Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup and 1T sugar
2T (or 2 packages) yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
6 cups shifted flour
6T shortening
3 eggs
2t salt


Directions:

Scald and cool to lukewarm 1 cup milk. Meanwhile dissolve 1 Tbsp sugar and 2 pkg yeast in 1 cup lukewarm water. Add milk. Sift before measuring. 3 cups flour, add to above mixture and best until smooth and fine grained. Cream 1/2 cup sugar with 6 Tbsp shortening and add to first mixture. Add 3 beaten eggs. Add 2 tsp salt and enough flour (about 3 cups) to make dough to handle. Knead lightly and place in bowl greased with butter. Let raise until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Roll about 1/2 inch thick, spread with melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, raisin, and nuts. Roll up and cut in slices. Place cut side up on greased tin and let rise 1 hour. Bake 400 degrees until nice and brown. About 15 minutes. Ice while hot. Makes about 24

Tip: use a length of thread to cut the rolls so they don't get smashed. Just wrap the thread around the roll and pull.
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Frosting ingredients:

4 cups powder sugar
4T butter
4T milk
1t vanilla


Frosting directions:

Blend all ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. Makes about 2 cups.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

I have decided to start making a lot of my own things from scratch. The bottom line is that there is so much added to foods that you buy from the grocery stores nowadays, and I don't want that poison in my body!

This recipe is 100% Whole Wheat, with no added wheat germ or gluten. Totally healthy, totally good! Give it a try!

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast

3 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1  1/2 tsp salt

1  1/2 TBSP White Sugar

1  1/2 TBSP Nonfat Dry Milk Powder

1  1/2 TBSP Margarine

1  1/4 cups Warm Water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add warm water and margarine and mix well. Knead on a floured surface for at least 5 minutes. Cover and let rise for 1 hour. Knead 5 more minutes, shape dough and place in non-greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise until double in size.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Of course, if you have a bread machine, just toss all the ingredients in the machine, press the whole wheat setting, and walk away.

Totally easy, and totally good for you!

Enjoy! :)

Egg in a Basket

During my last 2 pregnancies this is all I could eat for breakfast. I recently tried this and I realized I enjoyed it when I was not pregnant to. And well since it looked so fun I had to take a picture and share this easy recipe. I also use olive oil usually instead of butter and I love the taste of the Cajun Seasoning but you can use Seasoned Salt if you want to.

Ingredients
1 slice of bread
1 egg
2 T butter
1/4 tsp Cajun Seasoning or Seasoned Salt

Directions
Heat on your skillet on medium and add butter. Meanwhile, take a cookie cutter any shape and cut a hole in the middle of your slice of bread. Crack egg in a cup and remove any shells. Place bread and extra piece of bread in skillet separately. Pour egg gently into hole in bread. Cover skillet for 30 seconds. Uncover skillet and flip both pieces of bread over. Cook for 30-45 seconds more. Plate and enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread

My mother-in-law gave me a couple of small pumpkins for the boys to decorate for Halloween only they never got to because we didn't have any paint couldn't really afford paint and I didn't really want paint in the house anyway. My boys have painted my couch twice now and I'm not looking to give them another opportunity. Suddenly I had 2 pumpkins that I couldn't just throw away because then I'd of felt bad, so I used this tutorial to make pumpkin puree. I had 12 CUPS of puree and no ideas what to do with it. This is a combination of several recipes and it turned out fabulous!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour SIFTED
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 and 1/3 cups pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs, beaten
1 and 1/2 cups raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)



Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, pie spice, salt and baking powder. Add pumpkin, oil and eggs; mix well. Fold in raisins and nuts.

Pour into loaf pans and sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and sugar to give it a little crunch, you can also sprinkle more nuts on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing from pans.

STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

I found this recipe on cooks.com, and decided that I would make it for dinner. I copy and pasted the recipe below. I hope that you enjoy it. The ingredients call for white bread and for preserves mixed with orange juice. I obviously did not use their suggestion. I have wheat on hand and so used what I had. As for the syrup. I mixed about 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, and 1/2 cup raspberries and cooked on high with 1 cup sugar and 1 T vanilla. Boil for 15-20 minutes, constantly stirring. My family loved it so I get to share it. Oh and I only got 6 things of stuffed french toast. Maybe I soak mine more than she does.

Ingredients:
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. walnuts or pecans
1 loaf white bread
4 eggs
1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 (12 oz.) jar apricot preserves or seedless raspberry jam
1/2 c. orange juice

Directions:

Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together until fluffy. Stir in the nuts. Spread about 1 1/2 tablespoon of the mixture on a slice of bread. Top with a second piece of bread (like a sandwich). Repeat this process 10-12 times until the mixture is all used.

