One A Penny, Two A Penny....

Yesterday we finally took a day off from rehearsals (as it was Good Friday and the school was closed and all....).  I slept in a little, relaxed, and got some baking done.  A nice day if I do say so myself!  What did I bake you ask? Since it is Easter weekend and all, I decided to make some good old hot cross buns.  I remember my Mom making hot cross buns when I was little and I always loved the mildly spiced soft buns with the icing on top! This really is a nostalgic thing for me. I remember a distinct flavour and texture of these buns.  I have tried other recipes but they just didn't fit the bill. 

Years ago I scanned the recipe from my Mom's Purity cookbook.  It is a coil bound cook book with some real gems in it and still uses some very old fashioned language that I find so very neat. One of my sisters has it now and I couldn't find the scan.  Lucky for me, I actually found a newer re print version of the Purity Cook Book from 1967 last summer in the recycling  hut out at the cabin.  I opened the door to put my recyclables in the hut and found a stack of cookbooks just sitting there waiting for me.  It was just meant to be! 

When I make these, I just somehow feel  a bit closer to my Mom, as though she were back in the kitchen with me. I do miss her more during the holidays and I do find it interesting that something as simple as hot cross buns can help bring back so many memories.
Without further ado, I bring you hot cross buns:

Hot Cross Buns - Printable version

1 cup hot milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp sugar
1 pkg  active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 egg yolk (save the white for the egg wash later)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cups raisins or currants
another 2 1/2 to 3 cups flour

In the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachment (or a bowl and use a wooden spoon) place:

• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces

Heat the milk (original recipe says to scald the milk but I put it in the microwave for 2 minutes).  Pour the hot milk over the sugar, salt, and butter. Mix until the butter melts and the sugar gets mixed in.  Allow this mixture to cool while proofing the yeast.

Now get the yeast working. In a bowl mix together and let it stand for about 10 minutes until all foamy:

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 pkg dry active yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast)

Add the yeast mixture to the hot milk mixture and stir.
Now add:

• 1 slightly beaten egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup raisins or currants (I didn't have any so I didn't add any)

Beat until smooth, then switch to the dough hook (if using a stand mixer) and add another 2 1/2 cups to 3 cups flour.

Mix until a soft, smooth, and elastic dough forms this may take about 5 minutes.  If the dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour. 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and continue to knead by hand (get that stress out!)

Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning the ball to coat the dough.  Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and place in a warm spot to rise until double (about an hour)

Punch the dough down and divide into 2 equal portions, use a scale if you wish to make it really even!  Divide each half into 9 pieces and shape into a flattened bun.

Arrange on a lined baking sheet about 2" apart.  Cover with a clean tea towel and place back in that warm spot to double in size.(about 45 minutes).  This is a good time to pre heat the oven to 400.

Fetch that left over egg white mix in 1 tbsp water.  Brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash.

Using a sharp knife, cut an x (or a cross, a long the top of the bun.

Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

Now it is time to make the icing!

Mix together:

• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp hot milk (or water)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (or more if you like more vanilla)

Mix well and drizzle over the hot buns, following the cut marks in the buns.

Enjoy!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Baby it's Cold Out There so Warm up With Fresh Baked Bread!

How do you warm up your house when there is a -34 celsius wind chill keeping the temperature down?  You huddle in the Little Kitchen with the oven on baking bread, that's how!  My son and I are both on holidays until the next week.  He has been working his way through a couple of novels for his English class ("To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "April Raintree" by Beatrice Culleton, and "Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham.  All great books but he has his work cut out for him.  What better way to take a quick reading break than to punch out or knead some bread dough with your mom?

Figured out the timer on the camera!

It has actually been way too long since the Boy and I have worked in the kitchen together so this was a fun day (Well for me anyway).  I found a recipe for French bread in my "Taste of Home" cookbook.  I think this should perhaps be called White bread baked without a loaf pan.  It was a tasty bread, but not the nice crusty loaf of French bread I was hoping for.  Oh well, c'est la vie!  We still had fun and made some wonderfully fresh bread for our New Year's dinner with our friends.

Oh, and guess what?  We doubled the recipe!!

Bread, Adapted from Taste of Home

• 4 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/ cup oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 5 -6 1/2 cups flour (depends on humidity)

In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the yeast, water, sugar, and oil.  Let the mixture get all foamy and lovely.

Measuring the oil

Add 2 cups of flour and the salt.  Mix with the dough hook to get it all combined.

Now start adding the flour one cup at a time.  Keep the machine kneading until the flour is incorporated.

Too sticky!

That's better!

After the 5th cup of flour, test the dough with your fingers.  If it is sticky, add another 1/2 cup of flour and knead until mixed.  The dough should be somewhat stiff but still workable and not sticky.  Knead for 5 minutes with the machine.

Kneading by hand build muscles!

