Tag Archives: cinnamon

cinnamon smile bread

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cinnamon swirl bread DSC_0404

 

Because it’s Sunday.

And Sundays are for baking.  And for breakfast.

And for eating something sweet and calling it breakfast.  Because, why not?

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Especially when it smiles at you.  Doesn’t your day feel better already?

Sundays are for cinnamon and sugar and not waking up at 5 am to let dough rise and cut and fold cinnamon rolls.

Sundays are for easy recipes that you can make in your pajamas.

And for recipes that prepare you for Monday.

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Because Mondays are evil, and can only be improved with some leftover cinnamon bread.  With a smile built in.

If you’re feeling extra generous, you could even make an extra loaf and take it to work to comfort your co-workers, too.

Cinnamon Smile Bread

Makes 1 9-by-5 inch loaf

Printable Recipe

  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar

  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

  • 1 Tablespoon brown sugar

  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

  • 1 large egg

  • ¾ cup brown sugar, packed

  • ¼ cup vegetable oil

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 1 cup buttermilk

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda

  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

1.  Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

2.  In a small bowl, combine ⅓ cup granulated sugar with the cinnamon, brown sugar, and cocoa powder; set aside. .

3.  Melt butter in a large microwave-safe bowl, about 1 minute; set aside to cool.  Once butter is cooled, whisk in the egg, ⅓ cup brown sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.  Whisk in buttermilk until incorporated.

4.  Add the flour, nutmeg, baking soda, optional salt, and gently fold ingredients until just combined.  Be careful not to overmix, the batter will still be thick and lumpy.

5.  Pour half the batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula.  Sprinkle three-fourths of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the batter, the top with remaining half of the batter.  Smoothe the top with a spatula and sprinkle remaining ¼ of cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the top.

6.  Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.  Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

*Bread will keep at room temperature wrapped tightly for up to 5 days.  You can also freeze the loaf (whole or sliced) for up to 3 months.

[ Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks ]

easy cereal treats

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cookies n cream DSC_0362

 

July will be over in two days, and with it so too will be my no-bake recipe streak.  At least that’s the plan.

These weren’t even part of the plan.  These were the result of me actually having cereal for breakfast on Sunday morning, and realizing that I have far too many boxes of cereal… and that the only option (aside form throwing them away) was to eat my way out (much like the Pop Tart in that new commercial).

Clearly, throwing out boxes and boxes of perfectly good cereal is not an option.  So, I made a plan to eat my way out of my cereal problem… With math!

Everyone knows that marhsmallows + cereal = delicious.  See?  Math!  So, I found my last two bags of marshmallows, picked my most promising (and full) two  boxes of cereal… and then… this happened.

See?  Easy.

And the winners?  Well, those were easy to choose.

      

Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you that this was a double feature?  Two recipes, one post.

Well, two cereals, the recipe is pretty much the same, hence the one post.  Cookies & Cream, and Cinnamon Roll.  Yeah, I know I just made oreo krispy treats, but these are different.  You don’t have to add any cookies to them, because the cereal is already full of delicious cookie flavor.

Of course, a few Oreos never hurt anyone, did they?

cinnamon roll cereal DSC_0379

BF liked the cookies n cream better, I liked the cinnamon roll better.  You will have to make both and decide for yourself.

As an added bonus, you can easily modify the recipe to your liking with any cereal of your choosing.  Think: Trix, or Peanut Butter Crunch, even Kix!

And now, with 2 boxes down, I’ve only got 7 more to get through before I can start buying more cereal…. I’m totally not exaggerating.

Cookies & Cream Cereal Treats

Makes one 9-by-13-inch pan

Printable Recipe

  • 6 cups cereal
  • 1 (10-ounce) bag mini marshmallows
  • 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup vanilla or white chocolate chips

1.  Melt butter in a large pot over low heat.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted.  Remove from heat and add cereal, stirring to coat.  Add chocolate and vanilla chips.

2.  Press mixture  into 9 by 13-inch pan.  Cool completely and then slice into desired-size bars.

 

Cinnamon Roll Cereal Treats

Makes one 9-by-13-inch pan

Printable Recipe 

  • 6 cups cereal
  • 1 (10-ounce) bag mini marshmallows
  • 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ½ cup cinnamon chips

1.  Melt butter in a large pot over low heat.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted.  Remove from heat and add cereal, stirring to coat.  Add cinnamon chips.

