Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown and the Food Network's "Good Eats" show. I love Alton's quirky skits and how he uses cheap, everyday props to explain the chemistry behind the cooking/baking process. The episode on Overnight Cinnamon Rolls was one of my favorites, but I have to be honest I was too intimated by the whole yeast/proofing/rising thing to give them a try. Until this past weekend that is.

Ta Da. Behold my Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. Not too shabby, Eh?

The process WAS time consuming, but not too difficult.

First mix the eggs, sugar, butter, and buttermilk .


Add half the flour along with the yeast and salt.


Mix the dough until still soft, but not sticky.


Turn the dough out of the mixer and kneed by hand for 30 seconds. Place in a bowl for the first rising. I had a moment of panic at this stage. I was already cooking something in the oven and the microwave, so I couldn't put the dough in there to rise. It was a rainy, humid day and the AC had the house downright cold.

Where to put the dough?

I was stumped.

I don't bake bread often (meaning never) so I don't have any tricks to fall back on. In my panic I put the bowl inside the dryer. I sorry, sorry, sorry, but it was the only warm place in the house! Is that unsanitary? Is that totally gross? I had the bowl tightly covered and the dryer is brand new (about a month old), but I still whisper to myself, "How could you DO THAT?"

Once I was finished with the microwave, I transferred the (still tightly covered) bowl from the dryer to microwave for the rest of the rising cycle. I'm so embarrassed.

Next I rolled out the dough and sprinkled it with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Then rolled the dough into a tube and sliced it into twelve parts.

Into the buttered pan the rolls went and then into the refrigerator for an overnight stay.

The next morning, the rolls along with a pan of boiling water went into the cold oven for 30 more minutes of proofing.

And then the baking. Here they are just out of the oven. Warm and amazingly fragrant.


And the final product.

In the final analysis AB's Overnight Cinnamon Rolls were good but not great. I found them a little bready and they didn't have enough ooey, gooey, sticky filling for my taste. I read almost all of the 225+ reviews this recipe received on the Food Network page and found a few reasons why my cinnamon rolls weren't "to-die-for" [#1 The first rising needs to be longer than 2 1/2 hours (some suggest up to 8 hours). #2 Roll the dough really thin (too thick and the roll will taste bready), #3 more filling WITH pecans].

Next, and there will be a next time, time they will taste awesome.

I Heart Faces - Week 29 - Silly Faces

Week 29 – “Crazy, Funny, Silly Faces” Photo Challenge Fun!

I recently found the web site, I Heart Faces, that sponsors a weekly “fun” photo challenge. Here is my entry for "Silly, Funny Faces".

Amanda, Ace Fighter Pilot in Training...

And in the "pet" category, a fleeting visitor to my garden.

Raspberry Filled Almond Shortbread Cookies

I've made these Raspberry Shortbread Cookies several times and I'm always amazed by their tender texture and delicate balance of almond, butter and berry flavors. Delicious.

The only thing I don't like about these cookies is how much they spread! The edges thin during baking and turn brown and crisp. From an visual point of view the brown edges aren't very appealing, so I trim them away using a knife or cookie cutter. But don't throw the crispy scraps away! They make a great topping for ice cream.



Any suggestions on how to stop these cookies from spreading? I've tried re-chilling the raw cookie dough balls after filling them with jam but that didn't help.

I've baked them on aluminum pans, baking stones, on parchment paper and silpat, but they spread everytime.

HELP!

But regardless of the spreading phenomenon, they taste darn good.

Pralines

Pralines are one of my favorite sweets (right up there with brownies). But you know what? They are nearly impossible to get just "right". A perfect praline is creamy and smooth and melts in your mouth like butter. Its texture is firm but not brittle, and feels like silk on your lips.

Glance at any praline recipe and you will see a simple list of sugar, butter, liquid, and of course pecans. But a praline's complexity lies not with the ingredients but with the cooking process, or the cooking temperature to be exact. Too hot and the pralines will be brittle, not hot enough and they will be grainy. A candy thermometer is supposed to take all the guess work out of the process, but don't believe it. Thermometers are like a broken crutch: use it at your peril.

