Cinnamon Coffee Puffs (success!)

With all the failures of baking that have occurred in the process of making posts for this blog, I feel it is only right to redo most of them. The first redo is of the Cinnamon Coffee Puffs. The problem with the first attempt had to do with me using too much flour and not making sure the yeast was properly proofed. If you saw the original post for this recipe, you can tell the outcome was no where near what was intended. This attempt turned out amazing and is definitely what was intended!

I've learned a lot by working with old recipes (most dating to the 1950s or so). One thing I've learned (the hard and failure paved way) is to almost always sift the flour. A long time ago in every kitchen where delicious goodies were being baked, people sifted flour religiously. This was to break up clumps and remove any "impurities". Sifting the flour makes it lighter and the measurements will be more uniform since flour settles over time. So, I suppose, the lesson is to sift flour or you will use too much. Although, some recipes specify to sift the flour before or after measuring, so take care to read closely! Most of these old and cryptic recipes, however, do not. But fear not, you have me to fail multiple times before deciphering the recipe for you.

Cinnamon Coffee Puffs (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
3 C sifted flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
1/4 t sugar
1 C milk
2 T sugar
1/2 C margarine
1 t salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C sugar mixed with 1/4 t  cinnamon

Sift some flour and measure out 3 cups. Set aside.

Place the active dry yeast and 1/4 t sugar into the warm water. Set aside for 15 minutes or so. If the yeast results in a lovely foam, then the yeast is good to use. Otherwise, toss it out and try again.

Scald the milk and pour it over the 2T sugar, margarine, and salt. Let set 10 minutes or until lukewarm.

Add the yeast mixture, eggs, and flour. Mix well.

Add the vanilla and mix well once more.

Cover with a clean, dry dish towel and leave it alone for an hour. It will poof up!

Stir the dough down and drop by spoonfuls into greased muffin tins. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Cover once more and let set for another hour.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Cool and enjoy. The recipe suggests serving with applesauce, but I was lacking applesauce and could not try this suggestion. Let me know if you do!

Apple Cake

The past week or so has been plagued with baking failures. Working with old recipes seems to result in a lot of wrong outcomes due to the difference in ingredients over the years. I'll eventually reattempt those failed recipes and post them in their properly baked glory. For now, I will stick to a few easy recipes to get me back into the habit of baking and creating posts.

First up this year is another apple cake recipe. I like this apple cake better than the previous one I posted. I'm going to eventually remake all of these with fresh apples instead of frozen apples; the frozen kind seem to melt into the dough during the baking. This recipe is very easy, but the baking time will vary so be sure to check it near the end.

Apple Cake (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 C sugar
1 1/2 C flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 C butter (unsalted)
1/2 C milk
1 egg
1 t vanilla
4 apples, chopped

2 T butter, melted
1/2 C brown sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t flour
1/2 C nuts (optional)

Cut and chop the apples. I used frozen apples, so I had to guess how much would be equivalent to 4 apples.

Sift together the sugar, flour, and soda.

With a mixer, combine the flour mixture with the butter and milk. Mix until smooth.

Add the egg, vanilla, and apples. Mix until well blended.

Place the batter in a loaf pan.

Combine the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and nuts.

Sprinkle this mixture over the batter in the loaf pan. I think it would also be good to layer the batter and crumbly topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Since I used frozen apples, it took an extra 10-15 minutes to bake. Toothpick will come out mostly clean when finished.

Let cool almost completely before cutting or the cake will fall apart. It is very moist!

Marshmallow Caramel Crispies

I'm not sure what to call these things, as evidenced by the oh-so-creative name, but they are tasty. They remind me of Halloween. When I was little, I made these with my grandma a lot. I think one year I even took them into school as a treat during the Halloween party.

There are two ways to make this. One is a bit time consuming all the way through and the other is time consuming followed by quick and easy. The first method requires the larger marshmallows and the second needs the tiny marshmallows. Both produce something yummy. Either way, feel free to make this for any occasion during any time of the year!

Marshmallow Caramel Crispies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz of caramels
1/2 C butter
bag of marshmallows (big or small)
box of crispy rice cereal

Place the condensed milk, caramels, and butter in a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium-low heat (this is the time consuming part). Once the butter is fully melted, the stirring will have to be constant so the mixture doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. A double boiler would be useful for the melting phase, if you have one.

Once the caramel mixture is fully melted, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. The mixture coats better when it is thicker.

