Hello...? And Cinnamon Rolls!

Wow. It's seriously been so long. I mean I had an intense Spring Musical to deal with that did phenomenally, and then there was when our computer crashed=( Thank goodness for the web enabled phone I got for my birthday in January. I seriously don't know if I would have made it the week and a half. But I'm back! (I know I said that last time, but this time I mean it!) Though my blogging skills have been mediocre as of late, I promise my baking has been doing just fine. For example:

Oh yeahhhhh. Those are indeed cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. And guess what? I made them again about a week or too later. It is completely necessary. Andddddd, I have some ideas for new twists on cinnamon rolls that I can't wit to try and then show you guys. (I actually tried one of my ideas and let's just say it didn't work out too well. I burned it completely.) So, make some cinnamon rolls, and sit back and wait for the blog posts to come rolling in! In my absence, you won't believe the number of these cupcakes I had to bake. In fact, some just came out of the oven less than an hour ago.

Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe given to me by my mother. I will NEVER EVER use another recipe. This one is perfect. Same with the icing. NOTHING beats it.

Dough
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/3 white sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups of flour

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the ingredints and mix well. Knead into a ball. Let rise until doubled in size. When ready, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. Spread with filling.

Filling
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Spread butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over dough evenly as well. Roll dough up. Slice roll into 1 inch slices. Place in a parchment paper lined pan. Let rise again until doubled. Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Icing
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Beat until fluffy. When rolls are hot, spread lots of icing on them.

Tip: To make these the night before,skip the final rising step. Let rise in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning.

Pioneer Woman's Dinner Rolls

I made these for Thanksgiving dinner you say? Like 2 months ago? But if I have some in my freezer then this post still counts as recent and up-to-date, right? Good.


What I love about The Pioneer Woman's dough recipe is that fact that it is all done in one bowl! It makes clean up a breeze, and your job a whole lot easier. It also make a whole lot of dough. Like a lot a lot. And because there aren't very many members in my family, I wasn't going to make 12 dozen rolls. That means, I have tons of left over dough to mess around with and make things like cinnamon rolls, or monkey bread, or calzones or whatever!


So the recipe may look intimidating, as all yeast recipes do, but I swear it isn't. It's like, "no messy hands" easy. And, forming the rolls couldn't be easier. And that's why I choose it. I loved the little three leaf clover formation of them. And it was especially fun when it came time to gently rip the rolls open and butter them.


The taste was awesome and kind of hard to describe. They are different than your average roll and I can't put my finger on why that is so. But I honestly loved these!!!

Pioneer Woman Dinner Rolls
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
4 cups Milk
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
9 cups Flour
2 packages (4 1/2 Tsp.) Active Dry Yeast
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
2 Tablespoons Salt

Preparation Instructions
Pour 4 cups of milk into a stock pot or Dutch oven. Add one cup of sugar and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Stir to combine. Now, turn the burner on medium to medium-low and “scald” the mixture/lukewarm (between 90 and 110 degrees).

Before the mixture boils, turn off the heat. NOW. Very important stuff here: walk away. Walk away and allow this mixture to cool to warm/lukewarm. The mixture will need to be warm enough to be a hospitable environment for the yeast, but not so hot that it kills the yeast and makes it inactive. I don’t usually use a thermometer, but if you’d like to, a good temperature is between 90 and 110 degrees. I usually feel the side of the pan with the palm of my hand. If it’s hot at all, I wait another 20 minutes or so. The pan should feel comfortably warm.

When the mixture is the right temperature add in 4 cups of flour and 2 packages of (4-1/2 teaspoons) of active dry yeast. After the yeast and flour are nicely incorporated, add another 4 cups of flour. Stir together and allow to sit, covered with a tea towel or lid, for an hour. After about an hour it should have almost doubled in size. If it hasn’t changed much, put it in a warm (but turned off ) oven for 45 minutes or so. When it had risen sufficiently add 1 more cup of flour, 1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1 scant teaspoon of baking soda and about 2 tablespoons of salt. Stir (or knead just a bit) until combined.

Butter 1 or 2 muffin pans. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball. Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full. Cover and allow to rise for about 1 to 2 hours.

Bake in a 400-degree oven until golden brown, about 17 to 20 minutes.

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls!!!

CINNAMON ROLLS!

Pictures first, then my post. I wrote this all the way back on Easter Sunday. So, it's definitely been a while. Just as an FYI, my musical is over, and I'll have more time for blogging and baking. Our show went fantastic. We wee told by just about everyone who came to see it that it was the best one our school has put on. Ever. We couldn't be happier to hear these wonderful reviews. Musical has been probably the greatest thing I've done this school year, and I am so thankful to everyone involved. We have our big cast party Sunday and I can tell there will be laughter and tears will be shed!

