Cinnamon Buns (Clone of a Cinnabon)

Well it just figures my first post of 2011 would be something like a Cinnamon Bun, especially since my New Year's Resolution was to lose my baby weight! But look at that thing, who could resist it? Cinnamon Buns are one of the only "dessert" type food (aka anything sweet) that my hubs will eat, so I like to indulge him now and then.

I never attempted to make Cinnamon Buns before hubs got me a bread maker for my birthday, not that I thought I couldn't do it, I'm just lazy that way (I've got 3 kids eh!). With a bread maker this recipe is crazy-easy. It does all the kneading and rising and all I have to do is watch!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it claims to be a clone of the Cinnabon Chain Cinnamon Buns, and it totally is. I made a couple of modifications to make it easier and I found the original cream cheese frosting way too cream cheesy tasting. What I got is AH-MAZE-ING.

On a Sunday morning there's nothing better than a warm from the oven Cinnamon Bun to go with my skinny latte (I'm watching my weight yo), but this recipe is so easy you could have them any day of the week!

I made big ones for me and hubs and little ones for the kids
picture taken with my iPhone, excuse the quality!

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Cinnamon Buns (Clone of a Cinnabon) adapted from allrecipes.com

Dough
1 cup warm milk (110˚F/45˚C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 c margarine, melted
4 1/2 c bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 c white sugar
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Cinnamon Spread
1 c brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 c butter, softened

Frosting
1/2 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.

2. After the dough has doubled in size (when the cycle is done) turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover with a tea towel and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. In a stand mixer, beat the softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until combined.

4. Roll dough into a 16" x 21" rectangle. Spread dough with the butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture leaving a 1" strip along the edge furthest from you bare.

5. Roll up the dough and cut into 12 rolls.

6. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover with a tea towel and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.

7. Preheat your oven to 400˚F (200˚C).

8. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

9. While rolls are baking, beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

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enjoy,

Cheesy & Pizza Puffs

Cheesy Puffs

I love entertaining over the holidays. Every year my parents have a big Christmas Eve party and friends and family stop by for drinks, and food, and catching up. It's always a lot of fun. I can't make it home this year so I plan to throw a little party here for just my little family, but with all the same elements, food, drinks and catching up (I forget my husband's name some days!) with the people I love most.

This little appetizer is sure to make an appearance on Christmas Eve. My cousin Kelly made them for us when she visited 2 summers ago and I fell in love with them! Made with Pillsbury Cresent dough, these tender little, buttery bites have a wonderful cheesy-garlic flavour. I decided to play around and made one batch with pizza sauce and finely diced pepperoni and cheese and the result was delish!

Great on their own or dipped in marinara or pizza sauce, these little appetizers are sure to be a hit at your next holiday party!

Cheesy Puffs

1 pkg. Pillsbury Cresent rolls (1 tube makes 18 puffs)
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp grated cheese (I use marble cheddar)
1 egg white
1/4 tsp italian seasoning

Instructions:

1. Open cresent roll tube and unroll the dough.
2. Press together the pieces to form a square.
3. Sprinkle the garlic powder over the rolled out dough and top with the cheese.
4. Roll up the dough starting at one end to form a log.
5. Slice into 1/2" rounds (pinwheels)
6. Place rounds onto a cookie sheet and brush tops with egg white.
7. Sprinkle tops with a bit of italian seasoning.
8. Bake at 375˚F for about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden.
9. Serve warm right from the oven.

Pizza Puffs

Pizza Puffs

1 pkg. Pillsbury Cresent rolls (1 tube makes 18 puffs)
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp pizza sauce
2 tbsp finely diced pepperoni
3 tbsp grated cheese (I use marble cheddar)
1 egg white
1/4 tsp italian seasoning

Instructions:

1. Open cresent roll tube and unroll the dough.
2. Press together the pieces to form a square.
3. Spread pizza sauce over the dough leaving about 1" at one end.
4. Sprinkle the pepperoni over the pizza sauce and top with the garlic powder and then the cheese.
5. Roll up the dough starting at the end opposite the end without pizza sauce to form a log.
6. Slice into 1/2" rounds (pinwheels)
7. Place rounds onto a cookie sheet and brush tops with egg white.
8. Sprinkle tops with a bit of italian seasoning.
9. Bake at 375˚F for about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden.
10. Serve warm right from the oven.


enjoy!