Beat together the eggs, whipping cream, vanilla and nutmeg. Dip the "sandwiches" into the egg mixture. Cook on a lightly greased griddle until golden brown, turn to cook the other side. Keep the cooked "sandwiches" warm by placing them on a baking sheet in a warm oven.

Meanwhile, heat together the preserves and orange juice. To serve, dust the Stuffed French Toast with powdered sugar and drizzle the warm sauce over the top. Makes 10-12 pieces.

Wheat Zucchini Bread

OK my neighbor and I decided that we were going to share our gardens this year. However my garden plot got attacked by snails and so the snails have had all the benefit till recently when we fixed the problem and are just now enjoying yummy food from our garden plot as well. Luckily my neighbor had the foresight to also plant zucchini in her garden and it has created beautiful monster zucchini perfect for making lots and lots of bread. She has a recipe that she loves to make that she got from her mom. I suggested that we use half whole wheat flour, olive oil and omit the salt. All in an effort to make it healthier. We have been impressed with the outcome.

Here is our combined effort recipe.


Ingredients:
2 cups zucchini
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil
2 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the remaining ingredients. Make sure to mix the dry ingredients together breaking up any lumps in the baking soda and powder. Add dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and beat on low for 1 minute and on medium to high for 2 minutes or until all ingredients are fully blended together. Place in middle of preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Test with toothpick inserted in middle of bread, if toothpick comes out clean bread is done. If toothpick comes out not clean return to oven for 10 more minutes. Cool and Enjoy!
You can serve this plain or with cream cheese.

We also thought that it would be fun to add carrots to it as well. So we did half our loaves that we made with 2 cups added carrots minus 1 cup zucchini. This was yummy and like we said a way to try and make it healthier.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

OK so I posted another Whole Wheat Recipe on here. And I like it but it was a recipe that I had to acquire a taste to. This one I LOVE and everyone else has loved it to. The best part is that it is easy and quick to make. I adapted it from a recipe that I found on "A Barefooters Quest To Find A Better Way"blog, which she adapted from a recipe that she found in a book called Artisan Bread in 5 minutes A day. When I say adapted I use it loosely in the sense that I added honey and figured out the baking time. I'm a Genius. :0) Also said loosely. So I am going to give you step by step instructions. With pictures so there is no confusion to the ease of this recipe. I used a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook. It could also be done by hand just use oil on your hands so as not to add too much flour to the recipe. This bread is perfect with jam and is so moist and yummy you will hardly believe it is whole wheat bread.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 T yeast
1 T salt
2 T honey
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
In bowl add first 4 ingredients let sit for 1 minute.

Then add flour all at once.

Turn mixer on speed 1 for 2 minutes. Then up the speed to 4 for 1 minute. Last turn it on to speed 8 for 2 minutes. Let run on high until it clears side and looks like picture below.

When you remove the dough hook this is what it looks like.
Sticky and wet. Perfect.

Leave in bowl like this and cover with towel. Place in warm, dark spot. I put it in my pantry and closed the door. Allow to rise for 1-2 hours.

I use PAM spray and sprayed my counter and dumped the dough on my counter top. Then I sprayed dough and formed into a football shape. And spray loaf pan.

It should look like this in the pan. I put it in upside down first and coated the top then flipped the dough so if you have a seam it is on the bottom.

Cover pan with clean dish towel or I even use a clean washrag.

Let rise till it reaches past the top. I let it rise till this point as in picture below.

Place in cold oven and turn temperature to 365 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove bread from pan and tap lightly on bottom of bread. If it makes a hollow thump bread is done. If you are unsure return bread to pan and cook for 5 more minutes and bread should be fine. Although 35 minutes has always made the bread perfect for us.

Flip bread over on cooling rack allow to cool and enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

I recently got a windfall of a couple of large bags of frozen blueberries, so I have been looking for ways to use them. I had to try a couple of muffin recipes to find the right one, but this one hit the spot! It comes from the food network kitchens, the only change I made was putting in 1 1/2 cup blueberries vs. the 1c. the recipe calls for. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup sifted flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tablespoon flour

Directions

Cream butter and sugar. Add milk and egg and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Mix until moistened. Toss blueberries with flour and fold into batter. Fill a well-greased muffin pan 2/3 full with the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

White Bread Plus

OK so Sunday night I realized we were out of bread and I didn't want to go to the store. I didn't have any whole wheat flour and so I made this white bread which is very yummy. Can I say the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches have never tasted so good. The recipe comes from the "Joy of Cooking" recipe book I got from someone when my husband and I got married. So I will post the instructions below. Makes 2-3 loaves of bread.

