The Bread of Life

Laura has asked that we start eating more "from scratch" food, so I whipped out my wheat grinder and my Blendtec mixer and got busy on some bread. I wanted to try a recipe from Six Sisters and I was glad I did! This was really good bread. It doesn't look or taste like what you think of when you hear "whole wheat." This is light and chewy and yummy, and hard to not slice off just one more piece! 

The recipe comes from here.

I changed a couple of things though. I used 12 cups of freshly ground whole wheat flour and then finished it up with about 3 cups of all-purpose flour, mostly because my wheat grinder tops out at 12 cups of flour per cycle and I don't want to have to grind a little more wheat to finish up the dough! I stop adding flour when the dough in the machine pulls away from the sides like they explain over at Six Sisters. If you don't have a machine to knead your dough for you, you want to stop adding flour when the bread is still a little sticky, but not overly sticky. I know that's hard to determine when you haven't done it before, but you are all smart people out there and I am confident you can figure it out! Or go buy a machine, which is what I did after watching a friend of mine make bread a few years ago!

The second thing I changed was I let my dough rise once in the bowl before shaping into loaves and letting them have a second shorter rise in the pans. I use 1 1/2 pounds of dough in my slightly smaller bread pans and 2 pounds of dough in my larger bread pan. It bakes at 350°F for about 30 minutes (or until it reaches 195°F on an instant read thermometer. I haven't made six loaves of bread yet from a single recipe (I've made this recipe twice in two days!) because yesterday we made what we call "Hot Spots" (dough wrapped around ham, cheese, broccoli and sometimes red pepper and bake them for about 20 minutes) and today we made hamburger buns with some of the dough. This is now my favorite bread recipe and I hope you'll try it to see if it will be your favorite one too!  

Versatile Roll Recipe

I've put roll recipes on here in the past and I've been told they are good. A couple of weeks ago, we had another cousin dinner and my sister-in-law served rolls that were so divine I asked for her recipe before we left that night. The recipe is named Orange Rolls, but she didn't make them into orange rolls, she just made them into crescent rolls.
I made the crescent rolls the other night to take to a friend's house. Her kids devoured the rolls, and after her youngest had eaten three and asked for another, she was disappointed to be told they were all gone. The recipe makes four dozen rolls (I didn't take four dozen to the dinner), so with part of the dough I made some cinnamon twists. Laura made up some cream cheese frosting for some cookies we had the other day and it was perfect for dipping.

Sorry for the terrible lighting. This photo was taken at 3:45 AM. Yeah, I couldn't sleep...again.

So here, in my opinion, is the best orange/cinnamon/dinner roll recipe I've posted.

(Orange) Rolls (adapted from Kathy Knowlton who got it from someone named Gayle Jorgensen)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup plus 2 T sugar (divided)
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 T yeast (I use instant)
3 eggs, beaten
4-6 cups flour
extra butter as needed, melted
small amount of kosher salt (unless you're making sweet rolls)

