Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze

My first time making cinnamon rolls was a success thanks to this recipe!!  I copied and pasted the original recipe into my blog.  Can't let a good recipe get away.  :)  If you want to read the tutorial on yeast, visit the original site by clicking the link at the bottom.  My only notes were that I didn't use instant yeast and should have.  I learned from the tutorial that instant yeast is important.  It can be thrown in recipes while the other kind (the name is slipping my mind) needs to be proofed beforehand.  My cinnamon rolls still worked out, it just took much longer for them to rise than it says on the recipe.  

*Make-Ahead: to make these rolls ahead of time, once the rolls are formed and placed on the baking sheet, immediately cover them with lightly greased plastic wrap and refrigerate them; do not let them rise. Refrigerate overnight, up to 16 hours. Let the rolls sit at room temperature, covered, until they have doubled in size about 3-4 hours and then uncover and bake as directed. The rolls can also be frozen at the same point as mentioned above (cover with a layer of greased plastic wrap and a top layer of tin foil). They will need to sit at room temperature for 9-11 hours to defrost and rise before baking.

*Note: as with all yeast doughs, I never use the flour amount called for in the recipe as a hard fast rule (unless a weight measure is given and then I pull out my kitchen scale). Because humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of other factors can impact how much flour you need in your yeast doughs, I always judge when to quit adding flour by the texture and look and feel of the dough rather than how much flour I’ve added compared to the recipe. This tutorial on yeast may help identify how a perfectly floured dough should be.

Makes 12 rolls

INGREDIENTS:
Rolls:
¾ cup buttermilk, warm (I pour the buttermilk in a glass liquid measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute on 50% power)
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs
4 ¼ cups (21 ¼ ounces) flour
¼ cup (1 ¾ ounces) sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoons salt

Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Glaze (or use the delicious cream cheese frosting from this recipe):
1 ½ cups (6 ounces) confectioners sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
For the dough, whisk the warmed buttermilk and butter together in a large liquid measuring cup. Combine 4 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with dough hook (or you can use a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon or electric handheld mixer). With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and eggs and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes. Increase the mixer to medium speed and knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (knead for 15-18 minutes by hand). If after 5 minutes of kneading, the dough is still overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough clears the sides of the bowl but has a slight tacky feel when pressed between your fingertips. (See this tutorial for a visual.)

Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover the top tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled, around 2 to 2 ½ hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Meanwhile, lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish (if doubling the recipe, I’ve found using a large rimmed baking sheet, 11X17-inches, works great). In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter (I use my trusty roul’pat for this step) and press it into a 16 by 12-inch rectangle (if you have doubled the recipe, split the dough in half and roll out one half at a time). Gently brush the softened butter over the rectangle, using an offset spatula or rubber spatula. Sprinkle on the brown sugar mixture, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the top and bottom edges. Lightly use the palms of your hands to press the brown sugar mixture into the butter, adhering it to the dough.

Lift the longest edge closest to you and begin rolling the dough into a tight log. Pinch the seam closed and roll the log so it is seam side down. Gently stretch the log to be 18 inches in length with an even diameter all the way throughout and pat the ends to even them up.

Using a serrated knife, slice the log into 12 evenly sized rolls (or more if you like your rolls thinner). Arrange the rolls cut side down on the prepared baking pan and cover with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise in a warm place until doubled, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes, until the rolls are lightly golden on top and cooked through but not overly browned.

While the rolls are baking, mix the softened cream cheese and buttermilk together until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix. Whisk in the confectioner’s sugar. Add additional milk or buttermilk one teaspoon at a time until desired glaze consistency is reached. It should be thick yet pourable. Drizzle the warm rolls with the glaze.

Recipe Source Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Photo Source here

Homemade Playdough

This playdough used by my son's preschool.  It works really well....not too dry, too wet, too sticky, etc.  A keeper!  :)

1/2 C salt
1 C flour
1 TBSP cream of tartar
1 TBSP oil
1 C water
food coloring



Combine ingredients in a saucepan.  Heat gently, stirring constantly.  When the dough has a good consistency, take it off the heat and allow to cool.  If you want to make different colors of dough, divide the dough and add a few drops of food coloring to each dough ball; knead until color is distributed.

*I added the food coloring to the water portion and made several batches of different colors.

**Also, if the dough is too sticky, keep it on the heat and keep stirring!  You did not measure wrong, just keep stirring on the heat.  I also took the pot off the heat and kneaded with my hands (after it cooled a touch).   I made the mistake of adding more flour because I thought the measurements were off.  After reading reviews online, I realized I had just had to keep it on the heat a bit longer!

