Sweet Dough - Cinnamon Rolls

Since I decided to take this bread making thing seriously, I did a bit of searching on the internet to find out if I was actually kneading the dough in the proper way. I was doing the "stretch it out with the palm of your hand" thing. Turns out that is the way most people do it, however... It is not the best way. The reason it is a flawed method is because it allows you to add too much flour to your dough. The new method of kneading dough I use is kind of a "pick it up, flip it over, smack it down, stretch it out, and fold it over" method. There is a video below in the middle of the recipe, don't worry.

The video I found came with a recipe by a pretty awesome chef (in my opinion based on my limited knowledge of chefs!). His name is Richard Bertinet and he has a few bread books that I would like to own. The dough is a "sweet dough". I wanted to make the dough but had no idea what to do with it. I made the dough and figured out a plan after it was finished rising. My decision was delicious: I made cinnamon rolls.

This method of making dough uses no machines at all. Just a bowl, a small scraper, your hands, and a clean table. The kneading method is very energy and time consuming if you aren't used to kneading this way! It took me twice as long as suggested in the video and my arms were sore the next day. Maybe in a few months I'll have some muscles from making bread!

Sweet Dough (Link to recipe on Gourmet.com)

1 C plus 2 T milk

1 package dry active yeast

3 3/4 C flour

1/2 stick unsalted butter

3 T granulated sugar

2 t salt

2 eggs

Heat the milk to 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, place the flour in a mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top.

Stir in the sugar and salt. Crumble the butter into the flour mixture.

Pour in the heated milk and eggs.

Stir by rotating the bowl with one hand and scraping the ingredients together with the scraper in your other hand. The dough will be sticky when you are finished.

Watch this video before proceeding to learn how to knead the dough!

Plop the dough out onto a clean surface and start kneading.

Once the dough is smooth and non-sticky, cover it with a bit of flour and form it into a ball. 

Place the dough ball into a lightly floured bowl and let it rise. If your dough doesn't seem to be rising, place it in the oven with the oven OFF and place a bowl of boiling water in the oven as well. Close the door and let it rise until doubled. The hot water will provide a small amount of heat and moisture, two things that yeast loves!

Once the dough is doubled, lightly punch it down.

To make cinnamon rolls, split the dough into two pieces. Roll out one piece of dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Brush the top of the dough with melted butter and sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon sugar on top. Roll up the dough and slice into the desired size. Place these slices into a greased baking dish. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.

Let rise until doubled in size, approximately 30 min to 1hour. 

Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes.  Let the cinnamon rolls cool for about 10 minutes before servings.

Optionally, before serving, make a simple glaze for on top. Do this by mixing 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of milk and a little bit of vanilla with a fork. If it is too runny, add some more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a little bit of milk. Drizzle on top of the cinnamon rolls with the fork you used to mix.

Enjoy!

Applesauce Doggie Cookies

Finally! Another doggie cookie recipe! My past few attempts at making doggie cookies have been failed attempts, so I gave up on it for a while due to lack of motivation. I was kind of forced to make these cookies after I cut Lucky's hair and nails and gave him a bath. I usually give him a chewy bone after the bath, but we didn't have any. Instead of suffering with a wet and pouty dog (he is very good at making me feel bad with his sad eyes), I made him cookies. He is very happy now.

I don't have an exact recipe right now since it was a spontaneous decision to make these, but the method is very similar to the peanut butter banana cookies. I will make an updated post when I make these again.

The fruit content of these cookies possibly makes them a bit high in sugar content, so limit how many you feed your dog per day. Apples, bananas, and oatmeal are all good for dogs, but we don't need chubby doggies.

Applesauce Doggie Cookies

4oz apple sauce

1/2 large banana, mashed

2/3 C uncooked oatmeal, the slow cooking kind

1 1/2 C flour

Mash the banana in a small bowl. Stir the apple sauce in with the mashed banana.

Add the oatmeal and stir until blended.