Scald the milk (heat just until tiny bubbles start to form on the edge of the pan) and remove from heat. Add the butter, 1/2 cup sugar and salt and then cool mixture to lukewarm. Add the eggs. In a small bowl (I use my glass measuring cup) add yeast and 2 T sugar to warm water (wait a couple minutes if you are using regular yeast to make sure it proofs) and when the milk mixture has cooled to lukewarm, add yeast mixture to milk mixture.
Now comes the only hard part- knowing how much flour to add. It's going to vary from day to day, kitchen to kitchen. Start with stirring in about four cups and add more until the dough is soft but still a little bit sticky. I stirred the flour in by hand instead of using a machine (it's pretty much the only exercise I've had in weeks). I used the full six cups. In fact, I actually made a mistake when reading the recipe and added 1 cup of warm water instead of 1/2 cup, therefore I needed more flour than 6 cups to resolve that mistake.
At this point, you can let it rise in the refrigerator or on the counter. It will rise more slowly in the refrigerator but sometimes that's a good thing depending on your schedule. If you choose that option, you need to take the dough out about three hours before you need to bake the rolls. If you don't refrigerate the dough, let it rise on the counter until doubled in size. "Punch" (I don't actually punch, I just collapse it) down the dough and shape into whatever you need depending on what you're going to make (crescents, balls, rectangle for cinnamon or orange rolls, etc.).
Divide the dough into four balls of equal size. Pick your variation from below.
For the twists shown here, I rolled out one ball the dough into a rectangle, brushed it with melted butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, then used my pizza wheel to cut it into strips. I twisted the dough and baked it (see times below). If you want to make conventional cinnamon rolls, roll the dough into a large rectangle and spread with melted butter. Spread a layer of brown sugar over the butter and sprinkle with as much cinnamon as you want. Roll up and slice (unflavored dental floss is my choice, or you can use thread too) and put in a 9x13" pan. Let rise and bake.
For the crescent rolls, roll dough into a circle. Brush with melted butter. Using pizza wheel, divide into twelve "pizza slices." Roll up, let rise and bake (again, see times below). When you take the rolls out of the oven, brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle a small amount of kosher salt on the tops of the rolls.
For the orange rolls, shape into twists or rolls (copy the cinnamon directions) rise and bake, then frost with glaze recipe below.
You could also turn these into breadsticks by rolling into skinny "snakes" then brushing with melted butter and sprinkling with a blend of Parmesan cheese mixed with a little garlic salt and oregano.

Let the rolls rise for about 15-20 minutes (it's not rocket science) and then bake at 375°F. for 15 minutes for the regular crescent rolls, 10-12 minutes for the twists or breadsticks, and 15-20 minutes for filled cinnamon or orange rolls.

Orange Glaze (I didn't use this part, but it was on the card from Kathy, so I'll include it)
2 T orange juice
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 cup powdered sugar
Mix all together and spread over cooked rolls or twists.

Cheater Orange Rolls

Every month we have a missionary meeting that includes a potluck breakfast, so I'm always on the lookout for good ideas so as to not tarnish my reputation that I seem to have acquired there.
Part of the problem, however, is that it hast to be something I can put together quickly because the meeting starts at 8:00 and I don't like getting up any earlier than I absolutely have to, so speed is essential for my food offering.

This isn't the best picture in the world because it was taken in the car just before we entered the building for our meeting. But since I'm told I can't post a recipe without a picture, it will have to do. These kept my reputation intact. They go by the name of Cranberry Orange-Glazed Cinnamon Rolls over at Pillsbury.com, but I think they should just go by the name of Cheater Orange Rolls. The picture shows the recipe doubled and baked in a 9x13 rather than a 9-inch round pan.

Cheater Orange Rolls
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (gross. I used pecans. I can deal with pecans. Walnuts are just wrong)
1/4 cup dried cranberries (known to the rest of the world as Craisins)
2 T butter, melted
2 T honey
2 tsp orange juice
1 can (13.9 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated orange-flavor sweet rolls with icing

Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix all ingredients except rolls and icing. Spread in ungreased 9-inch round cake pan.
Separate dough into 8 rolls; set icing aside. Place 1 roll in center of pan and remaining rolls around center roll.
Bake 24-27 minutes (watch that timing- mine was done at 20 minutes) or until deep golden brown. After removing pan from oven, immediately invert onto a heat-proof serving plate. Cool for five minutes.
Remove cover from icing; microwave on 50% power for 5-10 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle over rolls. Serve warm.

No Need To Knead

My sister has a friend who posted a bread recipe and she posted it here. However, my sister's friend got it from here and she got it from here. Anyway, it's been around the block a time or two, and with good reason! This bread is ridiculously easy and incredibly delicious!

This bread is crusty on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

For the best directions and measurements, click on the middle link above, or to make it a little easier for you, I'll put it again right here. Just click. She has great photos and instructions. You don't have to have a cast iron pot to make this. Here's a snippet from Janet's blog post-
Q:  Do I have to use an enamel covered cast iron pan?
A:  NO.  You can use anything that can take the heat.  The following have been used that I know of:
Clay pots with lids, Pizza stone with a bowl to cover the bread, insert from a crockpot, pyrex baking dish with a lid, stainless steel pot with a lid, baking dish covered with aluminum foil, old cast iron dutch oven.