Put the dough on the counter and knead by hand for couple of minutes.

He really liked this part.  (I told him it would help his 'baseball muscles'!
Place the dough ball into an oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

So much fun!

Punch the dough down, cover, and let rise for another 1/2 hour.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.  Shape into two oval loaf shapes.

Place on a lined baking sheet, cover with a clean tea towel and let rise for a 1/2 hour.

In a small bowl, combine 1 egg white with 1 tsp cold water.  Brush the egg wash over the loaves.  This will give the crust a nice brown colour when baked.

Using a sharp knife, carefull cut some score marks across the top of the loaves.






Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and baked through.

One happy bread baker!

We actually made a couple of loaves last night as a trial run.  Today we put a small pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven while preheating to up the moisture content in the oven.  The first thing we noticed was a crustier finish on the loaves we baked today.

While the French bread was rising, we also put together a batch of the Honey Seeded Buns, since we were out and to provide some variety for tonight's dinner.

He did a great job weighing out the dough!

A very happy new year to everyone from the Little Kitchen.  May the coming year be filled with family, friends, and food.  All the best!

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, Starting New Traditions

 

Christmas can be a stressful time of year.  So many things to remember, people to visit, shopping to be done, and of course, baking to do. Why do we feel the need to cram so much into such a small amount of time?  We have decided to stay home and relax a little this Christmas.  We will venture out during the day on Christmas eve to visit Hubby's 91 year old grandma but that is probably it.  We tend to see family quite regularly during the year so to really spend a day or two rushing around seems a bit much.  My father and mother in law will come over Christmas morning to visit and have a light breakfast (my dad might stop by as well).  As much as I want to make a full on bacon, eggs,  and hashbrowns brekkie, that would be way too much.  Especially considering we will all be having a big dinner later on.

We used to gather at my Mom and Dad's house every Christmas eve.  They would host a highly attended open house.  Friends and family would come over, eat lots of food, visit, laugh and just be pretty darn merry! Now when I say family and friends, I mean everyone one of us had friends (who are really just like family anyways) from our childhood come over and mingle with the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  As the years went on and families got bigger, so did some of the Christmas eve gatherings.  Most people made the effort to at least come over for a few minutes.  It really was quite the tradition!

The last time we gathered at the house for Christmas Eve (2008) just happened to be our first Christmas without my Mom. We thought we would give it a go since we had so recently lost her but without her there, it just didn't seem right.   Last year we had our first quiet Christmas at home, and you know what? As difficult as it was at first I came to realize that is was nice.  Just the three of us (and the cats).  No rushing out the door, no driving in the new snow, no running all over the city.  When all was said and done, we decided it was a good time start to some new traditions of our own.

A new tradition: baking together on Christmas Eve!

I do love to bake bread.  I love everything about it.  The kneading, waiting for the rise, the shaping of a loaf or buns, and of course, the smell!!!  Now add the aroma of cinnamon to the fresh baking bread.....WOW!!  Cinnamon buns will be served at breakfast Christmas morning!  I made the dough and the rolls Christmas eve with my 5 year old nephew and let it rise in the fridge overnight.  In the morning we will open gifts to the wonderous smell of cninnamon!

My sister and her family came over for Christmas Eve this year and it was quite the nice evening.  We munched on some food, watched "Christmas Vacation", a family favourite, and assembled cinnamon buns.  My 5 year old nephew loves to help in the kitchen so I called over in the afternoon and asked them to bring a baking pan over.  I doubled the dough recipe so Issac and I could make a batch for them to take home and bake in the morning!  I made the dough before they arrived so it would rise.  Five year olds aren't renowned for their patience in waiting for dough to rise.

The boys watching 'Christmas Vacation"

I have made cinnamon buns many times but I don't ever remember which recipe I use.  I think I am still on the hunt for the perfect cinnamon bun recipe...If I had made a cinnamon bun that has blown us all away, surely I would have written it down or saved that recipe somewhere, right?  I am going to attempt Alton Brown's overnight cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning!

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from Alton Brown

Printable version

Ingredients for the dough

Save the whites for Meringues!

4 large egg yolks

1 large egg

¼ cup sugar

6 tbsp butter, melted

¾ cup buttermilk

20 oz flour (about 4 cups)

1 envelope yeast

1 ¼ tsp kosher salt

Make the dough:

Warm the buttermilk slightly in the microwave and mix in the sugar.  Add the yeast and let it get all nice and foamy.

Mix all of the flour with the 1 ¼ tsp salt.

In the bowl of your mixer and using the whisk attachment, combine the egg yolks, the egg, the cooled but melted butter.

Add in the buttermilk, sugar, and yeast mixture and ½ of the flour.  Whisk until everything is moistened.