2.  Press mixture  into 9 by 13-inch pan.  Cool completely and then slice into desired-size bars.

Sunday Brunch: Cinnamon Sugar Popovers

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cinn popover 1

There are a lot of “tricks” that are mentioned whenever making popovers.  So many, in fact, that it makes you wonder how anyone makes a popover at all.  Half of them are even contradictory to each other, which is why it took me so long to finally get around to making them.  You always see the pictures of sad, deflated popovers (Even Food & Wine’s “foolproof” recipe features a picture of sunken popovers) and everyone’s got a “secret” to achieve the perfect popover.  I will tell you the only important piece of advice, the only advice that I followed: DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR.

I made the batter, put them in the oven, DID NOT TOUCH THE DOOR and they bake (and poofed) perfectly.

My one request:  Please make this in a popover pan.  I hate buying single-purpose items for the kitchen, but you will not achieve nearly the same lift with a muffin pan as you will with a popover pan.  I’m sorry, it’s just not happening.  So, use a muffin pan if you must, but just know that you are absolutely, without a doubt, robbing yourself of the true popover experience.

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These cinnamon-sugar popovers are light, airy, and perfectly sweet.  As I was biting into it, I was thinking about how much the flavor resembled one of my other brunch favorites, the german pancake.  Now I feel like I should cover my next german pancake in cinnamon sugar.  Yeah, that’s totally happening.

Sorry, back to the popovers.  They taste like a donut without the heaviness… and without all the guilt associated with eating a donut.  I ate like 3 or 4 of these before I felt as guilty as I feel about eating just one donut!  (Nutritional value totally unrelated to the guilt, this could be a bad thing, but they’re not deep-fried so I’m going to say I’m winning this one).

These, like all popovers, are best served fresh from the oven, but the BF was definitely snacking on the last of them cold as an after-lunch snack.  So they’re definitely still edible, but there’s no way that they are as delicious.

If you find yourself crunched for time, you can make the batter the night before, store it in the fridge, and bake them off the next morning (just make sure you take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before baking).  The batter comes together so quickly, though, that I don’t see why you would possibly need to make it in advance.

Cinnamon-Sugar Popovers

Makes 12 large or 24 mini popovers 

Printable Recipe

For the popovers:

  • 2 cups milk, warmed
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • ½ Tablespoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the sugar dusting:

  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1.  Place the greased popover pan on a baking sheet and place in the oven while it preheats to 350ºF.

2.  Once the oven is preheated, warm the milk in the microwave about 1 minute, just until warm to the touch.  Set aside.  Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in another bowl.

3.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until pale yellow.  Once frothy, slowly whisk in the milk.  Make sure the milk is warm, not hot, or the eggs will curdle.

4.  Add the flour and whisk to combine.  Add the vanilla extract and continue whisking until smooth.

5.  Carefully remove the pan from the oven and fill each tin ½ to ¾ full with batter and quickly return the pan to the oven.  Once the oven door closes, lock it with your imaginary oven door lock.

6.  Bake 50 minutes for full-size popovers, or about 35 to 40 minutes for mini popovers (I started peeking through the window around 30 minutes, if you don’t have a window, don’t even think about opening that door until 35 minutes in).  Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool about 5 to 10 minutes, until you can comfortably handle them. Note: If you are using a muffin tin or mini muffin tin, your baking time may be less (see below). 

7.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl.  When you can handle them, dip the popovers in the melted butter and then toss with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

* You can grease your tins with butter (which I used), but there is folklore surrounding the need to use vegetable shortening, and equally as much about using vegetable oil, or even PAM.  I put about a teaspoon-sized cube of butter into each mini tube before putting it into the oven.  The pool of butter did give them little “pigtails” at the end, I wish I’d taken a picture.  They were super cute.

* I’m lazy and too much whisking makes me tired, so I used an immersion blender, and added the ingredients in the order listed.

* I’ve read that regular-size muffin tin popovers will bake in about 35 minutes or 18 – 23 minutes for mini-muffin tin popovers., but I’m not sure since I’ve not made them.

breakfast greatness

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monkey bread cream cheese

Easy enough for kids to make, this cinnamon-sugar treat is just as appropriate for breakfast as it is for dessert. The traditional monkey bread is made my quartering refrigerated biscuits, rolling them in cinnamon-sugar, and popping them into a bundt cake pan (at least, that’s how it was made at grandma’s house).