Amanda

Turkey Pot Pie

I hated pot pies when I was little. HATED them. My mom would wait until there was a 50¢ sale and stock up on frozen chicken and turkey pot pies from the grocery store. They were bland and runny, and the crust was thick and hard, and if you were lucky you'd get 1 or 2 pieces of rubbery chicken in them. At the time I was branded "picky" but I like to think I just had discriminating taste at a young age! My mom was a busy wife and mother who worked 2 jobs so I was just happy to see my her let alone expect gourmet dinners. As a stay at home mom I have the time to fiddle around with cooking (and this blog) so I thought I'd give pot pies another try with my leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

I haven't mastered pie dough yet, nor did I have the energy to try (post Thanksgiving cleaning/tidying/digesting) so I used some refrigerated pie dough to save time... and as busy moms we need to make life easier whenever we can. I made these individual size (in a "Texas size" muffin tin) as my husband declared that he wasn't a fan of pot pies and I'd be eating them alone, but this could easily be adapted to one big family-sized pie if you don't want to bother with playing with the dough.

Bursting with chicken, veggies and a creamy sauce baked in a flaky, light pie dough, these pot pies are mmmmmmmm!

before the oven. I need to work on my edge crimping technique! Notice my fingernail impressions? soooo professional looking.

Turkey (or Chicken) Pot Pies

2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 med. potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 c. frozen corn kernels
2 c. cooked turkey or chicken, chopped (a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is a great time-saver if you don't have leftovers)
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp poultry seasoning
2 c. turkey or chicken stock
1 c. heavy (whipping) cream
salt & pepper to taste
3 Pillsbury® unroll-and-fill pie crusts (I needed 3 for my large size muffin tins, you may need less)
1 egg, beaten

Instructions:

1. Over medium heat melt butter and add onions, carrots, celery and potato. Sauté until tender.
2. Add chopped turkey or chicken and heat through.
3. Add poultry seasoning and flour and cook for about 2 more minutes.
4. Add stock, cream and frozen corn and season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Roll out the pie dough and cut out circles roughly 2 times the size of the diameter of the openings.
7. Press the dough into the muffin compartments along the sides and bottom making sure there are no holes and that it's even.
8. Fill the dough with the chicken mixture even with the top.
9. Cut circles out of the remaining dough slightly larger than the size of the diameter of the muffin openings.
10. Pinch the dough together to seal the top and sides making sure there are no openings.
11. Make a slit in the top of the pie and brush the tops lightly with the beaten egg.
12. Bake at 350˚F for 30* minutes or until golden brown.

* Time varies depending on the size of your pies and your oven.

Delicious, creamy, turkey and veggie filling!

enjoy!

Amanda

The Best Dad on the Block bakes! Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband is not a fan of dessert. He loves pumpkin pie, and 1 kind of cookie that I will blog about someday. Other than those two things, he stay away from sweets. Except when it comes to Chocolate Chip Cookies. He doesn't actually like the cookies though... just the dough. My hubs, the same guy who passes up dessert every night, goes insane for Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.

All it takes is for me to even mention chocolate chip cookies and the next thing I know he's in the kitchen asking me where the measuring cups are. Yes that's right, HE makes the dough. Hubs claims to be the best Chocolate Chip Cookie maker of all time, not that he'd really know cause he never eats the cooked product, but I can attest to the fact that they are quite yummy, and the dough is out of this world.

This recipe used to be on the back of the Crisco box years ago, they've altered their recipe but my husband swears by this version and only this version. Whether you eat the dough or the cooked cookies, these are pretty tasty cookies.

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Jason's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Crisco circa 1995ish

1 c. Golden Crisco
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F.
2. Cream together the Crisco, sugar and vanilla for 2 minutes.
3. Add eggs and beat for 1 minute or until thoroughly blended.
4. In another bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda.
5. Add flour mixture to Crisco mixture gradually and mix until just blended.
6. Add chocolate chips and mix to distribute.
7. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 11 to 13 minutes.