Replace the whisk attachment with the dough hook and about half of the left over flour mixture and knead on low for 5 minutes.  Check the dough and add more flour if necessary.  The dough will be soft but shouldn’t be sticky.

Continue kneading on low for another 5 minutes or so.  The dough will pull off from the sides of the bowl.

Lightly oil a big bowl. Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel.

Leave the dough in a warm spot to rise until doubled in size.  (Alton says 2 to 2 ½ and that is what it took!)

Make the filling!!!

In a bowl combine and mix thoroughly:

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Set the sugar mixture aside with 2 tbsp softened butter,

Butter a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and set aside.

Punch the dough down!!

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter.

Shape the dough into a rectangle and roll out with a rolling pin, doing your best to keep the shape of the dough rectangular (make it about 18 x 12 inches).

Smear the softened butter all over the dough, leaving a ½ inch border at the top.

Sprinkle the sugar cinnamon mixture all over the butter.

Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll the rectangle up towards the top making sure to keep the roll even and tight.

Pinch the seam gently to seal the roll.

Use a sharp knife, cut the roll in half.  Then cut the halves into half again (making quarters).  Now cut the quarters each into thirds creating 12 even rolls.(I miscalculated and we got 16 rolls....oh well)

Place the rolls into the greased pan cut side down. Cover with tightly with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to chill.

In the morning, remove the rolls from the fridge and let them come to room temperature for about 45 minutes. (Alton suggests placing the rolls in a cold oven on the top rack.  On the bottom rack place a pan and fill it two thirds with boiling water.  Close the oven for about 30 minutes until the rolls have puffed up)

Bake the rolls at 350F for about 30 minutes until a nice golden brown.

Alton serves his rolls with a cream cheese icing but I prefer mine plain with butter or with a simple vanilla glaze.

Mix together 1/2 cup icing sugar with 1 tsp vanilla and enough milk to make a glaze like consistency. Pour over the rolls!

Starting new traditions can be therapeutic.  Making new memories for the young ones to have is truly in the spirit of Christmas.

It's a small, small World Series Pretzel Rolls

Things are tense at my house!  With the Mets not even in any of the playoffs, Hubby is now rooting for the Rangers and my son is rooting for the Giants...the cheap shots, slight bickering, and show boating has begun.  I honestly wasn't too happy with the Buh bye Yankees pretzels I had made the other night.  They just didn't have the texture I wanted.  I think I had the water/baking soda bath too hot.  Oh well, live and learn.

The other night I joined foodbuzz and have been making new food blogging friends, pouring over countless recipes and ideas, and basically marvelling at the wonderous photos other foodies have posted.  I am in awe!!  I found a recipe that I just had to try for Pretzel Rolls.   They were a hit!  Easy to put together and baked up nice and pretzel brown!  I doubled the recipe and made them in 3 ounce portions instead of 2 ounce portions but they are amazing! 

 

Pretzel Rolls

Printable version

For the rolls:

•    3 cups warm water 
•   4 ½ tsp dry active yeast
• 4 tsp sugar 
• 9 cups all purpose flour 
• 4 tsp salt, kosher 
• ½ cup melted coconut oil (or melted butter)

For the poaching:

• 1 large pot boiling water
• ¼ cup baking soda

For brushing the tops:

• 1 egg, beaten 
• 1 tsp water

For sprinkling:

• Coarse salt

Directions:

In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl, mix

•  3 cups warm water 
• 4 ½ tsp yeast 
• 4 tsp sugar

 Let this get all foamy and fun loving.

 

Add:

• ½ cup melted coconut oil (or melted butter) 
• 4 tsp salt 
• 9 cups flour

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Mix with the dough hook (or a wooden spoon) until a nice elastic dough forms.  This might take about 5 minutes.  The dough comes together so nicely to form a soft, slightly sticky dough.

Cover with a tea towel and set in a warm spot to rise for an hour.

Meanwhile back in the Little Kitchen:

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or with silicone liners.

Put a large pot of water on the stove, but don’t turn it on yet...just getting ready.

When the timer beeps, or when the dough has doubled its size, punch it down and turn it out onto the counter, which you have sprinkled with flour.

Measure out even pieces of dough.  I like to measure out 3 oz portions with my scale and get 22 rolls from this recipe.

Form each piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet leaving some room between each roll.

Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 F and turn your pot of water on to boil.

When the water is boiling, slowly add the ¼ cup baking soda to the pot....SLOWLY...it will bubble, foam, and spill over if you dump it all in at once.  Lower the heat to a simmer.

Poach the rolls a couple at a time for 30seconds, gently turn them over and continue poaching for another 30 seconds.

Remove from the pot, drain, and transfer back to the baking sheets.

Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with the coarse salt.

Using a sharp knife, cut an x (or a t) into the top of each roll.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until a nice dark golden brown.

As a side note, today was an accident free day!! Yesterday's wake up call has been answered.

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