What's Cooking Wednesday - Speedy Cinnamon Rolls

Have you ever really, really wanted homemade cinnamon rolls but didn't have the 2 hours plus it takes to make them from scratch?  If so, this recipe is for YOU!

Speedy Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from this recipe

3 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 1/4 cups milk + 2 Tbsp vinegar (or 1 1/4 cups buttermilk)

1 egg

3 Tbsp butter, softened

1/3 cup brown sugar

1-2 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl combine first 5 ingredients.  Mix well.  Cut in cold butter using a pastry blender or two knives until mixture looks like crumbs.  

Combine milk & eggs in a small bowl.  Add to crumb mixture and mix into dough.  Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead 10 - 15 times.  Don't over knead but make sure dough is fully combined and not sticky.  Roll dough into a large rectangle (approx 16" X 12").  

Brush dough with softened butter, spreading evenly.  Sprinkly brown sugar and cinnamon over butter.  Roll the dough starting from one long side.  Pinch seam together and cut into 1" rounds.  Place on baking sheet (touching) and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe Notes:  Well, I forgot to put the cinnamon in these.  I didn't realize my mistake until right after I put them into the oven.  I pulled them out & sprinkled cinnamon all over the tops of the rolls.  They still turned out great.  These are more of a cinnamon biscuit than what you normally get as a roll because it doesn't use yeast.  My family has decided they actually prefer these.

If you prefer "real" cinnamon rolls, you can find recipe for those here and here.

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Top Ten Tuesday - Yummy Homemade Christmas Gifts!

I love giving gifts from the kitchen!  Yummy, inexpensive and consumable so no pile of "stuff" left over after Christmas.  I have linked to recipes for all of the ideas below.

1. Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix in a pretty jar tied with a ribbon to attach a spoon.  You can also add marshmallows and label it as "Snowman Poop".
2. A nice tin or tray filled with homemade cookies.  Dollar Stores often carry beautiful tins that are very inexpensive.  They can then be reused by your recipient next year.  Some great cookie choices are chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter crunchies, magic cookie bars or iced sugar cookies.
3. A pan full of fudge.  Ooey, gooey, chocolate goodness.  What more can I say?
4. A loaf of quick bread wrapped in cellophane & a nice bow.  Good ones to try are cranberry banana bread, banana bread or whole wheat beer bread.
5. A bag or a tin of Nuts and Bolts (aka Chex Mix).  This makes a great savoury option for Christmas giving.
6. A jar full of Cookie Mix to be enjoyed after the holidays.
7. A cellophane bag of Peppermint Bark.  Yum!
8. Looking for something different?  How about a basket of breakfast muffins?  Try Blueberry muffins, Morning Glory muffins or Banana Chocolate Chip muffins.
9. How about a tin of Praline Pecans and Cranberries?
10. Looking for an even healthier treat?  A basket full of homemade granola bars will please even the pickiest gift recipient.

What are your favorite gifts to give at Christmas?

This post is linked up at Oh Amanada for Top Ten Tuesday!

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Christmas Gift Idea - Kid's Baking Basket

We had a charity silent auction at work last week.  There are always a few awesome baskets to bid on.  This year I decided to vote on a Kid's Baking Basket for Evan....and I won!

The basket had so much STUFF in it:

• A kids set of silicone bakeware 
• a kids sized cookie sheet
• a mini muffin pan
• mini heart springform pans
• rolling pin
• wooden spoons
• cookie cutters
• cake mix
• brownie mix
• frosting
• sprinkles

When I brought it home Evan was so EXCITED.  We didn't have time to bake anything but Evan didn't care.  He played "baking" for almost an hour.

Last night we finally had time to bake with his pans.  He was so excited to bake with his own pans.

Then he got to eat his handiwork (no we didn't let him eat the whole thing!).

I think this would make an excellent Christmas present for the pint sized baker in your house.

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Wordless Wednesday - Bake Sale!

This week is our United Way campaign at work.  One of our events to raise money is the bake sale.  I'm organizing this baking extravaganza for the second year in a row.  

Pretty dishes from Michaels

Mini Banana Loaves

The Bake Sale haul....granola bars, banana bread & ginger cookies.

This post is linked up at Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom.

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What's Cooking Wednesday - One Cup Cookies

Thanks to my Twitter pal @MichelleLKent for this recipe!  They turned out great and were very popular with the guys on Dewey's golf trip and ladies at work.  This recipe makes a large batch so you can put part of them in the freezer for later.