I love this bread! Consider it my gift to you, and Merry Christmas.

Apple Dumplings

I've made these twice before, and I guess I never blogged it. Silly me!  Here's the recipe. It comes from P-Dub.

Apple Dumplings (adapted slightly)
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges per apple)
2 (8-ounce) cans crescent roll dough
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) can Sprite (because I don't do the Dew)
ground cinnamon to taste
vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Wrap each apple wedge in a crescent roll, starting at the wide end and rolling it up to the point. Put each roll in a buttered 9x13 (or slightly smaller) baking pan.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the sugar and vanilla and stir for about 30 seconds. The sugar does not need to dissolve. Pour that sugar mixture evenly over the rolls. Pop open the can of Sprite (or 7-Up, or Mountain Dew or Slice...no, I take that back. Not Slice. That stuff is nasty) and pour it right over the top of everything. Sprinkle some cinnamon over the rolls and bake for about 40 minutes or until it's golden brown.
Serve the dumplings with ice cream and spoon some syrup-y goodness over the whole plate of deliciousness.

Bread Bowls

Last week when we had some friends over, I was only planning on making the dessert. However, my friend had another idea. He offered to bring their leftover chili his daughter had made, and promised us it was so good we would die. Hmm. Is chili really what I want for my final meal? He also said he wanted to eat it from a chili bowl. A chili bowl? He meant a bread bowl. Oh! Okay. He said they would bring them, but when I talked to his wife, I told her I would take care of the "chili bowls."

So Monday afternoon, I made these guys. Our friends weren't expecting homemade, but these "chili bowls" were not difficult, and they were so much better than any I've ever bought at the store!

I have been promised the chili recipe, so if/when I ever get it, I'll pass it along. In the meantime, try these bread bowls. Tis the season! The soup season, that is. Especially since we have snow promised for later today.
The recipe is slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

Italian Bread Bowls
Makes 6 regular or 8 small bread bowls
1 1/2 T active dry yeast, or 1 T instant yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
2 T vegetable oil
6-7 cups all-purpose flour
If you are using instant yeast, no proofing is required. If you are using active dry yeast, proof the yeast in the warm water. Let stand until bubbly, about ten minutes.
Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture in either a Kitchen Aid mixing bowl or Bosch or Blendtec mixer or whatever you use to make your bread!
Continue to add flour in 1/2 cup intervals until a soft, not too sticky dough is achieved. I used 6 cups of flour to my mixture. When the dough has balled together, turn dough onto a Pam-sprayed counter top. This way, you can knead your dough without adding more flour. You'll need to spray your hands too. Knead until the dough is nice and elastic. This will only take a few minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl. Add dough and then turn the dough so the greased bottom is now the top. Cover dough with a damp towel and set in a warm area. I always turn my oven on for about one minute, then I turn it off and place the bowl in the oven. Let dough rise for about 40 minutes. Punch the dough down and evenly shape into 6-8 balls. Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (or use a Silpat liner). I tried slashing the top, as Mel suggests, but it just made them look deformed, so I'd say skip the slashing!
Let the bread bowls rise again in a warm place for about 35 minutes, then bake in a 400°F pre-heated oven (this is when having two ovens comes in mighty handy-dandy!).  Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and baked through.

Puffy French Toast

There are several recipes that Laura has looked at for a long time and has wanted to make but in her tiny little kitchen in Columbus, felt overwhelmed to try. This is one of those recipes (however, it isn't difficult or time/space consuming). We ate it for breakfast this morning and it was insane! We were still eating more, long after we were full. I wish I had served this for breakfast last week when we had friends come over. I'm also trying to talk my sister into changing our Empty Nester party in December from a dinner to a breakfast, just so we can serve this.

I would suggest that you place all the batter ingredients in a blender and pulse just until smooth (so you don't incorporate too much air into the batter). Then dip and fry. We kept the cooked toast in 200°F oven while we finished cooking the rest so we could all eat together.
You can find the recipe here. Some of us ate it with buttermilk syrup and others ate it with strawberry jam and we had our fruit on the side, but you could certainly serve it as shown here. You could also cut it into strips instead of halves and serve French toast sticks.
After watching me place the fruit on the plate and dust the powdered sugar over it, Laura suggested that my next career I should be a food stylist. Ha ha!