Add 1 cup of flour and combine. Slowly add more flour until the dough loses most of it's stickiness. It will still be a bit sticky.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Be sure to flip the dough and reflour the surface since the dough is sticky!

Cut out shapes and place them on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes.

Thicker cookies will stay kind of chewy and thinner cookies will be more crispy, like crackers.

Let the cookies cool before feeding them to your dog!

Enjoy!

Apple Crisp

Here is something nice and easy to make. The most time consuming part of making this apple crisp is the peeling and slicing of the apples. Fortunately for me, I had some pre-peeled and pre-sliced apples in the freezer! I didn't measure much of this, but I have included the original recipe below to use as a guideline. Desserts like this are something you generally make "to taste".

I will make this recipe again, but I will add less water to it if I use frozen apples. I'm not sure if the amount of water would need to be decreased if you use fresh apples. I didn't have any good ice cream available, but I'm positive this will be excellent with some vanilla ice cream.

Apple Crisp  (Printer friendly PDF version)

4 C peeled & sliced apples

Cinnamon to taste

1/2 C water

3/4 C flour

1/2 C butter, melted

1 C sugar

Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the baking dish with sliced apples. Pour the water over the apples. Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, butter, and sugar to make a crumbly mixture.

Evenly distribute this crumbly mixture on top of the layer of apples.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 40 minutes.

Let cool for a bit before serving.

Enjoy!

Slovenian Country Style Bread

Here is another recipe for a white bread. The recipe suggests that you make two loaves of bread or many small buns. I made two loaves and my bread didn't brown like it was supposed to because I misread part of the directions. It says to brush the top of the dough with egg yolks before baking, but I brushed them with egg whites! I think the egg whites prevented the crust from browning much at all. Oh, well. I can’t be perfect every time.

This bread is good, but not as good as the last white bread recipe that I posted. They are both nice and dense and they slice wonderfully, but the first one just had a better flavor. At least, in my opinion it did! This bread uses water instead of milk and has a lower sugar content, which changes the flavor in a noticeable way.

Slovenian Country Style Bread (Printer friendly PDF version)

1 package dry active yeast

1/2 T sugar

1/2 C warm water

4 to 5 C sifted flour

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 C water

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten, for glazing

Proof the yeast in the sugar and warm water.

Place 4 cups of sifted flour into a large bowl with the salt and proofed yeast. Mix together with one hand.

Continue mixing the flour mixture with one hand while slowly pouring the water into the bowl with your other hand. You will end up with slightly sticky dough.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Add more flour, if necessary, to make the dough non-sticky.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Punch down and knead the dough again for a few minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover, and let rise again.

Form the dough into buns or loaves. Cover and let them rise again. Brush the tops of the buns or loaves with egg yolks. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the remaining cook time. Loaves bake for 30 to 45 minutes and buns bake for 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on both so they don't over bake!

Let cool and enjoy!

One year!

As of today, I have been posting on this blog for one year! I have 108 posts (109 if you include this one). I have posted 81 recipes (and 23 of those are for cookies). I'm not sure if I've learned much about baking and cooking, but I have developed an addiction to baking bread. This is a recent addiction and will be reflected in every Saturday post from now on.

Here are a few recipe highlights from this past year:

The recipe I use the most is for the cinnamon pancakes. I eat them at least once a week.

My favorite recipe this year is the cinnamon raisin bread. I made it twice and I think I'll have to make it again soon!

The first banana cake recipe I made was also amazing.

Another recipe that I could make every single week without regret is the Potato-celery soup. Whenever I eat at a restaurant that has potato soup, I now compare it to my soup. I am usually disappointed!

The worst recipe that I made this year is, without a doubt, the frosted fruit salad. It was horrible and made me consider not using anymore of the old recipes!

So... what are my plans with this blog now? I will definitely continue baking from my old cookbooks. I still have hundreds of recipes to go through! I will keep Tuesdays for recipes that come from these inherited cookbooks and recipe boxes.As mentioned, Saturdays will be now dedicated to bread baking. I would like to start doing crafty things on Thursday, but I'm not sure when I will start that.