This is a slightly modified version of that recipe, and while you can’t pick off bite-size gems of caramelized sugar goodness, it’s just as delicious (if not moreso) as the original. This recipe adds cream cheese to the mixture, giving it a sweet and tangy cinnamon swirl filling.

Most of the cream cheese is absorbed somehow into the dough leaving a tunnel of sweet, creamy cinnamon bliss running through the middle of your monkey bread. Meanwhile, the cinnamon sugar and melted butter all drip to the bottom of the pan (which is now the top of your bundt cake) to make a crunchy, caramelized, cinnamon-sugar glaze topping.

Since the pieces are a bit too big to be “bite size”, I served this in slices, but you could rip off pieces just as well. Make sure you invert your cake pan while it’s still warm so that you don’t lose the top half of your cake when the sugar cools and hardens.

Cream Cheese Monkey Bread

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • Two 12-ounce tubes refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • One 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into 20 cubes
  • ¾ cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars and cinnamon; set aside.

2. Slice 10 discs of dough from each tube of biscuits. Set discs on a flat surface and set one cube of cream cheese in the center of each piece of dough. Wrap edges of dough up and around the cheese so all that is visible is the top side of cream cheese cube.

3. Place 10 dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-up, in bottom of prepared pan. Top with half of the sugar mixture and half of the butter. Top with the remaining dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-down, the remaining sugar and remaining butter.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve.

[ Another winner from Pinterest ]

flour bakery’s sticky buns

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sticky buns flour bakery

Sticky buns are like cinnamon roll’s edgier, fancier cousin. Brioche dough filled with cinnamon sugar, rolled tightly, then baked with a caramel glaze and toasted pecans.

Divine.

It’s really hard to justify consuming all of those calories for breakfast, which is why it’s OK that they take forever to make. Mine were done just in time for a post-lunch snack (or in-place-of-lunch snack… same thing). No worries, there are a number of shortcuts you can take to ensure yours are ready in time for breakfast.

I wasn’t particularly worried about spending my whole Saturday baking, though, so being in no rush I made my brioche dough the night before, left it in the fridge overnight, and proceeded to make my sticky buns the following morning. The dough makes enough for 2 sets of sticky buns or, in my case, a set of sticky buns and a loaf of brioche. A magical loaf of brioche.

I hope you were all very good in January, because diet time is over.

Over.

(PS – Thank you BF for my wonderful Christmas gift – my Flour Bakery cookbook) <3

Learn from my mistakes –

  • Don’t skimp on the pecans. You don’t want to see what the rolls look like under there
  • Make sure your “goo” thickens appropriately, but still be careful not to burn it. I was overly paranoid about burning it, which left my goo a little on the “runny” side. Still delicious, but thinner than it should have been.

Flour Bakery’s Sticky Buns

[ Printable Recipe ]

Goo:

  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 170 grams, 6 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups (345 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup (110 grams) honey
  • 1/3 cup (80 grams) heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup (80 grams) water
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Rolls:

  • Basic Brioche Dough
  • 1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup (100 grams) pecan halves, toasted and chopped

First, make the goo. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine (it may look separated, that’s ok). Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Strain to remove any undissolved lumps of brown sugar. Let cool for about 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature. You should have about 3 cups. (The mixture can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)

Make brioche dough and divide in half. Use half for this recipe and reserve the other half for another use. Can be made up to 1 week in advance.

On a floured work surface, roll out the brioche into rectangle about 12 by 16 inches and 1/4-inch thick. It will have the consistency of cold, damp Play-Doh and should be fairly easy to roll. Position the rectangle so a short side is facing you.

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and half of the pecans. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the entire surface of the dough. Starting from the short side farthest from you and working your way down, roll up the rectangle like a jelly roll. Try to roll tightly, so you have a nice round spiral. Trim off about 1/4- inch from each end of the roll to make them even.

Use a bench scraper or a chef’s knife to cut the roll into 8 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2-inches wide. **(At this point, the unbaked buns can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 1 week. When ready to bake, thaw them, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then proceed as directed.)

Pour the goo into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, covering the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly over the surface. Don’t skimp on the pecans.

Arrange the buns, evenly spaced, in the baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm spot to proof until the dough is puffy, pillowy, and soft and the buns are touching-almost tripled in size, about 2 hours.

Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 350 degrees F.

Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the dish on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes. One at a time, invert the buns onto a serving platter, and spoon any extra goo and pecans from the bottom of the dish over the top.

The buns are best served warm or within 4 hours of baking. They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, and then warmed in a 325 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes before serving.