This method of mixing bread dough calls for active dry yeast and an electric mixer. As this recipe requires less yeast and more sugar than does White Bread, and because this bread, started in a cold oven, has a longer proofing period, less yeast flavor is retained.

In a large mixer bowl, mix together:
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 package active dry yeast

Combine:
2 1/2 cups 120-130 degree water
1/2 cup lard, shortening, or olive oil

The shortening does not need to melt. Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally. Add to make a thicker batter:
1 beaten egg
1 cup sifted all purpose flour

Beat 1/2 minute at low speed, then at high speed 3 minutes. Stir in to make a soft dough:
3-4 cups sifted all purpose flour

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Allow the bread to rise once in the mixing bowl(about 2 hours) and once in the baking pan(about 2-3 hours). To bake, place loaves in a cold oven. Turn the heat to 400 degrees. After 15 minutes, reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake 25 minutes longer. Test for doneness by tapping lightly on bread to listen for hollow sound. Remove the loaves at once from the pans and cool on a rack before storing. Enjoy!

Old Fashioned Whole Wheat Bread

OK so I have been on a bread baking kit recently. My sister will more than likely look at me and say there is nothing easy about bread. However I have always found this Whole Wheat recipe to be easy, tasty and looking at the ingredients very healthy. All valuable things in making bread. So I hope that you get as much enjoyment from it as I have.

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast or 1 Tbsp and 1 tsp of yeast from a bag
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp salt
3 cups scalded milk
6 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

In a small cup add water and yeast. Stir. Allow to soften or flower as some people call it. Mostly it is just dissolving and growing a little. Next combine oil, honey, molasses, salt, and scalded milk. Cool to Lukewarm and add yeast mixture. Add flour as needed. Shape into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf tins. Let rise to not quite double in bulk (1-2 hours). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Makes 2 medium size loaves.

Below is my daughter helping me roll out the dough to get rid of air bubbles before I shaped it. Really I rolled it first and then let her feel like she was helping.
Cute picture though.

Basic Italian Bread

From: Misty Lindsey


Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

2 cups water, lukewarm 1 3/4 ounces cake yeast (1/3 cup) {I used 1 1/2 Tab regular dry active yeast}5 3/4 cups bread flour {I only used 4 1/2 cups}1 tablespoon dark brown sugar 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon salt 1 egg white, lightly beaten 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Place the water and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer and allow the yeast to bloom for about 5 minutes. Using a dough hook attachment, add the flour and sugar to the water and mix on low speed until a dough starts to form. Drizzle the oil and salt into the dough and beat on medium speed for 8 to 10 minutes, or until a smooth, firm, elastic dough is formed.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and spray the dough with a thin coating of cooking spray. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to proof in a warm, draft-free place for 11/2 hours or until doubled in size. Remove the plastic wrap, punch down and flatten the rounded dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the dough up tightly, sealing the seam well after each roll. The dough should be elongated and oval-shaped, with tapered and rounded (not pointed) ends.
Preheat the oven lined with a pizza stone to 425 degrees F. Alternately, an inverted baking sheet may be used in place of a pizza stone.

Place the dough on a baker's peel heavily dusted with semolina flour, or cornmeal, or alternately on an inverted baking sheet. Allow the dough to proof, loosely covered with a damp towel, for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. Brush the dough with the egg white and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Using a razor blade or sharp knife, score 3 (1/4-inch deep) slashes across the top of the dough at a 45 degree angle.
Spray the dough generously with water from a water bottle and place in the oven on the baking stone. Immediately close the oven and bake for 3 minutes. Open the oven door and spray the dough again with the water bottle. Close the oven door and bake for an additional 3 minutes before spraying the dough for a third time (the spraying of the dough will ensure a crisp golden brown crust). Bake the dough for 45 minutes, or until a hollow thud is heard when the bread is whacked with the bowl of a wooden spoon. Allow the bread to cool slightly before serving.
{I only heated my oven to 400 degrees and baked for 35 minutes after spraying with water and it still turned out very brown and perfectly baked.}

Bread or Dinner Rolls

From: Misty Lindsey

2 cup warm water
approx 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbls yeast

Allow to bloom for about 5 minutes

1 tsp. salt
1 cube melted butter (or 1/3 cup olive oil)
about 4 1/2 cup flour (start with less because you can add more if needed)

Let knead in an electric mixer until you have a soft, smooth dough. A little sticky is preferred, but not too sticky. Let set for about 10 minutes then form into loaves or rolls. Bake at 350-375 for 25-30 minutes. Time will need to be adjusted for the oven and the shape of the dough. This recipe also makes a good pizza crust.