Here is my latest batch of pralines in the final stage of cooking. The thermometer read "soft ball" stage, which according to various source can range between 234 and 238 degrees F.


When the correct temperature is reached, the pralines are removed from the heat and whipped until the syrups starts to stiffen and turn cloudy. After just a few stirs, I noticed a slight graininess developing in the mixture.


But as usual, I was in a rush so I ignored my misgivings and started spooning the pralines onto the pan.


I let my babies cool for just a minute and then popped one into my mouth (there is nothing like the feel of half molten sugar burning the roof of you mouth). I chomped the praline into bits and allowed it to dissolve on my tongue. Sh#@! I could feel the grains of sugar in my mouth. The pralines had not reached the correct temperature.

I was torn. What should I do?

Where they good enough to serve to my guest?

No!

A big fat double NO.

I'll feed you DRY cake any day, but I will not stoop to serving grainy pralines.

So back in the pot they went for another try.

Crush them up and add just a little bit more milk. Cook them to the correct temperature (I went to 242 degrees this time) and pretend that the flop never happened.


So what was the problem?

Why were my pralines grainy?

I always test my thermometer's accuracy before I use it, so that wasn't the problem. Was it the humidity? The position of the moon? The value of the stock market?

I don't know why pralines are sometimes "off", but to my frustration it happens quite often.

Maybe one day (when I have more time for experimenting), I'll discover the secret to a foolproof praline.

Until then I'm gonna start using two thermometers.


Just a side note: to test the accuracy of your thermometer, place it in a pot of plain boiling water. At sea level it should read 212 degrees F. If it registers above or below that number, make the necessary adjustments when cooking the pralines. And remember at higher altitudes to subtract 1 degree for every 500 feet above sea level.

Open Wide - Incoming Brownie

I have tried hundreds of brownie recipes with tempting names like Outrageous Brownies, Ultimate Brownies, Better-Than-Sex Brownies, and honestly my favorite (don’t tar and feather me) is Betty Crocker’s Triple Chuck Supreme Brownie Mix. Yep, just rip open the box, stir in some water, oil and eggs, and bake for 40 minutes. That's it.

Look at those hunks of chocolate...

That moist, cakey texture...

Thank you, Betty. I'm in brownie heaven.

Mallows

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth.
She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

In Nicole's words, "I'm a huge fan of Gale Gand, I have tried a lot of her recipes and they are such a huge success. For July's challenge though I wanted to try something different and I wanted to do Gand’s version on my favorite store bought cookies which are the Peppridge Farm Milano Cookies and the Mallows (Chocolate covered Cookies). I've been wanting to try this recipe but just haven't have the chance to do so or to be honest haven’t have the courage to tackle homemade marshmallow yet, until now."

So Nicole threw down the gauntlet and challenged all the Daring Bakers to make marshmallows. Hummm. I'm not a big marshmallow fan, but what the hay. Mallows it would be.

The cookie part of the mallow was a snap. Other Daring Bakers had cautioned that the recipe made a ton of cookies, so I cut the recipe down to a third.


Next came the marshmallows. Yikes, what a sticky mess! I had marshmallow cream in my hair, under my nails, stuck to my elbow, nose and cheek. Good thing no one was around to take pictures of me.



As with the cookies, other Daring Bakers had forewarned the procrastinators about marshmallow mixing pitfalls, so I beat the marshmallow mix like forever. Here it is after 15 minutes.


In the end I mixed it too long (you think) because the marshmallows firmed up almost immediately and I had a hard time piping. I tried a variety of piped shapes including the traditional, spirals, and bunnies (got the idea from Martha Stewart).


Here is one of the marshmallow bunnies going into the chocolate bath. Swim little fella, swim.


Some Daring Bakers also reported that the chocolate thinned with oil took too long to set, so they suggested using solid shortening instead. I used the shortening and my chocolate set very quickly, but it got all spotty. I don't know if the problem was my chocolate (Nestle) or my technique (melting in a microwave). I guess my chocolate wasn't tempered properly, but the taste testers didn't seem to mind.