Photo Source here

Easy Cheese Ball

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 (1 ounce) package Ranch dressing mix

1 1/2 C chopped pecans

In a medium size bowl, mash cream cheese. Mix dressing mix and Cheddar cheese into the cream cheese. Shape the mixture into a ball. Roll the ball in the chopped nuts. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve. Yum!  

Mel's Note:

*You may need to refrigerate mixture for a few hours after mixing ingredients, as the mixture may be too soft to make into a ball unless it has had time to harden again.  

 Recipe and Photo Source: All Recipes

Fresh Lemonade

One of the great things about living in the tropics is the abundance of fresh fruit trees. I picked several lemons straight off a tree and made this delicious lemonade. I'm not sure how many lemons you'd need exactly, as they vary in size and how much juice they give. Another Foodnetwork recipe I saw said 12 lemons, but the ones I was juicing were smaller so I needed more. Delicious!!

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup hot water
2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 gallon cold water
1 lemon, sliced
Mint sprigs, for garnish



Directions

In a 1 gallon container, place sugar and hot water, and stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and cold water to render 1 gallon. Stir until well mixed. Pour lemonade over glasses of ice, squeeze slice of lemon on top of each, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Recipe and Photo Source: The Food Network

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars

So, when it comes to desserts, I'm a pretty lazy. Bars are the best invention ever because they take way less time and usually taste about the same. I'm just waaaayyyy too lazy to roll out sugar cookies and these taste just like them without the fancy shapes. There is value in doing it cookie-cutter style, but unless its Christmas or Valentine's Day, count me out. Thanks Mandy for the recipe!

Source: Cooking With Mandy

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-5 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until frothy, about 4-5 minutes. Add vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes. Pour the dough into a greased cookie sheet. Spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, combine butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Beat for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, almond extract, and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Frost cookies. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

When we first moved into our home, a neighbor delivered fresh, hot, pumpkin doughnut muffins as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift.

It. Was. Heavenly.

And you can believe I've never forgotten them.

Fast forward two years and here are two ways of making delicious, pumpkin doughnut muffins:

Option 1:

I am in the process of getting ready to move, so I have been doing my best to use up any and all food we have left in our house. I was asked to bring mini muffins to an event recently and I didn't want to go to the store for any ingredients. Then I remembered the pumpkin pie filling in the pantry I had been trying to use up. And THEN I remembered the delicious pumpkin doughnut muffins from the neighbor and thought I may be able to recreate them so I could use the pumpkin pie filling. I kept trying to find recipes that used the pie filling in a muffin recipe, but every recipe I came across used pumpkin puree, not pie filling. I then stumbled upon a recipe (somewhere I can't find now) where they used only two ingredients to make their muffins-yellow cake mix and pumpkin pie filling. Say what?! No eggs, oil, or anything else was needed. Sa-weet!!! I happened to have both in my pantry :) I mixed the two ingredients together, baked them at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or so (until a toothpick comes out clean) and they turned out great. They are NOT like a normal muffin and you can definitely tell it has cake mix in it, but I love me some good cake mix taste. :) I then used a cinnamon sugar topping on the muffins (recipe below). It was a great option to making super easy muffins. (note: The pie filling was the very large can, not the smaller can.)

Option 2:

Here is the original recipe that my neighbor brought over. It is a more traditional pumpkin muffin. She made it using the giant muffin pans, but any size muffin pan would also work.


Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Makes 12

For the Batter:

•10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
•3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
•2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon coarse salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
•1/3 cup buttermilk
•1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree
•3/4 cup light-brown sugar
•2 large eggs

For the Sugar Coating:

•3/4 cup granulated sugar
•2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. Make batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture and beat to combine.

Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Fresh Vegetable/Fruit Juice

If you have Netflix, I suggest watching the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It shows how juicing can be really beneficial to your health, even to the point that it can reverse sicknesses brought on by poor diet choices. By eating and drinking micro-nutrient dense foods, you will be a healthier person and who doesn't want that?! If you look around, you can get good deals on vegetables to juice. At our local Winco, 25 pounds of juicing carrots are just $6.98! The bag is huge so I split the cost with a friend. Score for both of us!

In today's juice, I used 2 celery stalks, a few swiss chard leaves and stems, 1 granny-smith apple, 1/2 cucumber (the no wax kind with the skin on), about 10 carrots carrots, 1/4 of a beet and a few leaves of kale. You can substitute many different items, but we usually do carrots as the base of the juice because they are cheap and super good for you. They are also sweet so it has a good flavor. Go easy on the beet-a little bit goes a long way. We have also thrown in there cutie oranges or a wedge of lemon and it has been good too....but also go easy on the citrus because it has a strong flavor.


Happy juicing!!