Pioneer Womans Cinnamon Rolls

I have a favorite cinnamon roll recipe.  It was one I got from a friend when I first got married and have loved it ever since.

I was in the mood to try something new and since I have practically loved every recipe from Pioneer Woman, I decided to try hers!

They were yummy and just as good as her pictures showed!  She uses a maple frosting that is fun to try every once in a while too!

So if you are in the mood for cinnamon rolls (well maybe not this week with 100 degree temps) give these a try or maybe just try her frosting with your own favorite recipe!

I also highly recommend both her cookbooks!  They are awesome!

Cinnamon Rolls

(Pioneer Woman cookbook Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl)



Dough

• 1 quart (4 cups) whole milk (I just use what I have, but I am sure whole milk would make them a WHOLE lot yummier!!)
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 pkgs (4 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
• 9 cups flour (I used half wheat and half white)
• 1 heaping tsp baking powder
• 1 scant tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp salt

Filling

• 2 cups melted butter
• 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar, plus more as needed

Maple Icing

• 2 lbs powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk (or whatever you have on hand)
• 6 tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee (I just used more milk here!)
• Dash of salt
• 1 tbsp maple flavoring or maple extract

For the dough, heat your milk, oil, and sugar.  Do over medium heat and warm it up but don't let it boil.  Set it aside and let cool to lukewarm.

Once it is lukewarm, sprinkle your yeast on top and let it sit for 1 minute or until you start seeing it working.

Now pour this mixture into your mixer and get ready to mix!  Add 8 cups of your flour and stir until combined.  Cover with a clean towel and set it aside to rise for about 1 hour.  Make sure you have a warm spot or if you are lucky enough to have a proofer on your oven, stick this pot of yumminess inside there!

Remove your towel after an hour and you should see a yummy rised dough.  Now add your baking powder, baking soda, salt and the remaining 1 cup of flour.  Mix with your dough hook again and combine.  If you need to add more flour to make it not incredibly sticky, do so!

Now the joy of this recipe is that she says you don't have to use it right away!  I haven't tried this with hers, but she says you can put the dough in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and just keep punching the dough down if it rises up over the bowl!

If you are using the dough right away (or you are ready to use it from the refrigerator), take half your dough and roll it out to a large rectangle.  You may want to flour your work surface to prevent sticking!  Now comes the yummy goodness!  I gave her measurements for butter, cinnamon and sugar.  You can use her measurements and use half for this part of the dough and half for the other part or you can wing it like I do and just sprinkle till it looks good!  The most important part is to make sure you do the melted butter first!  Make sure you try and spread evenly and don't get too close to the edges so you can roll them up and not loose too much buttery yumminess!

Begin at the long end and start rolling the dough up.  Try and keep it tight!  When you reach the end, pinch your seams together.  Now use a knife and cut your rolls into 1 1/2 inch slices.  (You can see a great step by step on her blog if I have confused you by now!)

Pour a couple tablespoons in your pan (she uses pie pans, or I like jelly roll pans or whateve you want to cook them in) and make sure the butter coats the pan.  Place your cut rolls in your pan making sure you don't overcrowd your rolls.  Repeat this until you are out of dough and then do the same with your other half of dough.

Cover your rolls with a clean towel and let rise for about 20 minutes.  During this time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  You can now get a head start on your dishes, or take a much needed break!

Now remove your towels and bake for 13-17 minutes or until golden brown.  Don't overly brown them, you will be sad if you do!

While they are baking, make your icing!

In a large bowl, whisk together your powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee(or more milk), and salt.  Add your maple flavoring.  Whisk until smooth.  Taste and add more maple, sugar, or butter if you feel it needs anything else!  The icing should be thick but pourable!

While the rolls are still warm, pour your maple icing all over the top, making sure to get all the edges covered.  As they sit the rolls will absorb the icing and make them super yummy!

How to make Homemade Croutons

So with baseball and we just ended soccer, dinners have become more interesting and rushed! 

I was thinking that I didn't want another night of whatever we could find in the freezer, so I put together a chef salad!

The only thing missing was croutons to make it really good!  I was planning to go to the store, but thought all I need is croutons and if I go to the store I will buy...you know what I mean!

So I went to the trusty Internet and decided why can't I make them!  Needless to say there are many recipes for them and they are truly better than the store bought version and they were simple too!

