. I love to bake while he and the kiddos are hanging out, playing in the family room, and besides, the buns were easy enough and the next bread looked pretty easy, too, and I'm way behind in the Challenge and...hey, I just wanted to!

Cinnamon raisin bread is not a big favorite in this house, nor is bread with nuts, but all of the posts I read said that this one was worth it. I also decided that because hubby was home and I didn't have to bake while making dinner and taking care of the kiddos, that I would go back to the basics and mix and knead by hand and with my awesome new dough whisk.


I found the dough pretty sticky; it took me about a half-cup of additional flour before I could get it to achieve the right texture, but I got both a windowpane and the right temp, so that was pretty exciting. I did have issues with adding the raisins and nuts. In fact, I incorporated about two-thirds of each, and decided to give up (we don't love raisins or walnuts that much anyway); everything just kept falling out. But I hate to be a quitter, so I did a few dishes and then went back to work, and was able to get in the rest of the fillings.

After an hour and a half, the dough had definitely doubled. I decided (of course) to go with the cinnamon swirl version, so I rolled out the dough and spread out the mixture before rolling up my loaves.


I managed to do this whole step and get the loaves ready to bake while the hubby and kids were eating lunch; we all noticed how much more quickly I can do much of this bread-baking stuff now!


I read somewhere that if you allow the dough to over-proof, it won't spring much in the oven and the center swirl won't come apart. That's why these are so big (not because hubby and I decided to snuggle down for a little snooze while the kids were napping....nope, that's not the reason.....):


Here they are, fresh out of the oven:


And of course I elected to use the optional cinnamon-sugar-buttery topping:


And here is the lovely swirl:


Taste? It was okay. Hubby said it was the best cinnamon raisin bread he'd ever had, but he didn't have a second piece, so what does that tell you? Yeah, I guess this just isn't really our kind of bread. I imagine that the rest of this first loaf will make a delicious French toast in the next day or two and the other will be a treat for the folks at work. Will I make it again? Not for us, but hubby suggested it might make a nice gift for people around the holidays. Not a bad idea!

UPDATE: While the loaf at work disappeared within two hours, the French toast tonight was not so great. The kids ate a normal amount, but I could barely choke down a piece and hubby threw away his last two pieces; the nuts and raisins were just too weird. Don't think I'll be making this one again.