Friday, July 31, 2009

Monkey Bread.....
This is one of my husbands favorite breakfast breads. I like to make it and the kids also love to help out. I came cross a monkey bread recipe here and had to try it out. I like the idea she had for using a pie pan. This blue Pyrex dish worked great and baked up so easy and I didn't have to worry about it not getting done in the middle like with using a bunt pan.

Ingredients:
2 can buttermilk biscuits
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

First mix the sugar & cinnamon together. Then roll the biscuits in the cinnamon sugar mixture and cut into 4ths. I actually had the kids roll the big biscuits in the mixture first before I cut them up because it was easier & faster.

On the stove top cook together:
1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. white corn syrup & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Cook together till it is nicely melted and bubbles a bit. Then pour over your cinnamon sugar biscuits in your dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Take out and let cool a minute. Then put plate over the top and invert on to plate.

Most monkey bread recipes only use butter and brown sugar for the sauce, but I have found that if you add some corn syrup to the mixture you get a nice gooey caramel sauce. It's super yummy. I hope the picture makes your mouth water:)

Friday, July 17, 2009

Yummy Banana Bread..........

I had lots of frozen bananas in my freezer, so I decided to try out a new recipe. To my surprise it turned out great, but I never follow the recipe. The recipe that I used as a guide was found here. I added 1/2 cup of grated carrot for extra nutrition and a 1/4 c. water for a little extra moisture. I made muffins just because they are easier with the kids, but you could make loafs. They were so moist & yummy.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Noodles......

The one place that I love to eat at is Noodles & Company and my favorite dish is the Pasta Fresca. It is so good, so I decided to go on line to see about coming up with a recipe to try. I came across a recipe here. I will be trying it out very soon, maybe even tonight. The kids also like to eat there because noodles are one of those foods they like. Just give them some spaghetti noodles with a little butter and salt and they are good to go.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Sweet Cinnamon Rolls
I have tried many times to make cinnamon rolls and they always turned out to heavy. I'm not really sure what I was doing wrong. Probably nothing just finding bad recipes that don't turn out like I would like. Anyway I went to a ladies conference about a month ago and there were some awesome cinnamon rolls there. I knew who made them, so I made sure to get the recipe. Yesterday I decided to try it out and they turned out really yummy. So here is the recipe, which made a nice 9x12 pan of cinnamon rolls.

Sweet Dough Recipe:
Scald 1/2 cup 2% milk in microwave for 1 1/2 mins, then add to milk 2 Tb. real butter, 1/4 c. sugar, 1/2 tsp salt. Stir together & cool until lukewarm. I poured my mixture into the bread machine to cool. Then dissolve 1 1/2 tsp active yeast in 3 Tb. lukewarm water & then add to cooled milk mixture and add 2 beaten eggs. Lastly add 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour and turn bread machine onto dough cycle. Watch it as it mixes and when ingredients are nicely mixed together let the bread machine do the rest.

When done pull the dough out and roll it out into a nice rectangle. Butter the dough & sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Roll the dough up and slice. Lay sliced into a 9x12 pan 3 across. I think I ended up with 16 rolls. Let rise in baking dish till doubled in size & bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or till lightly browned. Then frost with your favorite cinnamon roll frosting. Enjoy!

This dough can also be used to make pecan rolls, tea ring, Kuchen or anything else that requires a sweet dough. All my other cinnamon roll recipes are going in the garbage and this is the one I will be using from now on. You could also double the recipe easily, but I think I will stick with just one pan of rolls, two would be dangerous:)