So, we will be making croutons at our house from now on and I will double the amount next time because they were all eaten.  In fact I couldn't keep hands off them as they cooled on the baking sheet before dinner even started!

So as we head into summer, make a big batch of croutons (and don't go buying them at the store :) one day and eat salad all week! YUMMMMMMMMMM!

How to make homemade croutons

(From gimmesomeoven.com)

• loaf of quality bread, cut into about 1-inch cubes (I used sour dough bread I had)  ~ preferably the loaf to be a day or two old
• about 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• seasonings ~ Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, put your bread cubes.  Now evenly drizzle your olive oil on top.  I didn't measure my olive oil, I just drizzled and tossed together until it looked evenly coated.  Season with salt and pepper and add your additional seasonings as desired.  I seasoned mine with garlic powder.

Toss again making sure all seasoning are evenly distributed.

Spread your bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake until golden brown, turning the bread to brown on all sides.  Cooking time will depend on your bread thickness.  The recipe said she did it for 15-20 minutes, mine took longer by 10-15 minutes.  Watch carefully though, you don't want burnt croutons!

Remove when done from oven and let them cool completely on the pan.  Try to keep any taste tasters at bay!  It may be hard because the smell was so enticing and it traveled throughout the house!!

Store any leftovers in an air tight container.  Use within a week or freeze for up to 6 months!

Variations:

• Season with a salad dressing instead of oil and herbs
• Bake in a toaster oven (for smaller amounts)
• Use different kinds of breads (rye, sandwich bread, etc.)

Honey Oatmeal Bread

This bread has so far been my favorite homemade bread.  It has a great honey flavor and is moist.

I have been loving my wheat grinder and grinding extra flour to keep in my refrigerator to use in my pancakes, waffles, and any breads that I make!  I have even put a little in my cookies, cinnamon rolls, and pizza dough the other night!

A great recipe to use whole wheat in and one my whole family loves!

Honey Oatmeal Bread

(http://www.tastykitchen.com/)

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 egg

In a medium saucepan, melt your butter and honey together.  Remove from heat when butter melted and add your water.  Make sure mixture is not too hot so you don't kill the yeast and then stir in your yeast.  Let this mixture sit for about 10 minutes or until your yeast is all bubbly.

In your mixer, using the dough hook, combine salt, yeast mixture, 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour.  Beat for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Gradually beat in your egg and 1 more cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour to make a thick batter.  Keep beating for about 2 minutes. 

Stir in your oats now and 1 more cup of wheat and 1 cup of white flour.  Knead with your mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic.  If you find it is really sticky, you might need to add more flour.  I have ended up adding almost 1 cup more of flour when making this bread.  Add your flour slowly so not to add too much.

Place your dough in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour!  I always cover my dough with a clean kitchen towel.  I absolutely love my oven because it has a proofing cycle and it helps raise my bread so well!!

After it has doubled in size, punch your dough down and turn onto a floured surface.  Cover your dough with your bowl and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Shape into 2 loaves and place in your greased bread loaf pans.  Cover again and let rise for about 1 hour. 

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the tops of your bread is golden brown.  Try not to eat it all warm, but soo yummy when it is warm with jam and butter, or forget the butter and just jam or even plain!!

Delicious Buttery Dinner Rolls

Yum! 

These rolls were easy and yummy!

Another great recipe via pinterest!  They were posted around Thanksgiving time, but I haven't had a chance to try them until this last Sunday.

I will definitely make these again!  They make about 48 rolls, so definitely great for a crowd or to share with a neighbor or friend!

Delicious Buttery Dinner Rolls

(www.howdoesshe.com)

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• about 9-10 cups flour (I did about 4 cups of wheat flour and the rest white)
• at least 1 cup butter

Scald 1 1/2 cups milk, 3/4 cups sugar and 1/2 cup of butter in a microwave safe bowl for about 2 minutes.  Cut the butter into pieces so it will melt faster!  There will probably be small pieces of butter floating, but that is OK.

In another bowl combine your 2 cups warm water, yeast, and 1 tbsp sugar.  Let sit until it gets bubbly.  While it is sitting put your egg and 1 tbsp salt in your butter mixture to help it cool down a bit.  It was also recommended to add about 2 cups of flour to the mixture in order to cool it for the yeast.

Once cooled, add your yeast and mix.  At this point, I transferred it to a bigger bowl.  The recipe said the rolls turn out so much better if they are hand mixed, so that is what I did!

Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in your 7-8 more cups of flour.  Add about 2 cups at a time and stir in order to not add too much flour.  You may want to knead or incorporate the flour with your hands after a while.  When the dough is no longer too sticky (it will pull away from the sides) place plastic wrap over the top and let rise in a warm place.  I let it rise for about an hour.

Cover your working space with flour and place your dough on your surface.  Next cook your dough in half, and then in half again so you have 4 balls of dough.  Try to make them even, but don't stress about it!

Using 1 ball of dough at a time; roll the dough into a circle on your floured counter.  Once it is rolled out, spread some softened butter all over it.  I had some room temperature butter that I grabbed with my fingers and spread.  You will use about 2 tbsp of butter per circle.

Cut your dough with a pizza cutter into quarters.  Next cut your quarters into 3 pieces.  You should end up with 12 triangles.  Roll each triangle starting at the widest end and then tuck the smallest end or tail underneath.  Place each roll on a buttered cookie sheet.  You will make 3 rows with 8 rolls per row.  You will have 2 pans with 24 rolls per pan.  (Two balls of dough will fill each pan.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pans in a warm spot and let them rise again.  Let them rise until the rolls are touching each other and full in size.  Cook one pan at a time for 10-15 minutes (My rolls took about 20+ minutes).  Keep an eye on them and cook until golden brown.

When they come out of the oven still hot, run a stick of butter over the tops to give them a wonderful buttery glaze! 

Enjoy!!

CTR Pretzels

The boys and I made these a couple weeks ago after church.  They were fun to make with the kids!  They each picked a letter and then we all helped with the other one!

It was a fun afternoon cooking with the boys and they turned out really good!  We dipped them in nacho cheese and ate them warm too!

CTR Pretzels

(January Friend magazine)

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2-3 cups flour (I did half wheat flour)
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• melted butter
• coarse salt to sprinkle on top

Mix salt, flour yeast, warm water and sugar together until they form a ball.  Then continue to knead dough until smooth and elastic~I did this all in my mixer.  Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Pull off sections of the dough and let the kids roll into long ropes.  Form the ropes into the letters "CTR" or you can do your kids initials or whatever you like!

Put the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 450 degrees.  It might take a little longer to make them golden brown!

Brush pretzels with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt!  Enjoy like this or dip in nacho cheese!

Multigrain Bread

I have made a resolution this year to try and make homemade bread more often.  I am trying to make it once a week~so far I have done that!

I am also using more wheat in my breads, going for the healthier resolution too!  I have found a couple breads that have been really really good!  They have been moist, easy and really delicious!

I found this recipe on ourbestbites, but originally found in the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  Try it out and you won't be disappointed!

Multigrain Bread

(found on www.ourbestbites.com)

• 1 1/4 cup seven-grain hot cereal mix (I used a 6-grain mix from Alison's pantry that worked out great, but I am going to look for the 7-grain to try next time)
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water
• 3 cups all-purpose (not bread) flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
• 2 1/2 tsp yeast
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 cup oats (for topping)

Place 7-grain mix (or 6-grain) in your mixer and pour the boiling water on top.  Let this mixture stand for about 1 hour.  Stir occasionally.  The mixture should resemble thick porridge.  The 6-grain mix wasn't porridge, but really moist.

Now add honey, butter, and yeast and mix on low speed until combined.  Add both flours about 1/2 cup at a time.  Knead bread with your mixer until a cohesive mass starts to form, 1 1/2-2 minutes.  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 20 minutes.

Add salt now and then mix in your mixer until dough clears side of bowl, about 3-4 minutes.  (I didn't read this and ended up adding the salt with the flours and didn't do this step).  Once bread dough clears sides of bowl, knead for 5 more minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temp until doubled in size ~ 45-60 minutes. 

Grease two bread pans.  Put your dough on a floured surface and divide into 2 balls.  Shape your dough into loaf shape, repeat with second ball also.  Spray loaves lightly with water or vegetable oil spray.  Roll each loaf in the oats to coat evenly and then place into your loaf pans.  Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size (about 30-40 minutes).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Place pans on wire rack and let rest for 5 minutes and then remove loaves from pans and let cool!

Overnight Caramel Sticky Buns

I love the Our Best Bites recipe blog! It has great recipes and has been a fun place to look for new ideas! When they came out with a cookbook, I had to have it!

