National Sticky Bun Day!

It's that time of the year again! This year, National Sticky Bun Day converged with Fat Tuesday. While I was tempted to stick a plastic baby in one of the cinnamon rolls, I resisted.

Rather than spend hours redocumenting the process, Here's what I did: (from last year)

http://makerandfixerofthings.blogspot.com/2011/02/cinnamon-rolls-feb-21-is-national.html

Time to make the Doughnuts

Something I've always wanted to try is to making doughnuts. I've been making a lot of interesting baked goods lately, so Why Not?

They're not exactly "baked" but the dough is not far from bread dough.

The Ingredients

2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening (63 grams)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

The Process

• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.


• In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double.


• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.


• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.


• Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F. Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

I made the dough last night. After a 2 hour rise, I punched it down and put it in the fridge. This morning it had risen tremendously. (Yikes!)

Mason and I rolled out the dough and Maddie cut out the doughnuts.

Rise!

Boiling in 350F oil:

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls - Feb 21 is National Sticky Bun Day!

Ingredients

Dough:

• 4 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 large whole egg, room temperature
• 2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup
• 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted, approximately 6 tablespoons
• 6 ounces buttermilk, room temperature
• 20 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 cups, plus additional for dusting
• 1 package instant dry yeast, approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• Vegetable oil

Filling:

• 8 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 cup packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger (Shhh... Don't tell anyone)
• Pinch salt
• 3/4-ounce unsalted butter, melted, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons

Icing:

• 2 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened, approximately 1/4 cup
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 5 1/2 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

Making The Dough:

The wet stuff:

I used leftover whey (4 oz) from the ricotta I made earlier today and heavy cream (2 oz) instead of buttermilk, 4 yolks, 1 whole egg and 6 Tbsp of melted butter

Dry Stuff:

Yeast and salt

20 oz flour (by weight) & 2 oz sugar

Eggs, butter, sugar and dairy before:

Eggs, butter, sugar and dairy after:

Added the dry goods:

About half the flour, the salt and the yeast. Whipped into a batter

Mixed in the balance of the flour and ready to rise:

The Filling:

Filling:

mixed the light brown-sugar with the cinnamon, salt and ginger using a fork.

Rolling out the dough:

Ready to roll:

Rolling out:

Roughly 18" x 24"

Buttering:

Adding the filling:

Rolled up:

Cut:

Ready to chill:

Baking:

Put the rolls into the oven for 30 minutes to proof. Place them on the top rack and place a pan filled with boiling water on the rack below. This makes a bit of a sauna for the yeast to wake up and enjoy. We should treat them nicely like this since were about to murder them.

Looking a bit puffy from the second rise:

Placed in the middle of a 350F oven for 30 minutes:

The Icing:

A simple matter of whisking together 2.5 oz of softened cream-cheese, 5.5 oz of sifted powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk until it looks like icing.

I hope this works!

I'm making a pumpkin pie.

As usual for me, making something straight forward never is.

The pie crust is a simple one that I first used a couple of years ago. It's very simple:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup water

Of course, I wanted to use some butter too so I added 4 Tbsp of butter as well. I've been happy with this recipe for some time.

It's simple, cut the shortening and butter into the flour:

add the water, blend together until it holds in a ball and chill.

Pumpkin Goo Recipe:

I never made a pumpkin pie before today. I don't have a favorite pumpkin goo recipe... so I made one up. It's a combination of 6 different recipes inspired by (and then bastardized) this vegan recipe, chiefly because I didn't have any cream/half-and-half/sweetend condensed milk.

1 can pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

2 large eggs

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup1 cup of 2% milk

Whipped it all together in a bowl, poured into my pie crust and put in a 425° oven for 15 minutes and then turned down to 350° for 45 more.