Cinnamon Rolls

I have been reading the children's novel Everything on a Waffle with one of my classes. Since the book features a recipe with each chapter, I decided to attempt one of these recipes - cinnamon rolls. Unfortunately, the recipe listed in the book is written in narrative form (with several vague details.) Sadly, this recipe was a yeast-based recipe - and as I started it, I discovered that my yeast was obviously dead and gone! Since I still wanted to make cinnamon rolls for my class, I did a quick Internet search for yeast-less cinnamon roll recipe.

Fortunately, the rolls I made were extremely easy to prepare (far easier than the yeast disaster from my book.) Sadly, the rolls seemed a little bland - they definitely weren't a moist or flaky roll.

Cinnamon Rolls
(fills a 7-inch round pan)

Dough
1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
1½ T butter, softened
3 oz. (⅜ c.) milk

Filling
2 T. butter, softened
½ c. sugar (brown or white)
2 t. cinnamon

Mix the filling ingredients to a crumbly mixture. Add ½ the mixture to the bottom of the pan. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the softened butter into the flour mixture. Stir in the milk to form a soft dough. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until formed into a ¼ rectangle. Top with the remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture and roll. Cut into about ten even slices. Bake at 400°F (205°C) for 20-25 minutes. Create a basic frosting with a glaze created from powdered sugar and milk (probably about ½ c powdered sugar and 1-2 T of milk.)

Zebra Cake

I have been wanting to try my hand at a zebra cake for some time. I again used this basic white cake recipe that I had found online (I had previously used it for my Easter Chick Cupcakes.) I found this online video very helpful in the construction of the zebra stripes. The finished cake was extremely moist (I highly recommend this recipe!) Unfortunately, the stripes were a little less than I'd hoped for...

Zebra Cake (White Cake)
(yields one 9-inch round cake layer)

1 cup sugar
½ c. butter
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
1½ c. flour
1¾ t. baking powder
½ t. salt
⅔ c. milk

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the sugar mixture. Add the milk and stir until smooth. If creating a zebra cake, divide the batter into two parts and color one with food coloring. Grease and flour a 9-inch pan. Pour ½ cup of the white batter into the center of the pan. Add ½ cup of the colored batter into the center of the first scoop. Continue adding batter in ½ cup amounts alternating between plain and colored batter. Bake for 35-40 minutes. When cooled, frost with buttercream frosting.

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

This week, I continued my new-found love of donut baking with a batch of cinnamon-sugar donuts. Sadly, this recipe was extremely different from the one I'd used previously to make a chocolate cake donut. When I first followed this recipe, I found that it was practically liquid once I'd mixed all the ingredients. I added an addition ¼ cup flour to thicken it up, but it still left an incredibly thin batter.

When I baked the donuts, I did find that they rose quite a bit! I had initially filled the pan practically full since that worked so well last week. Sadly these donuts rose and completely covered the middle hole (and stuck to the ungreased sides of the pan. After my first failed batch, I used less batter (filling the wells about ½ full) for a small, but well formed, donut.

Once the donuts had cooled, I brushed them with butter and then coated with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. The original recipe called for ½ of both sugar and brown sugar, but I found this to be far too much. In my recipe below, I cut the amounts in half (and I believe it will still produce leftovers!) The donuts did look great when I first made them - though after storing them overnight, many of them seemed a soggy, butter mess. Still, my students definitely seemed to enjoy them (but how can you really go wrong with cinnamon, sugar, and butter!?!?


Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
yields about 12 donuts

1¼ c. flour
¾ c. sugar
¾ t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ t. cinnamon
1 egg
½ c. plus 2 T. buttermilk*
1 t. vanilla
3 T. butter, melted


Coating:
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
½ T. cinnamon
3 T. butter, melted

*I used a milk/vinegar substitute in place of the buttermilk. (½ c. plus 1½ T. milk with ½ T. vinegar.)