Option 1: Stab the marshmallows with a toothpick like so. Place a decent amount of crispies in a bowl as well. The toothpick part is optional.

Dip the marshmallow into the caramel mixture and then roll it in the crispies. You can toss the marshmallows in the caramel and fish them out with a spoon to transfer them to the crispies bowl.

Place on a cookie sheet to dry. Repeat until all marshmallows are coated.

Option 2: Once the caramel cools a bit, pour the marshmallows into the caramel mixture. Stir. Add some crispies and stir. Continue to add the crispies until the mixture is to your liking.

Pour the marshmallow caramel crispie mixture into a greased cake pan to cool.

Tiny Sugar Cookie Houses

I have a post-Christmas cold which means I don't feel like baking. Instead of something new, here is what I intended to post a few days ago.

Every year for Christmas I make a cake. I was going to just make a Santa face this year, but the whole gingerbread house making spree made me want to make tiny houses. I've also been curious if houses could be made out of sugar cookies. I had the brilliant notion to combine these two things into one. And so I made a cake with a small village on top!

Below I present the recipe for the sugar cookies and a step-by-step guide to making the tiny houses (and a tree!). The sugar cookie recipe is very good, it doesn't need frosting or sugar or sprinkles. So feel free to just make some sugar cookies instead. (I cut the recipe in half because I didn't need a lot of cookies, the images reflect this!)

Sugar Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 C butter (softened & salted)
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 t baking powder

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix until creamy.

Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add the flour and mix well.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours (can be chilled overnight as well).

If you plan on making tiny houses, draw the template pieces while the dough is chilling. I made houses that were 2 inches high, 1 1/2 inches across the front, and 1 3/4 inches long.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After the dough is chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Since I needed the house pieces to be perfect, I rolled out the dough on parchment paper. Cut out the pieces of the house (or of cookies) and place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely on the parchment paper (which may be removed to a cooling rack).

After the cookies are completely cooled (they were small, so this took around an hour), make the royal icing glue for the houses.

Each house  needs a front & back, two sides, and two roof pieces. Take the front piece and draw a frosting line down each side. Attach the side pieces to the frosting strips. Draw two more frosting lines on the back piece and attach that to the side pieces. This frosting is sticky and dries kind of quickly, so the little houses shouldn't need much support. I took a large marshmallow and place it inside of the house just in case.

Trace the top of the house with frosting. Place one roof piece on. Draw a line of frosting across the edge of the roof piece and attach the remaining roof piece. Tada, you have a tiny house.

Repeat until all houses are assembled.

If you desire a 3D tree for your little town, you should have cut out tree pieces during the rolling & cutting phase. A few of these trees should have been cut vertically down the center.

Color a glob of the frosting glue green. Obtain a full tree cookie and two tree halves.

Smear the green icing on the front of the full tree cookie. Now smear some icing on both sides of a tree half. Smush the tree half into the full tree. Hold it for a minute until the icing has dried enough to hold the tree half in place. Repeat with the other side of the full tree and the other tree half. Add some optional decorations. Tada, a Christmas tree.

The tree might need to be propped up during the drying phase. I used a small round cookie cutter to hold it up.

Here is a picture of the cake & town I made.

Royal Icing

Royal icing dries hard, kind of like candy buttons. It can also taste like candy buttons. Royal icing is needed if you want to make cute little flowers or certain types of frosting decorations. This batch, however, will be used for gluing together the pieces of tiny sugar cookie houses.

When making and using royal icing, it is very important to make sure it doesn't come into contact with shortening or butter. This will make the icing turn runny and it won't set. So wash your mixing bowl and utensils with hot soapy water before starting!

Royal Icing (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 egg white
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla

First, sift the powdered sugar. This will break up any clumps in the sugar and ensure the icing is nice and smooth.

Place the egg white and vanilla in the mixing bowl. Beat until it starts to get frothy.

Add the powdered sugar and mix together on a low speed until it is combined. A high speed will result in a cloud of powdered sugar emitting from the mixing bowl. Scrape the sides of the mixing bowl.

Beat on a high speed for 5 minutes.

If you are concerned about using a raw egg white, you can microwave the royal icing for 15 seconds. Be sure to move the icing to a non-metal and microwave-safe dish first!

The royal icing sets quickly. Keep it covered with a moist paper towel.

The icing takes up to 24 hours to set.