Cookies will appear to be slightly under-done, let cool for 2-5 minutes on cookie sheet to complete cooking.

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enjoy,
Amanda

Monkey Bread

I have NO idea why this is called Monkey Bread, maybe some mom somewhere invented and named it that cause her little monkeys loved it. It's also known as Pull-Apart Bread (loaf). Whatever you call it it's delish!


It tastes like a cinnamon bun without the guilt of having a big ol' honking bun on your plate. You can pick off a little bit and pop it into your mouth, and then repeat as often as your pants will allow you to.

I snagged the recipe from allrecipes.com and made a few adjustments.

Monkey Bread adapted from allrecipes.com

3 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough
1 c. white sugar
2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 c. butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp. cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat over to 350˚F and grease a 9 or 10" Bundt pan.
2. Remove the biscuit dough from the packages and cut each biscuit into quarters.
3. Put white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into a large plastic bag and shake to combine.
4. Drop biscuit pieces into bag a few at a time and shake to coat.
5. Remove from bag and drop coated pieces into the Bundt pan arranging as you go.
6. Repeat the coating and arranging until all the pieces are in the pan.
7. In a small sauce pan over medium heat melt the butter and add the brown sugar and bring to a boil. Allow to bubble for 1 minute and then remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir and pour mixture all over the biscuits.
8. Bake for 35 minutes. When done remove from the oven and then allow to cool for 10 minutes. Invert the pan onto a plate to remove the bread.
9. Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl and add the cream a bit at a time until mixed and spread over the top of the warm bread.
10. Serve and watch your little monkeys (or big ones!) pick this yummy bread apart.





enjoy,

Amanda

Fresh Baked Bread from the Oven

I have always wanted to try baking bread. Neither of the G-mas ever did it so I had no point of reference on how to go about doing it, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. So I took my first attempt at bread yesterday. I found a simple looking recipe online for a Farmer's Loaf (my favourite kind at the local bakery) and I set to proofing the yeast and cutting in the butter etc... I ended up with a very crumbly dough that wouldn't hold together and wasn't kneading properly. Having no idea if this was normal, but suspecting it wasnt't, I decided that I'd come this far I might as well bake it and see what happens. It was AWFUL. Misshapen, hard, lumpy, and tasted so bitter and yeasty it left a sour taste in my mouth for hours after. So into the bin it went.

This morning I woke up with the resolve that I wasn't going to let a wee bit of dough defeat me. So I got online and found a recipe for Amish bread. How hard can that be? It's Amish, if they can make it by hand and bake it in a wood fed oven I surely can make it with my KitchenAid mixer and fancy oven.

The results were heavenly! Nice chewy crust and a soft moist inside. And it was very simple to make. It takes 5.5 hours from start to finish so if you're thinking of hot fresh bread for breakfast you might want to make the dough the night before and refrigerate it and let it rise in the morning and bake it off.

The recipe makes 2 loaves, but I decided to make 1 loaf and divided the second loaf into eight pieces and made mini-loaves.



Amish Bread taken from recipezaar.com

1/4 oz dry active yeast (1 pkg)
1/4 c. water, 100 degrees Fahrenheit
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp salt
2 1/4 c.water
2 1/2 tbsp shortening
6-7 c. all-purpose flour
1/8-1/4 c. butter

Instructions:
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1 tsp of sugar (taken from the 1/3 c.) until foamy and doubled in volume, about 10 minutes.
2. In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, 2 cups water and shortening.
3. Stir in yeast mixture.
4. Gradually add flour to form a soft dough.
5. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth.
6. Place in a greased bowl and cover and let rise for about 2 hours.
7. Punch down and divide into 2 portions and form loaves.
8. Place in greased 9 x 5 loaf pans and prick tops with fork.
10. Let rise until higher than pans (about 2 hours).
11. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
12. Cool for 10 minutes
13. Rub butter all over tops of loaves. Place pans on sides until loosened. Remove bread from pans and cool completely on racks.