This is from their new cookbook (which is really great with ideas to do with leftover ingredients, and many tips) and it was yummy! My kids are already asking when I am making them again! Good thing rhodes rolls are on sale right now, I may have to go buy some more to have them on hand!

You make these the night before (which is sooo nice) and then they cook up pretty fast and super good!

Overnight Caramel Sticky Buns

(Our Best Bites cookbook

check out there site www.ourbestbites.com)

• 18 Rhodes frozen dinner rolls
• 1 (4.6 oz) box cook-and-serve pudding mix in either vanilla or butterscotch (I used butterscotch)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pecans, optional
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Spray a bundt pan with non-stick spray. Make sure to get your pan completely covered! Place the frozen rolls evenly around the pan.

Sprinkle the pudding mix, brown sugar and cinnamon all over your rolls. Make sure to evenly coat! Sprinkle with pecans if desired! Pour melted butter all over the rolls.

Cover with a clean dry towel and leave at room temperature over night!

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes and then invert on a plate or platter.

Make sure to be careful when inverting so as not to spill the caramel goodness all over your floor! Take that from experience, I did that once! Enjoy and your kids or husband or friends who are over will love you!!!

Frosted Cinnamon Rolls

I have reposted this recipe with a few details added! I have made these so much that the added things I do weren't in the recipe when I put this on the blog in November of 2008! So I have reposted with the new details!

This is the best recipe I have found and I just think all the time it takes is soooo worth it!

I got this recipe from a friend while living in Utah. Her mother-in-law made these for us and this has been the only cinnamon roll recipe I have used since!!

So Yummy!!

Frosted Cinnamon Rolls

3 cups buttermilk

2 tbsp yeast

2 tbsp warm water

3 cups flour

Mix together and let rise for 1 hour. This will take on a spongy consistency.

Add:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 eggs

1 tsp soda

2 tsp salt

5 cups flour

Mix together and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours

Split dough into 2 equal parts. Roll out dough and brush with melted butter. Once you think you have enough, you probably should add more! Add cinnamon and sugar. I sprinkle until it is pretty covered! I want to have the Cinnabon middles!! Roll up dough and slice the rolls.

Place rolls on cookie sheets (takes 2 cookie sheets for the recipe!). Let rise for another 1-1 1/2 hours. Bake 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. (my baking time has been a little longer than this! So plan on 20 minutes for your timing!)

Frosting

1 lb bag powdered sugar

2/3 stick butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup milk

Mix together and get to your desired consistency.

Spread on warm cinnamon rolls or wait til they cool to spread!!

Pita/Pizza/Pretzel/Bread Sticks

I was given this recipe from a email recipe exchange! I didn't get any pictures, but I made the Pizza dough and it turned out awesome!!!

The bread sticks were really great too (so I heard!)!!

This recipe is quick and versatile!

Thanks for sharing and so glad to have another yummy bread recipe!

_______________________

Pita/pizza/pretzel/ bread sticks

2 C. Warm Water
1 1/2 Tbsp. Yeast
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 tsp. salt
4-5 cups flour

Mix together until you have a sticky dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl. Let rise 1 hr. (this is the only rise that you have to do with this recipe)

Pitas: Roll small balls of dough into flat circles (about 8 inches), place in preheated oven (about 450) on a hot cookie sheet or baking stone. Bake for 3-5 min, they should puff up in the center, if they don't they work great to fold over.

Pizza: Roll out and top with your favorite pizza toppings, bake 20-25 min at 400 degrees or until bottom is crisp.

pretzels: Roll into long, thin ropes and fold over to make pretzel shape. Dip in water mixture that is about 1 cup water, 2 tsp baking soda , sprinkle with salt and bake at 400 for about 10 min. Brush with butter and add more coarse salt if desired.

Bread sticks: Roll into 2 rectangles. Place on cookie sheet, brush with butter, garlic, salt, Parmesan cheese, and anything else you want. Cut in to strips. Bake at 400 for 20 or so min. Brush generously with melted butter again after removing from oven. Serve warm. :)

Banana Bread

I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman Blog. I wanted to find another bread recipe for when I don't have cream cheese (which by far is a really really good recipe!)!!

This recipe was really good, I really wanted to drizzle chocolate sauce over the top of it, but I refrained. Or even add chocolate chips to it, but I again refrained!

Next time I might add some cinnamon to it, but overall it was easy and moist! I do think next time I wont put as much in the bundt cake pan and cook some in a smaller loaf pan. My bread was really tall! I liked that this was in a bundt pan. It makes it kind of fancier if you need something to take someone, maybe with chocolate drizzlied on top!!!

