Bake 'em Away Boys

 Please indulge me and allow me to brag for a moment....

This evening the Boy's school held its open house to show case their programs and to give incoming students an idea of school life.  The Boy and one of his buddies volunteered in the foods and nutrition room to bake while guests toured the school.  (He claims he volunteered because he was told he would get to eat the leftovers but I think he just has a knack for cooking and baking!!) Oh and by the way of the 4 students who came in to bake for the open house, 3 of them were boys...these boys must all be aware of the rule....the ladies love a man who can cook and bake!!  Well done gentlemen!

To make a long story short, the Boy came home with an ice cream pail of cinnamon bun goodness that he made at school!!  They are a biscuit type of cinnamon bun with raisins and I must say, they were delish!  Still warm even when he got home!! Woot woot!!  (He must bring home this recipe for us!!)

I am so proud of him! 

Until next time, eat well and stay warm!

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.

Cinnamon Meringues, A Bake Exchange Delight!

It is bake exchange time!!  I have been humming and ha-ing over what to make.  We have our largest bake exchange yet and there are some heavy hitters at this party!  Some of those in attendance at the bake exchange extraordinaire include Mandy from Whipped , Susie from Suze Homemaker, and Trina from Tortes by Trina is our gracious hostess with the mostess!  There is some pressure here to keep up with these amazing ladies!

As a result I have been toying with meringues!  I have attempted peppermint meringes but they haven't held up too well.  I think I have been adding too much peppermint extract and deflating the meringues. (An interesting fail turned success here includes adding cocoa to the sugar, mixing it into the glossy but deflated whites, stirring in some frozen raspberries and freezing to make a peppermint chocolate raspberry semi fredo!)

The whole fam-damily seems to really enoy the cinnamon meringues so I decided to go with those.  I have tried sprinkling coarse sugar on them to make them dazzle and add some pizzazz but the is something quite quaint and eloquant about a piped meringue. Light, crisp, and slightly chewy inside, these melt in your mouth cinnamon meringues are divine!  The original recipe for these can be found here, on the Food Network site.

Make 'em any way you want Meringues!
(so called because once you get the hang of meringues, you can change the flavourings, fold in different add ins and really make it your own) 
  Printable version
4 egg whites (I used the egg whites from a carton, just to make it easier.  I really didn't want to waste all those
                      egg yolks)
1/4 tsp lemon juice (or 1/8 tsp cream of tartar)
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

If  you are separating whole eggs, make sure there is absolutely no yolks in the whites.  Any amount of fat, no matter how small will cause an epic fail and the egg whites will not whip up properly.  This goes for any residue on your bowl or whisks.  Wash them in hot soapy water to make sure there are no oils or fats what so ever that will work against you.  I think this is why my peppermint meringues didn't work: there was oil in the extract I was using.

Bring the egg whites to room temperature for about 1/2 an hour.  Room temperature whites will whip up quicker than cold whites.

Meanwhile, back at the lab.....I mean kitchen..

In a bowl, mix together the 2/3 cup of sugar (and the cream of tartar, if using) and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the 2/3 icing sugar and the 1 tbsp cornstarch.  (Cornstartch while not necessary will help the meringues maintain a nice chewy centre.)
Also mix in any spices such as 1 tsp of cinnamon into the icing sugar.  Set this aside.

When the egg whites reach soft peaks and look like this:

At this point, the egg whites will hold a soft peak (mound).  They will look foamy.  The additions of sugar gives the whites their nice glossy finish.

Add the 1/4 tsp lemon juice (if using).  This will act as a stabilizer to help prevent deflation of your heavenly mass of meringueness. If you have cream of tartar, mix it in with the sugar.

Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time.  This should be a slow process so the sugar has time to dissolve and work its magic.  Adding the sugar will turn the whites from a bubbly mass of fun to a nice glossy mass of sugary  meringue madness.

Add the sugar one tbsp at a time!

 If it looks like this, the whites are not ready to go yet...Just beat it some more!

Keep beating!!

Continue to beat the the holy living you know what out of the whites until it reaches stiff peaks.  Stiff peaks on egg whites should look a little like this:

Now that's a nice peak!

A snowfall of sugary sweetness!

Once you have a lovely mass of glossy, stiff peaks of egg white madness, it is time to sift in the icing sugar mixture!!











Gently fold the icing sugar mixture until it is well incorporated. 



Now is the time to scoop the meringue into a piping bag and start piping!

Start by applying gentle pressure to the bag

 With the tip close to the parchment paper, start by applying a gentle squeeze on the bag.

Now draw a circle with the meringue as you apply pressure.  (the more pressure you squeeze on the bag, the more quickly you will have to draw your circles)

Finish the circle by overlapping slightly and draw into the centre of the circle.

Stop applying pressure to (or squeezing the icing bag) and pull the whole she-bang up.  You can either leave the fancy tip on the meringue or you can use a clean finger to rid of them.  If you leave the sharp points on, they will most likely get knocked off after they are baked.



Bake in a 200 degree F for 1 hour, 15 minutes.  Finished meringues will be light and airy.  They will also be dry to the touch.

Allow the meringues to cool on their sheets.

All packaged up and ready to exchange!

Honey Cinnamon Peaches

Not too long ago, I made an oh so yummy batch of honey vanilla plums and it did not last very long (I do have some everyday with my vanilla yogurt)! Yesterday while Hubby and I were grocery shopping, we happened past some peaches.  The lovely, sweet, peachy smell was intoxicating!  I just had to buy some.  Today I decided to savour that peachy goodness by revamping the honey vanilla plums into honey cinnamon peaches!!!

Honey Cinnamon Peaches

Wash and chop:

• 4 large, sweet smelling peaches

Place the chopped peaches into a pot on medium heat.

Let the peaches cook down for a few minutes allowing the juices to start flowing.
Add to the pot:

• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of honey
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Continue to cook the peaches until they are soft.
Mash the peaches slightly, leaving some luscious lumps of peachy goodness.

From here you can either spoon into hot sterilized jars as per canning guide lines or allow the sauce to cool and store in the fridge.  As with the honey vanilla plums this goes great with:

• vanilla ice cream
• vanilla yogurt
• with granola
• on pancakes or waffles
• in a peanut butter sandwich
• by the spoonful

Apple Rhubarb Cinnamon/Ginger Crispy goodness

Since I am new to the blogging world, there are 2 posts today!!  The pizza pops I actually made on Saturday and felt the need to share the pizza goodness with you.  Yesterday my Dad brought over some apples from his friend's yard.  Today, my friend from the famous blog, Whipped , made a post about rhubarb apple crisp thus reminding me that I still have rhubarb in the garden and tonight I sprung into action!!  I don't follow recipes very well when it comes to apple crisp so there really aren't proper measurements.

• Wash the apples, core and wedge the apples....leave the skins on!! Use enough apples to fill your pan to the top.
• Wash and chopp some rhubarb
• Toss the apples and rhubarb with some light brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, ginger, and a big drizzle of honey (I like to mix all of this together in the pan I am going to bake it in because it means less dishes!)

In a bowl, mix together

• a couple of handfuls of old fashioned oats (don't you dare use quick cooking oats) about 2 cups
• about 1 cup of flour (whole wheat works fine)
• some light brown sugar
• some white sugar

Cut in

• 1/2 to 3/4cup butter, cold

Continue to cut in butter until the mixture becomes crumbly and holds together when squeezed. (feel free to use your clean hands!)
Spoon the mixture over the apples in the pan and pat it down.

Place the pan on a lined cookie sheet (protect that oven from spills).
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.