Spaghetti and Breadsticks

This is Agnes and Eliot's favorite spaghetti sauce! Eliot's plate was empty in record time, which is unusual for him.
You can find the spaghetti sauce recipe here and the breadstick recipe over here. The breadstick recipe is the same as the recipe I use for pizza dough. After the breadsticks come out of the oven, I rub them with some butter and lightly sprinkle a bit of kosher salt on them. You could use garlic salt, but I have a non-garlic eating husband, and while I can sneak some in here and there, I can't put it on his bread or he'll know immediately!

The Only Roll Recipe You Will Ever Need

As promised, the best rolls ever, and now they can be in your kitchen any time you wish.

Adapted slightly from-

How Does She- Delicious Buttery Dinner Rolls

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 T salt

1 egg, beaten

2 T yeast

2 cups warm water (not hotter than 110°F)

1 T sugar

9-10 cups flour

2 sticks of butter

Take the butter out of the refrigerator. Slice one stick into about 8 little chunks. Leave the other one on the counter (unless your kitchen is blazing hot and will melt the butter if you leave it out for longer than an hour. You just want it nice and soft).

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat milk, 3/4 cup sugar and the stick of butter that has been sliced, for about 2 minutes. There may be some unmelted butter at the end of 2 minutes, but don't fret about it. Put this mixture into the freezer for a few minutes while the yeast proofs. 

Put yeast and 1 T sugar in a 2-cup measuring cup. Fill with warm water (what feels comfortably warm to you feels comfortably warm to the yeast and it will be happy) and give it a quick stir. Let it sit for a few minutes while the milk mixture is cooling. 

Break out your largest bowl. Tupperware makes a killer-good bread making bowl. It's huge. I hope you have put your muscles on today because we're going to stir these by hand. Or by arm, with a wooden spoon. Anyway, keep the Kitchen Aid in the cupboard. You can do this! 

Pour the lukewarm milk mixture into the big bowl and add the salt and the egg and give it a stir, then add the happy yeast mixture. Gradually stir in about 9 cups of flour (put in 2 cups at a time). If it gets too difficult near the end, spread about 1/2 cup of flour on the countertop and knead it in by hand. Now's the time to work out all your aggression and frustrations! 

You want to avoid adding too much flour so when the dough is still slightly sticky, spray your big bowl with Pam and put the dough back in the bowl. Cover it with a clean dish towel or Saran Wrap (I have a towel that is used exclusively for covering bread dough). 

I turn my oven on for about one minute and then turn it back off again. Don't forget to turn it back off! I actually stand there and watch the digital temperature go from its starting point of 100° and go to 110°F and then I turn it off. I test the rack to make sure it isn't even warm (I don't want to melt my nice Tupperware bowl...again!) and place it in the oven for about 45 minutes or so. When the dough looks like it has doubled in size, remove it from the oven.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Some people say to cover your work space with flour. Resist that urge! Spray it with a little more Pam instead. Dump the dough onto the sprayed countertop and divide the dough into four fairly equal balls. Roll each one into a circle (about 12-15" across). Using 1/4 of that soft stick of butter, spread it over the face of the dough circle. Then pretend you work in a pizza factory and slice it into 12 pieces using a pizza cutter. Roll up each slice of dough into a crescent roll (starting with the crust part of the "pizza" and rolling to the point where you always take your first bite of "pizza"...unless you are very strange and start somewhere else). Make sure that when you put the roll on the pan that the little point is sitting nicely under the rest of the roll or you will have rolls that look more like swans than rolls. Place about 18 rolls on a buttered cookie sheet (you will have about 3 sheets of rolls but don't worry, they WILL get eaten!) and let them rise for about 15-20 minutes on the countertop. 

Place one pan of rolls in the oven at a time and bake for 10-15 minutes until they are golden brown. As soon as they come out of the oven, rub a little butter over the top of each roll. Continue baking the rest of your rolls while you enjoy a few from this first batch before anyone else knows you snitched them.   