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Combine egg and buttermilk. Melt 3 tablespoons over medium heat until brown and bubbly (the originally recipe stated that it should smell "nutty".) Add the melted butter to the milk/egg mixture. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greased donut pan (filling the pan just slightly over halfway.) Bake at 350°F (178°C) for 9-12 minutes. Allow to cool in pan. Combine the dry ingredients for the coating. When completely cooled, brush with melted butter and dip in the sugar/cinnamon.

Chocolate Donuts

I had seen a recipe for baked donuts on Pinterest a few weeks ago, but thought I would merely have to dream about baking donuts since I didn't have a donut baking pan. Imagine my surprise when I was randomly strolling threw Daiso (the Korean version of a dollar store) and discovered the exact pan I wanted (for less than $5!) I thought this was definitely a sign that it was time for me to get in the donut business!

After searching for a few donut recipes (the original recipe called for far too many ingredients I could never find in Korea), I opted for this simply chocolate donut recipe (which was basically just a simple cake recipe.) I didn't really have any problems with the actual baking of the donuts - though my pan was too large to fit inside my small toaster oven, so I had to bend the pan and only use four of the molds (something that wasn't that big of issue since my recipe made eight donuts.) My only piece of advice for baking the donuts is to put the batter into a Ziploc bag and cut one corner to form a make-shift pastry bag. I originally tried spooning the batter into the molds, and that was a messy nightmare!

Unfortunately, after I'd baked the donuts and started washing the dishes, I discovered that I'd accidentally used 2/3 cups cocoa rather than ½ cup! (My ½ c. measuring cup wouldn't fit into the cocoa container, so I had to use the ¼ cup - or at least I thought I had! When I went to wash everything, I discovered that I had used the &frac13 cup instead. I'm hoping the the extra sweet glaze will draw away from any bitterness the extra cocoa might produce.


Chocolate Donuts
(yields about 8 donuts)

1¼ c. flour
½ c. cocoa powder
½ t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
½ c. milk
½ c. brown sugar
1 egg
4 T. butter, melted
2 T. coffee
1 t. vanilla extract

Sugar Glaze (optional)
½ c. powdered sugar
¼ t. vanilla
2-3 T. milk (or water)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a second bowl, mix the milk, sugar, butter, egg, coffee, and vanilla. In parts, add the liquid mixture into the flour mixture. Stir until well combined. Fill a greased donut pan ¾ full with the mixture. Bake at 325°F (162°C) for 13 minutes (or until firm to the touch.) Allow to cool in the pan and then turn over onto a wire rake. Coat with powdered sugar or a simple glaze. For the glaze, mix all ingredients until very smooth (more milk or water can be added as needed.) Either spoon onto the donuts or dip the tops directly into the glaze.

Applie Pie Muffins

The past few weeks, I have been following a bit of a processed sugar/flour detox - so needless to say, that has cut out my weekly baking. However, I really wanted to bake something special for the women who work in my school's cafeteria, so I thought these Apple Pie Muffins would be perfect. I originally found this recipe on Pinterest a couple years ago and baked them once in the States (or at least I thought I had.) This recipe seemed very different from the muffins I remembered!

The biggest difference was the topping, which basically had the consistency of wet sand (rather than a crumbly texture I remember last time (the way the topping looked in the website's photos!) I was so worried that after mixing the topping, I had to return to my computer just to check that I had correctly copied the recipe (I though maybe it should have been white sugar rather than flour - but it definitely called for flour...) Fortunately, the batter proved to be no problem - or at least no more problem than the trouble of peeling and dicing two apples!

When I baked the muffins, I found the batter did not rise all that much - I definitely recommend filling the tins at least ¾ of the way full. Sadly, the topping did not behave as I remembered with my previous Apple Pie Muffins; this time, the topping basically melted and gave the muffins a darker sugar coating (rather than a crumbly top. Since I was not able to actually taste the muffins (since I'm still observing the no sugar/flour diet), I'm forced to rely on Korean taste buds for this review. My co-workers definitely enjoyed these muffins - though they thought the topping was entirely too sweet (I'm guessing that a Westerner wouldn't have had issue with this.) The cake seemed very moist, and definitely smelled wonderful!

