Sunday, September 2, 2007

Cinnamon Rolls Not From A Tube

See? This is why I knew I shouldn't make real cinnamon rolls.

I always do cinnamon rolls from the tube.

I know!! what a cheater!!!

But it's fast and easy on a Sunday morning when we're hurrying to get to church, but it's also a treat we only get on Sundays.

Except, today, I didn't have any of the tubey ones. And, in addition to that, we didn't have to hurry. We only have one service, and it's the late one. And then I found a recipe for *quicker* cinnamon rolls. Non-yeast ones. And I figured - why not?

So what's the problem? The kids really liked them. Proclaimed them the best evah. But I don't have time to do this every Sunday! I knew I shouldn't have started!

So, anyway, shhhh, don't tell Smonky I'm making these from scratch. It'll ruin my box/mix/tube/cheater reputation.



I started with this recipe for Jiffy Cinnamon Rolls ... and only made a few slugmomodifications today. Besides doubling it. This is it, as modified and doubled.

Quicker Cinnamon Rolls

INGREDIENTS

* 4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 2 cups water

* 1/2 cup butter, softened (yes, more!)
* 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

* 1.5 cup confectioners' sugar
* 4 oz cream cheese
* 3 T. softened butter
* 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 1 tsp milk or water

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in 1/2 cup butter or margarine until crumbly. Make a well in center, and pour in water. Stir to form a soft dough, adding a bit more water if needed. Actually, this was a bit too soft and sticky, and I added another 1/2 cup of flour. I recommend adding the water slowly.

2. Turn dough out on lightly floured surface. Knead 8 to 10 times. Roll into rectangle about 1/3 inch thick and 18 inches long. Spread the cinnamon mixture over dough rectangle. Roll up as for jelly roll. Mark first, then cut into 24 slices (using that magic dental floss trick is great). Place cut side down on parchment paper on a jellyroll pan.

3. Bake in 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

4. to make icing, blend together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk or water until light and fluffy. Frost cinnamon rolls while warm

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Lemon-Cranberry Muffins



Breakfast Today is brought to you by the Letter Mmmmm

Super_bugs reminded me that it's almost fresh cranberry season.

There's a cranberry bog in Southern Michigan that I believe, if i were to get my act together, I could visit, with the children, at harvest time. I may try that this year.

In any case, with cranberries on my mind and dried cranberries in my cupboard, I decided to make these for breakfast:

Lemon-Cranberry Muffins

I started with this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Muffins, and then slugmomodified it as follows:

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup plain fat free yogurt
* scant 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice ~ used juice from 1 lemon
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1-1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
* scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (bottled, plus what I scraped off the real lemon before I got tired of the effort)
* 1 cup dried cranberries
* 1/2 cup water


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin tins, or line with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the yogurt, oil, lemon juice, eggs, lemon extract, dried cranberries, and lemon zest. Use an immersion blender to chop up cranberries into yogurt mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup water.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just blended. Gently stir in the frozen raspberries. Spoon batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups.

4. Bake for 17 to 22 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool muffins in the tin on a wire rack.