November 25, 2011: Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

When you need a little something to fuel your Black Friday shopping, try making these homemade cinnamon rolls the night before (or even several days earlier and store them in the freezer until ready to thaw).

My recipe for cinnamon rolls simply uses a basic sweet roll recipe that is spread with lots of butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Cinnamon Rolls

Yeast dough:

½ cup milk

¼ cup sugar

2 t. salt

3 T. butter

3 packages yeast (6 ¾ teaspoons)

1 ½ cups warm water

5 – 6 cups flour

Place milk, sugar, salt and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl of a stand mixer. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 ½ cups flour. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Mix on Speed 2 for about one minute. Add flour, half cup at a time, and continue to mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on Speed 2 about two minutes longer until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Filling:

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup sugar

¼ cup cinnamon

Mix together sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough out on floured surface to large rectangle, about 12 x 24 inches. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Starting with long side, roll up into a cylinder shape. With a very sharp knife, cut pieces one inch thick. Place on one or two buttered baking sheets with rims. Cover and let rise until doubled, about a half hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake cinnamon rolls for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Allow rolls to cool. If you are freezing the rolls, place cooled, unfrosted rolls in airtight containers and store in freezer.

To frost cinnamon rolls, stir together 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and about 3 tablespoons milk or water. Adjust as necessary to make a medium thin frosting that easily drips from a spoon. Drizzle over top of warm rolls.

Makes about 24 rolls.

October 12, 2011: French Apple Pie Recipe

What’s National Apple Month without a recipe for that favorite American staple, apple pie? Although my husband isn’t big on desserts or sweets of any kind, he absolutely adores apple pie. This is one time he didn’t mind me cooking for my blog – he couldn’t wait until I got to apple pie!

Apple pie is really one of the simplest desserts you can make. There are very few ways you can go wrong, other than under-baking or perhaps not using enough flour so that the filling is too runny. If you don't care for the streusel topping in this recipe, simply substitute with a top crust; brush it with a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar before baking.

I did invest in an apple peeler/corer machine a few years ago and it certainly makes apple pie preparation much, much easier. If you plan on baking a lot with apples, I highly recommend these simple devices. In addition, baking weights and pie crust protector rings are very handy gadgets for the pie baker.

French Apple Pie

Topping:

4 ounces (1/2 stick) butter

½ cup flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

½ t. cinnamon

Filling:

3 cups peeled, sliced baking apples, such as Granny Smith (about 4-5 medium)

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup flour

½ t. cinnamon

½ t. nutmeg

2 T. butter

Pastry for one 9” pie crust (find my pie crust recipe here)

Combine all topping ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Mix with a fork until crumbly.

For filling, mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter in a large bowl. Add apple slices and toss to combine. Place in pie shell (if you want it to look professional, carefully place overlapping slices in concentric circles). Cut butter into small pieces and distribute evenly over top of apples. Sprinkle topping over pie filling.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes, or until apples are tender (check with tip of a knife in center of pie).

Tip: Your apple pie filling may overflow; place a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil on the bottom rack of your oven before baking to catch drips.

September 16, 2011: Peach Butter Recipe

Recently my friend Kathy scored several boxes of peaches straight from Colorado. These were freshly picked, perfectly ripe, huge, beautiful and juicy peaches that you could never find at the grocery store. Of course I had to get some but I’m not a big fresh fruit eater. I made a peach cake, then decided to can the rest of them using a new recipe for peach butter.

I’ve shared with you the exact measurements I used but if you have more or less peaches, you can adjust the recipe accordingly.

Peach Butter

7 extra large peaches

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Pinch of salt

1 ½ t. pumpkin pie spice

Peel, pit and slice the peaches. Place them in a large saucepan and heat over medium low. Cook until the peaches are softened (this could take more than half an hour, depending on how ripe the peaches are). Let cool slightly and press through a sieve.

Place the peach juice (you should have 4 cups of it) back in the saucepan. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat until reduced to a very thick paste. To determine if the butter is ready, spoon a small amount on a plate. If no liquid separates from the butter, it is ready to put into jars. Note: cooking down the peach juice could take longer than two hours.

When peach butter is ready, ladle into sterilized jars to within ¼ inch of top. Wipe off rims. Top jars with sterilized seals and rings. Store in refrigerator. The peach butter will keep for several months as long as it stays cold.

OR if you have a lot of peach butter, you might want to process it in a hot water bath. If so, use new seals when closing the jars. Place them in a large pot of gently boiling water; make sure the lids are covered by an inch of water. Boil jars for 10 minutes (below 1,000 feet above sea level) to 25 minutes (above 6,000 feet over sea level).

Makes 4 half pint jars.