One Cup Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup coconut (I didn't use b/c I didn't have)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup Crainsins
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars together.  Add eggs and peanut butter.  Mix well.  Add remaining ingredients.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake 10 minutes.

Recipe Notes:  This makes A LOT of cookies.  They spread quite a bit so don't put them too close together.

Head over to Shan's to see what else is cooking this Wednesday!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Cinnamon Rolls

Evan had his first cinnamon rolls at Nana's house.  He LOVED them!  When I told him we were going to have a Mommy weekend the only thing he specifically asked to do was to make cinnamon rolls.  I've never tried to make them so I was a little worried but I figured "how hard can it be?"

Cinnamon Rolls
from Allrecipes

3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 (.25 oz) quick rise yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup buter, softened

Heat milk in a small sauce pan until it starts to bubble.  Remove from heat and add butter.  Cool to lukewarm.

In a large bowl mix the whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup of the all purpose flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  Add the milk mixture, egg and water.  Mix well.  Add remaining flour and mix well.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.  Cover with a damp towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and butter in a small bowl.

Prepare a 11X13 pan by coating the bottom and sides with butter.  Leave a bit of extra butter in the bottom if you want extra gooey cinnamon-y goodness on the bottom.

Roll out the dough into a 12X9 rectangle.  Spread butter mixture evenly across the dough.

Roll up and pinch the seam to seal.  Cut into 12 equal rolls.  Place in the prepared pan, cover and let rise until doubled (usually around 30 mins).

Before Rise

After

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe Notes:  So my rolls didn't really rise like they were supposed to.  Thankfully when I baked them they poofed up wonderfully.  These turned out so well.  YUMMY!

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Craftastic Mommy Weekend

Dewey is away this weekend on a golf tournament so Evan and I had a "Mommy Weekend".  The weather in Calgary has been dismal lately so we have spent an awesome weekend indoors.

Saturday started out with a new recipe....Cinnamon Rolls!  They turned out amazing.  I promise I will post the recipe soon.

Then my friends Christine & Erin came over to make some jewelry and drink wine.  We had a great time!

Here's the necklace I made.  This is the pendant.  The necklace is leather cord.  It's supposed to be "Industrial Chic".

I bought Evan crafts to do with us too but he fell asleep on the couch instead.  We decided to do the crafts this morning while we were waiting on Dewey to get home.  

Michael's had 3D foam craft kits on sale for $3.99.  I bought 2 for us to build for Halloween decorations.  They were almost the death of me!

The kits don't actually contain instructions.  It says "Look at the picture and construct".  If only it were so obvious.  I had all the fencing glued on when I figured out that they would work better flipped upside down.  So I took them off & reglued.  Then Evan leaned over where I was working and left this in his wake.  *sigh*

The house kit didn't do much better.  It fell apart at least 4 times before I finally got it constructed.  The kits say "Peel & Stick" on the front but you have to glue A LOT of it.  Oh and did I mention that all the pieces are covered in glitter?  Now Evan, me and the kitchen are also covered in glitter.  :)

Ack!!!  Be CAREFUL!

"Who....me?  The craft destroyer????"

They turned out okay in the end.  We'll see how long they last. 

How was your weekend?

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Honey Wheat Bread

Karen over at Notes From the Cookie Jar has renamed her recipe section Chasing Tomatoes to chronicle her new year long focus on eating less processed food and eating more local food.  Reading all her posts have made me think more about what we eat.  I figured I should give bread making another try...this time with whole wheat four.

Honey Wheat Bread
Adapted from this recipe from allrecipes.com

3 cups warm water
2 packages dry active yeast
1/3 cup agave nectar
5 cups whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 Tbsp salt
2 - 6 cups additional whole wheat flour

Mix warm water, yeast, agave nectar and 5 cups whole wheat flour in a large bowl.  Let sit for 30 minutes or until it has "grown" and is bubbly.

Mix in melted butter, additional agave and salt.  Add 2 cups whole wheat flour and mix well.  Turn onto a floured surface and knead additional whole wheat flour in to the dough until it is no longer sticky.  This can take an additional 2 to 4 additional cups flour depending on humidity, etc.

Spray a large bowl with cooking spray.  Put dough in and turn once to coat with oil.  Place in a warm place (like your oven with the oven light on but the oven off) to rise until the dough doubles in size.

Going into the oven to rise.

After doubling.

Punch down and form into 3 loaves.  Place in prepared pans and let rise again until dough is 1 inch above top lip of pan.