So here are the finished Mallows. The traditional:


The Mallow Bunny (my favorite):



The Spiral: With the spiral I was trying for a lollipop look (a la Bakerella), but they just didn't look right. When I covered them in chocolate they resembled mounds of dog poo on a stick! I didn't want to gross anyone out, so I just sprinkled the spirals with colored sugar instead. ( I have pictures of the "poo" if you want to see...)



The Peek-A-Boo Mallow. At this point I was running out of chocolate so I just spooned a blob of chocolate on the top instead of dipping the entire cookie.



So that is it for the July 2009 Daring Baker Challenge. I can't wait to see what we get to bake in August.

Lemon-Lime Curd Cake with Blueberries

I stumbled across the delicious looking cake on Vita Arina’s flickr page and started to drool. Now I’m not a big fan of lemon curd (don’t you just hate that name?), but this cake looked scrumptious enough to tempt even my anti-lemon heart.

I started the egg whites beating, mixed up the batter, and then folded the peaked eggs whites into the batter.

Here are the cakes just out of the oven. I over baked them of course (I over bake everything), but they weren’t too, too dry. The cakes had a faint lime flavor and the spongy, airy texture of angel food.


Here is the lime curd in the staging processes. My curd came out much more yellow than Vita Arina’s. It must be the Egg Land’s Best eggs that I used. Notice how bright, almost neon, the yolks are? No Photoshopping, I promise.


The finished curd. Look at the little bits of lime rind suspended in the curd. It makes it looks so old-fashioned and home made.


Next it was time to prepare the whipping cream frosting. The recipe called for gelatin to “stabilize” the heavy whipping cream. I had never done this before, but you know what--It really worked! I took the final pictures of the cake outside in 95 degree heat and 100% humidity, and the cream frosting did not droop or melt one bit. Thanks, Vita. Stabilized whipping cream frosting is a amazing.

Here is the gelatin softening, and then melted. Vita said to heat gelatin over a low fire to liquify it, but I just zapped the bowl in the microwave for 15 seconds at 30% power. Worked fine.




Be careful when you pour the gelatin into the cream. Do it slowly and consistently and keep the beaters going. Some of my gelatin clumped and I had little semi-solid balls of gelatin in the frosting. Nasty.

Next came the assembly. Cake-Curd-Blueberries-Cake-Curd-bulueberries-Cake.



One third of the curd goes between each layer, and the final third goes into the frosting. The curd really added a nice flavor to the whipping cream. Not too citrusy or sweet. Just perfect.


So here is the final cake. Not as nice as Vita Arina’s, but not too bad for a novice like me.

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberrylicious!

Thank you Alton Brown for this quick and delicious Blueberry Buckle (Crumb Cake) recipe. I’ve never had better. It was moist and tender and dripping with juicy berries.


The batter only took a few minutes to mix and then in went the plump blueberries. I folded as gently as I could, but the batter was stiff and a few of the berries broke apart. I may be making excuses, but I like the way the berry juice stained the batter. It adds a dramatic touch. Next time I’ll break even more berries, so there.


The buckle just out of the oven. Alton said to bake in a glass pan, but I didn’t have one so I used my Pampered Chef 9x9 brownie pan. It baked up just fine. The recipe calls for powdered ginger in the batter and nutmeg in the crumb topping. Honestly I couldn't detect any hint of ginger in the cake, but I could smell the nutmeg in the topping. Next time I'll cut back on the nutmeg, not because it wasn't good, but I just associate nutmeg with apple pie and not blueberry.


Yummm, or like I said earlier: Blueberrylicious!

What's Blooming? - July 2009

It is mid-summer here so there are plenty of things are blooming in my garden...

The gladiolas are just starting to open.

The bougainvillea are flowering up a storm. Sorry about the hazyness at the top of the picture. I walked from the air-conditioned house to the hot, humid air outside and my lens fogged up.


And the roses are still hanging in there even with the record breaking heat we have been having in New Orleans.