I had a friend tell me that they like to toast their banana bread in the toaster the next day and put butter on it! I tried this and it was super good and a new way to eat it for me!

Banana Bread

(The Pioneer Woman Blog)

• 2 sticks butter (I did 1 stick butter, 1 stick margarine)
• 1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 4 cups + 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan (I normally just spray the pan, but I did flour this time because I often times have difficulty getting these breads out in one piece).

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and beat.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until combined. Pour into bundt pan and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean (Mine took the whole time!).

Invert on a cooling rack and allow cake to cool before slicing and serving with softened butter.

Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Bread

I love Pumpkin and especially love the smell of it as it bakes! I found this recipe on the Pioneer Womans Tasty Kitchen blog and was really enticed by the streusel topping.

The streusel was super good! I wasn't sure if the pumpkin bread was pumpkiny enough the first day, but I really really liked it the second day! Maybe it just needed time to meld together!

Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Bread

(Tasty Kitchen blog)


•¾ cups Butter, Softened
•¾ cups Granulated Sugar
•¾ cups Dark Brown Sugar
•1 teaspoon Vanilla
•4 whole Eggs
•2-½ cups Pumpkin Puree
•3 cups All-purpose Flour
•3 teaspoons Baking Powder
•¾ teaspoons Baking Soda
•1 teaspoon Salt
•1-½ teaspoon Cinnamon
•¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
•¼ teaspoons Allspice
•¼ teaspoons Grated Nutmeg
•⅛ teaspoons Cardamom
•½ cups Buttermilk
•_____
•FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
•¼ cups Butter, Softened
•½ cups Brown Sugar
•¼ cups Oatmeal
•¼ cups All-purpose Flour
•1 teaspoon Cinnamon
•3 Tablespoons Ground Flax Seed
•¼ cups Chopped Pecans (optional)
Preparation Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350º F. Grease and flour the bottom of two 8″ loaf pans. To make the topping, mix together all the topping ingredients using a fork or pastry cutter until combined thoroughly.

In a large bowl or mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add vanilla and eggs and mix until incorporated. Stir in pumpkin puree.

In a separate bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cardamom. Whisk together until no lumps remain. Add half of the flour mix to the pumpkin mix, blending well. Beat in buttermilk. Add remaining flour mix and beat lightly until smooth.

Pour batter evenly into the two prepared 8″ pans. Cover each with half of the topping mix. Bake at 350º F for 70-80 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Slice and enjoy.

Homemade Cinnamon Bread

I made this cinnamon bread the other day and it was yummy!! It was simpler than cinnamon rolls and helped overcome a craving for the real thing! Next time I may try even making a little glaze to pour over the top of the bread!

If you have a favorite bread recipe, you could skip the bread making part and just see how the cinnamon and sugar part is done and still have super yummy bread (and great breakfast, snack etc. bread at home! It wont last long!)

Homemade Cinnamon Bread

(http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/)

• 1 cup milk
• 6 tblsp butter
• 2 1/2 tsp yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cups sugar (I might add just a little more next time!)
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• egg and milk mixed together for brushing
• softened butter

Melt 6 tbsp butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don't boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not too hot! (very important because you don't want to kill the yeast!) Sprinkle the yeast over the top, stir gently and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Combine the flour and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs with your paddle atachment until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until combined.

Switch your mixer attachment to the dough hook and mix for about 10 minutes on medium speed. If dough is overly sticky, add a little flour at a time and beat again for 5 minutes.

Place bread in a warm bowl that has been greased. Turn the dough around in it so it is all greased up. Cover with plastic wrap (and spray wrap or my mom always covered with a clean kitchen towel!) and let rise in a warm spot for 2 hours at least!

Turn dough onto a work surface and roll into a rectangle no wider than the loaf pan you are using! (I made 2 loaves with my dough, I think my pans are not as big!) Now do your cinnamon roll thing, smear melted butter on bread and then add cinnamon and sugar, lots of cinnamon and sugar!

Next roll the dough up and make sure to pinch your seams together! Make sure you grease your loaf pans really well. My bread leaked a little and it was hard to get the loaf out! Place dough seam side down into pan and then cover and let rise for 2 hours!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix a little egg with milk and when done rising, brush this mixture on the bread! This makes a great golden brown crust! Bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven (my bread took about 30 minutes, so keep an eye on it!) Remove from pan and allow bread to cool!

