Cinnamon rolls with life changing buttercream frosting

So clearly its been a long time since I have blogged, but what can ya do? Ive had parties and speedo runs and events galore! Plus I went home for a week for the holidays.....amazing! It was during my trip home that I first made these delicious cinnamon rolls. While in Texas, I met up with someone who I have known for a very long time. While I have always considered him to be a very important person in my life, we hadn't talked in a while. When he found out that I baked alot, he mentioned that he had wanted to learn to make cinnamon rolls from scratch.....and I was happy to oblige! While catching up etc, he asked me how I got in to baking and why I enjoyed it and it took me a while to figure out the honest answer. For the most part, baking has always been an outlet for my stress. Whenever there is something going on in my life or in my head, when I bake, all of that melts (pun intended!!) away. Should I move or should I stay, should I say this or not, how do I feel about this, that, or the other? All of the stressful thoughts in my head kinda disappear while I'm watching my cream whip or my sugar turn into caramel. So that's part of it. But I think the part that I really enjoy the most is giving my sugary treat to someone and seeing the look on their face after they take a bite or seeing how excited someone can get when its time to eat (like my friend who was like a little kid on Christmas day when these guys came out of the oven!!!). It makes me happy to make other people happy and baking allows me the opportunity to give the people in my life something that can bring a smile to their face or erase a bit of a bad day.

So keeping both of those things in mind, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, when I was in a bad mood, I decided to re-create these rolls in my own kitchen....its super tricky to bake in an unfamiliar environment so doing it on my own turf was sooo much easier! I also strayed a bit from Paula Dean's recipe......I had some butter cream frosting in my freezer that was left over from a bridal shower that i had done some baking for.....so I put that on the cinnamon rolls instead of using the glaze that Paula suggested.....and it was the best decision of all time!! My roommates threatened anarchy if I didn't take the rolls to work to get them out of the house (new years resolutions and all) so I loaded up a tupperware and took them to work with me where they proceeded to sit in my office and tempt me all day long. Luckily, I have a ton of coworkers who are happy to help get rid of treats!! So here is the recipe and steps....Enjoy!

Ingredients

Dough: 1/4 ounce package yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup scalded milk....I used warm milk and it worked just fine!

1/3 cup butter or shortening

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 1/2 - 4 cups flour....WTF does that mean Paula? I explain below!

Filling: 1/2 cup melted butter, plus more for the pan

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins, walnuts, or pecans (optional).....I detest raisins but I did use chopped walnuts!

Glaze: 4 tablespoons butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-6 tablespoons of hot water

Directions
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs. Add two cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle.

**This recipe says 3 1/2 to 4 cups of flour so how do you know how much is enough? I started by adding a full 3 1/2 cups and then added more flour one tablespoon at a time. You will know that you need more flour because as you are mixing, the dough will appear to be stringy and sticky....so keep adding until it doesn't look stringy anymore. I added nearly 4 cups to mine and the dough appeared to be smooth....see pictures below.

Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl and let rise until doubled, usually 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Size of dough before rising:

Size of dough once it had risen and doubled in size:

When doubled, punch down dough. Roll out on flour surface into a 15x9 inch rectangle.

Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts, pecans, or raisins if desired.

Look at all the sugary, buttery goodness!!!!

Beginning at 15 inch side role up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Coat bottom of baking pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar.

**I coated the pan with butter and sugar in Texas the first time I made these and it kinda burned, so I didn't do this step this time around and they were perfect. I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray and I had no issues!

Cut into 12-15 slices. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. They will get slightly squished and out of the roll shape during the cutting, but it's easy to roll them back up. And once they bake, you wont notice the shape anyway!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until nicely browned.

So as I said above, I had some left over butter cream frosting that I used for my batch.

Here are the directions for Paula's glaze that got with this recipe:

Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.

Since the recipe for the frosting that i used is from a book, I'm not going to post it online. I will tell you though that it is the greatest baking cookbook of all time!!! I used the Crispy Magic Frosting recipe from Joanne Chang's "Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery and Cafe." I recommend this book to anyone who loves to bake!! And you can find the recipe for the icing there as well!!!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Flour/Joanne-Chang/e/9780811869447/?itm=1&USRI=flour%3a

OK, done with the plug! Here is how my rolls turned out...once topped with icing and more walnuts!!!

