Cinnamon Rolls

My mom makes these cinnamon rolls and they are to die for. I miss them. So I begged and begged and begged her for the recipe and she finally shared it. So I got right to work. Because they are amazing - the crispy caramelized cinnamon sugar filling on the bottoms, the warm gooey cream cheese icing on the top....I almost didn't finish this post because they were calling me into the kitchen...

Lucky for you, I did, because they are delicious. And one of my favorite things is that they can be made ahead of time. Make them the night before, pop them in the refrigerator and you're all set for an easy and delicious breakfast the following morning. Or freeze in small batches to thaw later overnight in the refrigerator and bake for an easy weekday breakfast.

Mom's Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:
1 c. warm milk (or cream)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 c. melted butter
4 1/2 c. bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
3 1/2 tsp yeast
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/3 c. butter, softened.

Dissolve the yeast in the milk, add the sugar, salt and butter. Add the eggs and mix well and add the flour until it forms a ball. Place into a prepared (butter or oiled) bowl, cover and let rise until it doubles, about an hour.

While the dough is rising, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter with a fork until it is combined into a "paste" - no pockets of butter or cinnamon.

After the dough has doubled in size, put it on a floured surface and let it rest for ten minutes. Then roll the dough to about 16x21 inch rectangle. Drop the cinnamon/brown sugar mixture in small pieces on to the dough. Make sure to coat the dough evenly with pieces of the mixture. I used an offset spatula to spread it around to the edges evenly. Starting at the long side, roll the dough. Cut the roll into 12 pieces and place rolls into a greased 9 x 12 pan*.

At this point, you can cover and let rise until double to bake (about 30 minutes). Or you can cheat and put them in the refrigerator so that you can bake them in the morning. Just take them out and let them come to room temp before you start to bake. Either way, bake them at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.


While they are baking, beat:
3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 c. butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt


When rolls are warm, but not too hot, frost with the cream cheese icing.

 

 * We used a 9" x 9" pan and then had a couple smaller pans to place in the freezer.

This post is linked to the Sunday's at One Food Club hosted by Cocina Diary.

Congratulations to me!

Um. I made my very first multi-step (ie multiple day) yeast bread ever this weekend. And it was good.

Nick is our resident bread maker. I easily throw together pumpkin or banana bread - quick breads. But I was always a bit timid with the idea of yeast breads. Math isn't my strong suit, so actually having to measure out ingredients precisely gave me the hee bee gee bees. Plus, the kneading and the rising and the overnighting...sheesh.

But I suppose my bagel snobbery won out. I worked at a donut shop from my work permit days up until I gratuated from college, and again during a stint of unemployment, so I was spoiled with freshly baked bagels every day and grew quite accustomed to them and am now a full fledged bagel snob. But over a dollar a day for a fresh baked bagel (and I do mean fresh baked, from frozen, of course) just seems excessive. I'm a food snob, sure, but I'm also pretty cheap.
 

 Everything (garlic, shallot, poppy and sesame)

 White Poppy Seed 

Sesame Seed

So, when I found this recipe on one of Nick's favorite bread making sites, I knew I had to try it. And what a more perfect time than a three day weekend allowing time for a screw up if I needed?

My fears were all for not, however, as they turned out de-li-cious, not beautiful and somewhat misshapen. I have, with one taste of these bagels, qualmed my fears of yeast breads and decided that they are totally worth the effort. So, I did what any normal person making their first real yeast bread would do and took my bagel outside for a photo shoot. God help my future children.

All in all, even using super sweet (read: expensive) honey gold potatoes, these cost about twenty cents a piece. I can live with that.

I do have a new fear, though. The fear of what would happen if my stand mixer was taken away. Because, seriously, I cannot live without that thing.

Paska (Easter) Bread

Paska bread is a Ukrainian Easter bread.  We would have some every year for Easter dinner. Here in Florida, I haven't seen any bakeries carrying the bread, so I asked my dad for a recipe so that we could attempt to make some on our own. He sent me a recipe from the book Ukrainian Easter.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 yeast cakes (fresh, not dry yeast)
1 cup flour

Mix 3/4 cup lukewarm water, sugar, and yeast cakes till dissolved in a small bowl.
Add 1 cup flour, stir until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until bubbly, about one hour.

12 egg yolks (do not substitute whole eggs)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
3 cups flour , unsifted

In a large bowl, mix together the egg yolks, sugar, and cooled melted butter. Add the yeast mixture prepared above; beat well. Gradually add the 3 cups of unsifted flour. This dough will be very soft. Knead or mix well, scrapping sides of bowl. Brush dough with melted butter. Place in a buttered bowl, cover with a towel, and set in a warm place to rise until double in bulk, approx. 2 hours.

To shape, knead lightly on a floured board, shape to fit the bottom of your bread pans. Fill pans (well greased with shortening) only  1/3 full. Place loaves in a warm place to rise until double. Bake in a 350 F oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. For a golden gloss, brush top of Paska with an egg yolk wash (egg yolk well beaten with a little water) about 10 minutes before end of baking time. (Brush with egg glaze too soon will risk over browning.)
When done, remove from oven handling very gently. Remove from baking pans to an oven rack covered with a dish towel. When cooled, paska bread may be stored in plastic bags in freezer. If 2 lb coffee cans are used for bread pans, this recipe will make 4 loves.

We had to make a few adaptations from the original. First of all, we seem to live in a fresh yeast wasteland, so we had to convert to the instant dry yeast we had. For this, we substituted 5 1/2 tsp of dry yeast for the 2 fresh cakes the recipe called for. We also didn't have coffee cans, or even enough bread pans. We made two full loaves in the bread pans we had, and two smaller loaves in some throw away pans that we had from a lasagna night a while back. Lastly, we don't own a cooling rack yet, so I lined a plate with some bamboo skewers to allow the bread to cool on those.

Since this was my first attempt at making paska bread, I didn't add any decoration or mix-ins (like raisins). Maybe next year I will be a little more adventurous and attempt some. I'm happy with the end result, though, as it tasted delicious - light and fluffy, slightly sweet and just like Easter.