They Win Some, They Lose Some

I know Laura wants titles with more disclosure, but I can't seem to bring myself to do it. Sorry, Boo.
Do you know about the website How Does She? They've got some pretty good stuff over there. A couple of weeks ago I came across this hot fudge recipe that I wanted to try.

Yesterday I tried it. How does it compare to my very own made up recipe? I had a perfectly random taste tester (thank you, Karen) give me her opinion in a blind taste test (well, not with a blindfold- she just didn't know which recipe was which, or which one she was "supposed" to choose) and she chose my recipe. Just in case you can't remember what that recipe is, I'll post it for you again.

So that was a lose for How Does She. But do not despair, because here's their win. These rolls were the best I've ever made. The b-e-s-t, ev-er! I've posted roll recipes on here in the past, but after making these rolls, they are the only ones I will ever make in the future. After all, why have 15 recipes for the same thing if one is superior to all others?
I will post their winning recipe tomorrow.

And just for some loveliness...

I already posted this on FB, but just in case you missed it, here is my sweet grandson watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Hot Fudge Sauce by lil' ol' me.
1 stick butter
1 can (14 oz...do they even make another size?) sweetened condensed milk
6 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate (I use Bakers)
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows (or a handful, depending on the size of your hand)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients except the vanilla and stir until everything is melted together and well-combined. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool slightly and serve over vanilla ice cream Topped with crushed candy cane sounds amazing to me right now...

but seriously- my favorite way to enjoy this is to just eat it with a spoon.

Go ahead, I dare you.

Trick Or Treat

Last weekend was our ward's Halloween party. In my opinion, it was better than ever. Good job to all those who were involved with that! A plea went out for more treats for the cake walk, so I made another batch of caramel apples. This time, I wrapped them up real purdy.

Karen decided that the party only needed one plate of the apples, so I got to pick a couple of families and treat them (since it's quite the trick to put up with me as a friend). 

I also signed up to bring cornbread. Here's how I made it... I have several boxes of cake mix that only makes 12 cupcakes, so it's 1/2 the normal size of a box of mix. I mixed that up according to the back of the box as though I was going to make the cake, then I added to that a box of cornbread mix and the necessary ingredients it called for on the package, which in this case was only water (I know, you thought you were getting a real recipe. I guess that is my trick to you today). I briefly mixed the two together, and baked it in a 9x13 pan for 30 minutes. It was scrumptious. Yep, a real treat. Okay, now go answer your door- there are little ghosts and goblins waiting for candy. Oh, and Happy Birthday to my B-I-L today.

Empty Nesters' Party

You remember these guys from last week, right?

Here's what they looked like after we added the googly-eyed ribbon. Cuteness!

This is cream cheese frosting at the base, followed by cinnamon cake, spiced apples, more frosting and a drizzle of caramel sauce. They went fast! However, some people didn't realize that the containers were NOT disposable and I had to dumpster dive to find about half of them after the party. Not fun.

Candy corn cookies

Pretzels dipped in $100 sprinkles (thanks, Gygi's. I can never get out of your store for less).

Spider cupcakes- the frosting was killer good. 

Candy corn cupcakes

You can't really tell, but they are sitting on Karen's cute spider web holder. 

Mini pumpkin pies (Joette's recipe in the family cookbook). They went fast too! 

Too much to choose, so take one of each! 

Cheryl had this cute bucket and on Thursday night she said "what can we use this for?" 

I said I'd make some caramel popcorn to put in it. 

Making Shrek fingers

These are my fun new bottles I bought online from Bake It Pretty.
It's Kate Jones' fault. She had some and when I saw them I had to have some too... 

and some clear ones too. 

Between her decorations and mine (and a few of Karen's) we had that place looking good. 

We had to split into four tables to seat everyone. Good thing Cheryl's house is equipped for that. 

Bring on the game. We played pictionary, except the person drawing had to wear a blindfold. 

I can't explain the smirk. 

We had a great time. There were about 26 people there. 

Hold on to your horses though. There's another party waiting to happen on the next day.