Gooey and delicious!

http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/view2/cinnamon_rolls/

I'm always looking for a good recipe to try, so if you have one, or a suggestion, send it my way!

Pumpkin brownies with cream cheese icing

Somehow or another, I seem to find myself on the email list for all sorts of newsletters. Most of them relate to food. So since the fall season is upon us, so many of my informative e-newsletters are dedicated to fall-centric dishes. With this in mind, I set out to find a delish fall dessert......and thank you Paula Deen for making my wildest fall dessert dreams come true. You've got to love a lady who always advocates for more butter! So I found her recipe for pumpkin bars and I knew she wouldn't lead me astray, so I whipped 'em up......and they are like crack. Paula calls them "bars" though and I think they are more like iced brownies, but whatever. The bar is sweet but not super sweet, so the addition of the cream cheese icing gives it that extra kick of sugar....and who doesn't love cream cheese frosting!

So here we go:

Ingredients:

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy.

The recipe was a little cryptic when it said to combine the first few ingredients until light and fluffy. WTF does that mean? I just threw the mixer on medium for a few minutes while I was doing other things, and low and behold, when I came back to check, the batter had lightened in color a bit and I took that to mean it was fluffy. See below.......

Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

It ends up looking golden and lovely!!! Just like fall.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

I was too impatient to wait until the bars had cooled completely, so my icing was a little runny. But it didn't matter.....these things are AMAZING!!! Enjoy

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_32312_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

I know I know I know........Caramel Brownies

I know. Its been a very long time since I have posted something delicious on the blog. I have gotten snide comments and some hate-mail about it, but life gets in the way sometimes. I have moved apartments, been to Europe, gotten in to grad school and all sorts of other stuff. So while you may think Im just being lazy, I can assure you that thats not the case. I have made several things recently that I wanted to share.....So here goes......

Because of all of the changes and hectic-ness that has gone down in the past month or so, my baking has slipped to the sidelines. But the demand by others to make yummy things combined with my desire to bake has made for some rushed confections due to lack of time. So here is the truth: Sometimes the Baketress uses boxed mixes.....GASP......I know I know.....But sometimes, Betty Crocker does a damn good job with mixes so what can ya do? One day after being super busy in the afternoon, I realized that I had nothing to bring to a dinner party that my BFF was throwing. So on my way home from running errands, I picked up a boxed brownie mix and decided that I could just jazz it up....and jazz it up I did!!!

I made the brownie mix according to the box recipe but added some chocolate chips and walnuts
to the batter, then baked it up according to the directions. While it was baking, I decided to make a caramel sauce to go on top. I used the caramel recipe from the "My Masterpiece" post and it was perfect to go on top of the brownies.....which I then topped with more walnuts. Because I put the caramel on pretty much as soon as the brownies came out of the oven, it sealed in the gooey-ness of the brownies, which happens to be my favorite part!!!

The caramel pretty much makes itself. If you leave it alone and just follow the heating directions (see the other post for the recipe), it just bubbles and boils and then all of a sudden, turns from white to a beautiful amber/gold color....lovely. Here are some photos of that:

All in all, a boxed mix combined with some extras makes for a pretty delicious dessert....and a great breakfast for that matter......

Everything but the kitchen sink Zucchini bread

So there are several things going on in my life right now that lead me to make this weeks project: Zucchini bread.

First of all, I have a garden. Even though I live in the big city of Boston where yards are few and far between, I have the next best thing: a community garden. My roommate and I have an 8x10 (approximately) little chunk of outdoor heaven that is all our own, and as it turns out, we have green thumbs! Zucchini has definitely been the word of the week around our house because we keep getting monster-sized zucchini from the garden and are growing them faster than we can eat them.

Second of all, I'm moving. Ive lived in my apartment for just over three years now (holy crap, have I really lived in Boston for 3 years??), and next week, I will be saying my farewells to the apartment that Ive called home for a while. I'm certainly moving on to a great spot with some great roomies and its just down the street from where I live now, but as everyone who has ever moved knows, you collect alot of crap when you've lived somewhere for a long period of time. This includes food and all cooking/baking supplies.