Eat this yummy bread warm out of the oven, as yummy toast or even make french toast with it!

Tips for Bread Making

Here are the tips that were shared for Bread making last night! Start with these and then move on to the Fabulous bread recipes below!!

_____________________________

1. Instant yeast can be mixed straight in with other ingredients.
2. Active dry yeast must be "proofed" by mixing with 1/4 of your liquid and 2 tbsp sugar for 15 minutes before making dough
3. If your wheat dough is heavy, replace some of your wheat flour with wheat gluten (1/4 - 1/2 cup)
4. If you like to eat hot bread, or don't eat it fast enough to need multiple loaves at once, save the dough for later. Place half of the dough into a greased bag (or greased bowl with a lid) when forming your loaves. The dough will keep in your refrigerator for a week or more. Just pull it out when you are ready, form a loaf, let rise to double and bake as usual.
5. Adding dough enhancers like lecithin, vital wheat gluten will improve bread texture.
6. For crustier bread, place a pan with 1/2 inch water in the bottom of your oven. Bake bread at 425 for the first 1/3 of cook time, then drop temp to that called for in the recipe for the remainder of the cook time!

Fabulous Brown Bread, Multi-Grain Bread and French Bread

We had a great activity last night and learned all about bread from Wendy! Here are a few recipes we tried that were fabulous!!!

_____________________________

Fabulous Brown Bread

• 1 tbsp yeast
• 3 cup hot water (really really warm)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or any type of oil)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup wheat gluten
• 3/4 cup non-fat dried milk
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 cups wheat flour
• 3-4 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer. Add just enough white flour to create dough (add your wheat first and then add the white by the cup full to see how much you need), but dough will remain sticky! Let rise until doubles.

Punch down dough and put into loaf pans (makes 2-3 loaves). Let rise one hour. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Multi-Grain Bread

• 1 tbsp yeast
• 3 cups hot water (not too hot!)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or any type oil)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup wheat gluten
• 1 cup 9 grain mix
• 3/4 cup non-fat dried milk
• 1 tbsp salt
• 4 cups wheat flour
• 3-4 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in mixer. Add just enough flour to create dough, but dough will remain sticky. Let rise until doubles.

Punch down dough and put in loaf pans. Let rise one hour. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes

Kitchen Aid Mixer French Bread

• 2 tbsp yeast
• 3 cup hot water (not too hot)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or any oil)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 7 1/2 cups white flour

Mix all ingredients together in mixer on high. Let rest 10 minutes. Turn on high for 10 seconds. Repeat rest and punch down a total of 5 times (50 minutes).

Divide the dough in half and roll out into a long loaf. Put on a well greased cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Slash top of bread(just use a knife and cut into the bread a little) several times and let rise 20 minutes.

Beat up 1 egg white and 1 tsp water. Brush over loaves and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes! Enjoy!!

Bread Sticks and Pizza Dough

I found this recipe the other day and had to try it! I have been searching for the perfect or better than what I have found recipe for pizza crust! I like the idea of making your own, but have yet to find the recipe that is good enough to make on your own!

I think I may have found that recipe! You can use this recipe for breadsticks or pizza dough. I got 2 pizzas from this recipe, and had contemplated making one pizza and one batch of breadsticks! I ended up with 2 pizzas so we could have pepperoni and hawaiian. This pizza was eaten and even the leftovers are gone! The crust didn't get mushy and was crispy and yummy. I found a trick that was shared with the recipe that totally helped!

So if you are looking for a good pizza dough, try this one and tell me what you think!!

Bread Sticks and Pizza Dough

from OurBestBites.com

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3-4 1/2 cups flour

In a large bowl (mixer bowl) combine water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes or until yeast is bubbly.

Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it barely sticks to your finger.

Spray a glass or metal bowl with cooking spray and place dough in the bowl. Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Remove from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface.

For Pizza dough: Divide the dough into 2 equal parts (this part also depends on the size of your pan). Roll the dough out to fit the pizza pan. Next here is the part I learned. She said on one of her pizza posts that in order to get that good pizza parlor taste and to not end up with soggy or not so good crust, drizzle some olive oil on the top of the dough and then sprinkle garlic salt on top.

Next add your sauce and toppings! I think this made a huge difference from OK crust to really good crust! I cooked mine at 425 for 15-20 minutes or so, I waited till my crust was good and browned!