I love this new rubber brush soo much!

Not nearly enough cinnamon!

That's much better=)

This Easter break has been completely gorgeous! I don't know how it's been where you live, but here in Pittsburgh, nothing but sun. And I have been taking advantage of it. Although it makes baking anything difficult because I'm so tempted to be outside enjoying myself! Of course I allow myself to have fun first and foremost, and then I add in sometime for baking.

Because tomorrow is Easter, a special breakfast is in order. I'll just cut to the chase and say, "Yes. I am finally making the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls." And I could not be happier. I am making the dough the night before so then in the morning they can be assembled, baked, and eaten fresh from the oven!


I woke up at 8 in the morning to have these ready for my family. Yeah, I'm a good daughter/sister=) We were able to eat these beauties before mass. And thank goodness, because I would never have been able to wait knowing these were sitting at home!

The rolls came out smaller than when I use my usual recipe, but not bad at all. The most interesting part of this was the glaze. It uses coffee and maple syrup. Quite different from the go-to cream cheese one I like, but definitely worth the try! This was a really nice cinnamon rolls recipe. The rolls came out wonderfully and just perfect for Easter breakfast. I still have really strong ties to my Momma's recipe, so this may not become my go-to cinnamon rolls recipe.

Buttery Crescent Rolls

No more store bought rolls for this family. I decided to make them from scratch and with all that homemade lovin'. So after killing my yeast twice, 6 yeast packets later, and one emergency run to the store at 10 pm ... I finally got it right.

These need time to rise, but don't look risen until about ten minutes left. This made me really nervous at first but with patiencce, it works. The dough was extremely easy to work with. Cutting and shaping them was a breeze. I made these the night before and just placed them in an air tight box to reheat them for Thanksgiving dinner.

Crescent Rolls

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup water, warm (100-110F)
1/2 cup milk, warm (100-110F)
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, room temperature

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or in a large bowl if you prefer to mix by hand, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. Add in bread flour and salt and mix well with a dough hook. Cut the softened butter into three or flour pieces and drop them into the dough, letting the mixer blend them in.

Knead (with a mixer or by hand) for about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl and let rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.
Preheat oven to 400F.

Turn risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press it out into a circle with your hands, then use a rolling pin to roll it out into an even, 10-inch circle.

Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to divide the circle into 12 triangles (just like slicing a pizza).
Starting with the outside edge of one of the triangles, roll the edge towards the center of the “pizza.” Once rolled, curve the roll slightly into a crescent shape and place on a parchement-lined baking sheet. Repeat with all rolls. Cover rolls with a clean dish towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
Melt additional 1 tbsp butter in a small bowl. Brush tops of rolls with butter butter.

Bake for 14-18 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 rolls.

Thanksgiving Morning Cinnamon Rolls

For Thanksgiving morning we wanted a tasty treat that would start our day off right. What else can do that but cinnamon rolls!! My last experience wasn't so great, but that's because I tried to make a different recipe and not my mom's traditional one. Big mistake/disappointment. This time around, I'm sticking to the old favorite.

These can not be compared to any other cinnamon roll. They are super soft and tender. The amount of sugar and cinnamon is in perfect ratio with everything else. The icing can be described as followings: It blows every other cream cheese or regular icing out of the water! The amount of cream cheese in it is minimal, but that's what's so great about it. You get the hint and flavor of cream cheese but it's not at all overwhelming. Also, there's a big secret ingredient that I love. Whipping cream. By adding this cream to it, you get a fluffy and silky creamy icing.

Making these is no harder than any other cinnamon roll. And honestly, not powerful mixer or anything other than your hands is 'kneaded'. Hahaha, get it? But seriously, these aren't hard at all and they produce the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tried in my life.

The recipe itself is from a book called Miserly Moms. It's a book focusing on how to save money on everyday things. There some other really great recipes I'll hopefully get to trying.

Cinnamon Rolls
Dough
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/3 white sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups of flour


Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the ingredints and mix well. Knead into a ball. Let rise until doubled in size. When ready, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. Spread with filling.

Filling
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Spread butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over dough evenly as well. Roll dough up. Slice roll into 1 inch slices. Place in a parchment paper lined pan. Let rise again until doubled. Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.



Icing
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Beat until fluffy. When rolls are hot, spread lots of icing on them.

Tip: To make these the night before,skip the final rising step. Let rise in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning.

**We used parchment paper because they come out really cleanly, however, that isn't so "miserly" I guess. So the recipe just says to butter your pan.

Added: I shamelessly ate three of these deliciousnesses for breakfast=))