Together, these two factors inspired me to make this "everything but the kitchen sink zucchini bread!!" The recipe gave me alot of leeway in the things I could add....pecans left over from last week's wedding cookies: add 'em. Walnuts remaining from some random project in the past: throw 'em in. Chocolate chips from cookies past: as if I needed a reason to add chocolate. Even though this "bread" has a solid amount of veggies and good fats (from the nuts), it aint good for you. The recipe said one cup of vegetable oil or olive oil....so I added some of both. I had about 3/4 of a cup of veggie oil left and since I'm trying to use up everything in the kitchen, I started with that and topped it off to 1 cup with olive oil. Just like carrot cake, you cant even taste the zucchini in this....which is good. The bread alone isn't super sweet, so if you were to want something a little more savory, don't add the chocolate and you'll be all set. I, of course, like all things sweet, so the addition of chocolate was a good choice for me. You could certainly throw in some dried berries or maybe some banana chunks if you want to go the healthier route. The bread itself is super moist and dense so it certainly is filling and delicious. All in all, a good recipe and a good outlet to clear out the cabinets plus it makes 2 loafs so its easy to keep some for yourself and still have some leftover to share!! Enjoy!!


PS- For those of you who care, I only have 2 loaf pans: one silicone and one glass. I was a little worried that one pan would cook faster than the other or one would burn on the edges before it was done in the middle, but to my surprise, the two pans cooked equally well, leaving me with two perfect loafs!

Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen blog
Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

Ingredients

3 eggs1 cup olive or vegetable oil1
3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (See those pictures of the cakes inside their non-stick pans? Yup, they’re pretty much hanging out in there for the time being.) Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.
Stir this into the egg mixture.

Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

Wedding yumminess

So my sister just got engaged (woo) and I decided that I needed to make something wedding-y. The attempt at a wedding cake of sorts is pending (especially since my sister told me that she didn't think I could do it....I never liked her!) but for now, the first thing I thought of was Mexican Wedding Cookies!! I haven't had these cookies in forever, so I have no clue why they popped into my head, but after making them last night, I remembered how amazing they are. If you have never had them (also quite similar to Russian Tea cookies which are traditionally eaten around Christmas time....or so I'm told) you really should give them a try. They are not your typical chewy cookie. They are flaky (not dry at all) and buttery and covered in powdered sugar. You cut up the pecans really small, so they are present in every single bite!! Plus, they are pretty much the easiest thing Ive ever made....which makes the co-workers think I'm even more of a culinary genius than I actually am....but I wouldn't dream of telling them that they are giving me more credit than I deserve!! Even better....I got this recipe from Paula Dean (via the Food Network website) who is pretty much my idol!! Paula told me to roll the cookie dough into crescent shapes before baking, but I didn't go that route. Starting the cookies at 9 pm is ill-advised since they take 40 minutes to bake so I decided that I didn't really need crescents and round cookies would do. Sorry Paula....but they are still yummy!!So here is the recipe below....make and enjoy!!!!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a crescent. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire racks.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mexican-wedding-cookies-recipe2/index.html

Chocolate Chip Cookie Battle: Contestant #1

So a couple of posts ago, I reached out to folks for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and got some good suggestions. I grew up with the recipe on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag, and while it has served me well for 20+ years, I thought it was time to test the other chocolate chip waters. Enter Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe as contestant #1 in the battle for the title of "The Baketress' Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie."

To that end, here are my thoughts on Martha's recipe......AWESOME!! These cookies are pretty amazing....sorry Toll House. The batter is light and fluffy and delicious. I'm a big fan of slightly undercooked cookies, making them kinda gooey and soft in the middle, and these do not disappoint. The one major difference between these cookies and the original Toll House is this:

Toll House uses 3/4 cup of granulated sugar and 3/4 cup of brown sugar
Martha uses 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup or brown sugar

Who knew that such a slight change could make such a difference. Another difference is that Martha's recipe says to beat the butter mixture for about a minute before adding the eggs. This makes the batter light and fluffy and it still remains moist enough to take on the dry ingredients without needing extra moisture. It also helps get rid of that grainy sugar feeling that the Toll House dough usually has.....the texture of the dough is important because I eat more raw dough than I do actual baked cookies. By the way...whoever started that vicious rumor that you can get salmonella from raw cookie dough is a liar. Ive been eating it for over 20 years (in large quantities mind you) and Ive never gotten sick....NEVER!!