For Bread Sticks: Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter.

Roll out each piece of dough into a snake and then drape over your forefinger and twist the dough. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Try to space them evenly, but its okay if they're close; pulling apart hot bread is one of life's greatest pleasures!

Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes. When there's about 15 minutes to go, preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Rub some butter on top of the breadsticks (just put a ziploc bag on your hand, grab some softened butter, and have at it!) and sprinkle with garlic bread seasoning or the powdery parmesan cheese in a can and garlic salt. Or you could sprinkle with cinnamon sugar!

Cinnamon Bread

We love cinnamon bread! It is good as toast, french toast, right out of the oven, and all the time! I found a super simple way to achieve this yummy bread! I recently bought mini cinnamon chips from Allison's Pantry and thought why not throw them in home made bread! It worked and worked really really good! My first batch I didn't add enough, this time looks pretty good! The only problem is I didn't measure! So experiment a little and enjoy some yummy simple cinnamon bread (but be careful out of the toaster not to burn your finger from the cinnamon)!

Super Simple Cinnamon Bread

• Favorite bread recipe (I like my mom's bread recipe which is posted)
• cinnamon chips

Knead all your bread ingredients together. Just as your bread is getting close to enough flour add your cinnamon chips and mix together. Take your bread out and knead a little bit more to make sure the chips are evenly distributed!

Bake your bread as directed and enjoy!

Soft Pretzels

I found this recipe at Sisters Cafe a while ago and just got around to trying it! They were super simple and the kids even helped roll the snakes and make the pretzels!

They were really yummy and wouldn't these be good to dip in cheese sauce!

Soft Pretzels

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 pkg yeast (or 1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups flour

Add sugar to warm water then sprinkle yeast on top. Let float for a minute then stir to dissolve the yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes as yeast activates and starts to foam.

Add salt and flour and knead for 5-10 minutes; adding more flour as needed to reduce stickiness.

Divide dough into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a long rope or "snake". Twist into pretzel shapes and place on baking sheet sprayed with non stick spray.

Make an egg wash ( 1 egg + 1 tb water, lightly beaten). Brush pretzels with egg wash then sprinkle liberally with Kosher salt. Bake 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned!

Twisted Cinnamon Bread Sticks

I found this recipe or idea on http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/. She has a great video with directions and step by step to make this twisted cinnamon donuts and also a cinnamon bread. She made hers whole wheat, which is sooo much healthier, but I did the easy way with just white flour. She used her favorite wheat bread recipe, I used the Sixty minute rolls recipe for quickness and ease!

These turned out soo good and were super easy. If you want more explained directions go to her site!

Twisted Cinnamon bread sticks

http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/

Old-Fashioned Brown Bread

I found this recipe in my October/Novermber 2009 issue of Taste of Home. I love bread and this one looked very good! I figure they knew how to make bread in the olden days, and this quote made me decide to try it!! I am glad I did, it was really good!

"This chewy, old fashioned bread boasts a slightly sweet flavor that will transport you back to olden days"

Old-Fashioned Brown Bread

• 
  
  2 1/3 cups boiling water


• 
  
  1 cup old-fashioned oats


• 
  
  1/2 cup butter, cubed


• 
  
  1/3 cup molasses


• 
  
  5 1/2-6 1/2 cups flour


• 
  
  5 tsp active dry yeast


• 
  
  2 tsp salt

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over oats. Stir in butter and molasses. Let stand until mixture cools to 120-130 degrees, stirring occasionally. (I just tested it until it felt like warm water I would proof my yeast in)

In another bowl, combine 3 1/2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Beat in oat mixture until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.(I did this in my mixer with the dough hook attachment) Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9 x 5 in bread loaf pans (I actually had 2 loaf and one mini loaf). Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool! Enjoy!!!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

I am a total chocolate lover and so when I saw this recipe I had to try it right away! Luckily I had some way way tooo ripe bananas on my counter and was able to whip this up pronto!

Very very yummy, especially if you like a little banana with your chocolate!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

from Sisters Cafe

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup mashed bananas (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

______________________________

Heat oven to 350. Spray bottom of 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. (I used 2 loaf pans for mine)

Beat sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl at medium speed until combined. Beat in bananas and vanilla at low speed. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; beat into banana mixture at low speed until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into pan or pans. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (my 2 loaf pans took about 45 minutes, so check your time early!) Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans and enjoy!