Starting the second rise.

After the second rise.

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees and bake loaves for 25 to 30 minutes.  The bread should sound hollow when you tap on the top of the loaf.  Remove loaves from pan and cool on cooling racks.

Baked goodness!

Recipe Notes:  This bread turned out really well if a bit sweet.  Next time I make this I will cut back on the agave nectar.  I may try to cut back to just 1/3 of a cup total.  Otherwise I wouldn't change a thing.  I don't have 3 loaf pans so I made 2 loaves and a pan of rolls.

This is linked to What's Cooking Wednesday over at Tales From the Fairy Blogmother!

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Top 10 Tuesday - 10 "Must Have" Pantry Items to Bake from Scratch

Over at AnnOnandOn, she asked "When was the last time you baked without using a box?"  I commented that I tend to bake from scratch more often than not these days.  It's all about having a well stocked pantry! Here are 10 of my favorite ingredients to keep on hand so that I can bake at a moments notice!

1. Unbleached White Flour - I know that we should all decrease our consumption white flour but it is really needed for baking.  All whole wheat flour really changes the final product you get from baking.
2. Whole Wheat Flour - Even though it can change things, I really like to add as much whole wheat flour to recipes as I can.  If you are trying to change a recipe, start with substituting half of the flour called for with whole wheat flour.
3. Baking soda & baking powder - almost all recipes call for one or the other.
4. Chocolate Chips - What recipe is not improved by adding chocolate chips?  I buy Chipits by the gigantic bag at Costco and keep them in a big resealable canister in my pantry.
5. Sea Salt - I use the kind in a canister which has a small grain.  It is much less processed than regular table salt.
6. Craisins - LOVE THEM and add them to just about anything!
7. Butter - Okay this doesn't really go in the pantry but it is essential for baking.  It makes things so much better.  Don't bake with margarine....really....just don't.
8. Pecans - Hey I'm Southern....is there any other kind of nut?  Nope!
9. Coconut - both sweetened & unsweetened.
10. Agave Nectar - a less processed sugar substitute.  I haven't had great success baking with it instead of sugar but you can use it any time honey, corn syrup or other liquid sugars are called for.  One perk in Calgary is that agave nectar doesn't crystallize and harden like honey.
11. I almost forgot....Oatmeal - Definitely a must have for making cookies & granola!

Head over to Oh Amanda to check out some other Top 10 Tuesday posts!

So what are your top pantry "must haves"....what am I missing????

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Biscuits

I must admit that though I am Southern, I don't cook many of the traditional "Southern" foods.  My grandmother was an amazing cook but she had a stroke before I was really old enough to realize how much I would want to know how she cooked later in life.  Most of the things I remember her making the most were things that she didn't use recipes for....like biscuits.

Last week, my friend Colleen posted on Facebook that she was eating a biscuit.  I promptly asked her for the recipe.  These aren't exactly like my grandmother's biscuits but they're pretty darn good.

Little Red Hen's Biscuits
from Colleen....her daughter made these in Kindergarden.  I have no idea where the recipe is from.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients.  Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (I used 2 knives) until crumbly.  Mix in milk and mix well.  Turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead a few times & then roll the dough out to ~3/4 inch thickness.  Cut out 2 inch circles (I used a glass).  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Put the biscuits touching if you like soft sided biscuits or apart if you like them crunchier.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Recipe Notes:  These were very good and nicely flakey.  If I had one "complaint" it would be that I found that they needed a little salt.  Not a biggee though.  These were awesome when split and filled with a slice of peameal (back/Canadian) bacon or with butter and jam.  Yum!!!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - My New Favorite Banana Bread

I've posted a banana bread recipe before. It's my grandmother's recipe and it's awesome. You might wonder why I tried a new recipe if the one I used was so great. Well....it uses alot of butter. I really like eating banana bread for breakfast but sometimes I just can't get past all that butter. So I tried this new recipe & it is YUM!

Classic Banana Bread
Adapted from myrecipes.com (published in Cooking Light)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup light sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray large loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add mashed banana, sour cream and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix until just moistened. Spoon into pan. Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before removing from pan.

Recipe Notes: This has quite a few changes from the original. I found that the small (8 1/2"X4 1/2") loaf pan they called for was too small. My banana bread poofed out the top & over the edges so I said to use a large loaf pan. Otherwise this version worked out great!

Don't forget to head over to Shan's to see what else is cooking this Wednesday!

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