So without further ado, here is the recipe for some excellent cookies. I give it a 9!!! Try them yourself and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon(s) baking soda
1 cup(s) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup(s) granulated sugar
1 cup(s) packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon(s) salt
2 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cup(s) (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies

My masterpiece!!

After last weeks disappointing showing, I figured I needed to post about an outstanding success. Granted I made this before I started the blog, but quite frankly, I don't care.

A good friend graduated from the School of Education at Harvard recently and when you drop that kind of cash money on school, you deserve a damn good graduation party when you finish. Enter my BFF Caroline who is the greatest hostess and party planner/thrower of all time.

With her school themed party planned, I set out to make a delish confection for the festivities. I tend to google recipes all the time at work (don't tell the boss man) and I stumbled upon this little gem. It is a dark chocolate cake with a salted caramel filling and a chocolate ganache frosting. And it is a delight!! Ive never made my own caramel before this, so I was a little nervous that I was going to end up with 3rd degree burns or something, but it turned out to be really easy...and it pretty much makes itself. All you have to do is watch it and all of a sudden it turns to this beautiful amber color then you add some cream and boom.....its caramel!!

I made the caramel and the ganache ahead of time and other than the ganache needing to be heated a little bit before I was able to use it, it kept perfectly! Here are some artistic photos of my cake taken by BFF Caroline. I believe this creation was how I earned my newest nickname....THE BAKETRESS.

Recipe follows.

Ingredients

CARAMEL FILLING
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Large pinch of fine fleur de sel* plus additional for assembly

*A type of sea salt; available at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores

** I used regular salt and it turned out just fine!!!

GANACHE FILLING AND FROSTING
1 1/2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 cups heavy whipping cream

CAKE
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee
1 1/4 cups almonds, toasted, coarsely chopped

Preparation

CARAMEL FILLING
Stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup in deep medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium; cover pan and cook 4 minutes. Uncover; increase heat to high. Boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cream (mixture will bubble). Whisk in butter, then crème fraîche, lemon juice, and pinch of fleur de sel. Cool completely. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

GANACHE FILLING AND FROSTING
Place chocolate in large bowl. Bring cream to simmer in medium saucepan. Pour cream over chocolate; let soften 1 minute. Whisk until chocolate is smooth. Cool, then cover and chill overnight. DO AHEAD Ganache can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.

CAKE
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottom of each with parchment paper; butter paper and dust pan with flour.
Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into large bowl. Add milk, eggs, and melted butter. Using electric mixer, beat at low speed until blended. Increase speed and beat 2 minutes. Stir 1 cup hot water and espresso powder in small bowl to dissolve. Add to batter; beat until blended (batter will be thin). Divide batter between pans (about 3 cups each).
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 32 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 10 minutes. Cut around cakes; turn out onto racks. Peel off parchment and cool completely.
Using long serrated knife, cut each cake horizontally in half. Place 1 layer on platter; spread with 1/2 cup room-temperature ganache. Spoon 3/4 cup ganache into pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch plain round tip. Pipe ring of ganache around edge of layer. Spread 1/4 cup room-temperature caramel filling evenly inside ring. Sprinkle caramel with large pinch of fleur de sel, then 1 tablespoon almonds. Top with second cake layer, ganache, ganache ring, caramel filling, fleur de sel, and almonds. Repeat with third cake layer. Top with fourth cake layer, cut side down. Spread remaining ganache over top and sides of cake. Press remaining almonds onto sides. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and chill. Let cake stand at room temperature 1 hour.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/09/chocolate_cake_with_fleur_de_sel_caramel_filling#ixzz0v5R0OjOF