Apple Pie Muffins
yields 18-24 muffins

Topping:
½ c. brown sugar
1/3 c. flour
1 t. cinnamon
2 T. butter, melted

Batter:
2¼ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk (or 1 c. milk plus 1 t. vinegar)
½ c. butter, melted
1 t. vanilla
1½ c. brown sugar
2 c. diced apples (about 2 large apples)

Mix topping ingredients until crumb-like and then set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla. Stir in the brown sugar. Without mixing add the flour, baking soda, salt, and apples. Gently fold the mixture until the ingredients are just combined. Be careful not to overmix! Pour into a paper lined muffin tin and bake 375°F (190°C) for 20 minutes. Remove from oven when muffins are firm to the touch.

Banana Bread

Although I love banana bread, I have never been able to find what I consider the "perfect" recipe. I had tried this recipe in the past (and was somewhat satisfied), but I wanted to continue my search for something better. Searching online, I found this highly recommended recipe (though I used the users' comments to altered to get the recipe below.)

Although my Korean co-workers were very pleased with this cake, I was a little disappointed. I used 4 medium-sized bananas, but felt it lacked in banana favor; if I make this again, I would probably up the number of bananas to at least five. I also wish I had used more cinnamon and less nutmeg (I couldn't even taste the cinnamon.) However, my co-workers were quite please, so I guess it wasn't too bad. (It's not as sweet as many banana bread recipes, so that might be why it appealed to them so much...)


Banana Bread
(yields one 9"x5" pan)

2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
½ c. butter, softened
½ c. brown sugar
½ c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla
½ t. nutmeg
½ t. cinnamon
4 ripe bananas
½ c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and spices. Mash bananas and mix with the liquid ingredients. Combine the liquid with the flour mixture, stirring until just mixed. Add the walnuts, and pour batter into a greased 9"x5" pan. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.*

*The original recipe called for a bake time of 60-65 minutes. My banana bread was finished long before that; I would guess that it took closer to 45-50 minutes. Check regularly to see that your bread doesn't burn.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A couple days ago, I went grocery shopping with a friend who just had to buy some discounted pineapple (he was hungry and impulse buying.) When it came time to eat dinner that night, he decided that he was too full to touch the pineapple he'd purchased for dessert. Since it was already past its prime when we bought it, I decided that it was best to make use of this pineapple before it simply rotted in my refrigerator.

I believe I have made a pineapple upside-down cake at some point in my life - but it would have been ages ago. I decided to try this relatively simple recipe, which I found after viewing many other not-so-simple sounding recipes. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this cake was! The only challenges were melting the topping (it seemed like my sugar mixture stayed "gritty" even after boiling for the recommended time.) I also got another work-out with the challenge of beating egg whites to stiff peaks with just a whisk. (I really need to invest in an electric mixer!)

Fortunately, all the effort was worth it because this might be my best-tasting cake yet! I was extremely pleased with how moist the cake was. My only complaint was that my pineapple slices shifted when the cake baked and expanded. If I was baking this cake again, I would probably try to arrange the pineapple rings more tightly in the pan - that or I might just try cutting the slices into smaller chunks so that it formed a more solid layer of pineapple. However, since the cake is delicious, I really can't complain.


Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
(makes one 8-9 inch round cake)

Topping
¼ c. butter
¾ c brown sugar
sliced pineapple

Cake
1½ c flour
2 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
½ c. softened butter
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs, separated
½ c. milk
¼ t. cream of tartar

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan until completely dissolved. Heat the mixture for an additional couple minutes until bubbles form. Pour into a greased 8" (or 9") pan. Add a layer of pineapple rings. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a second bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and egg yolks (one at a time.) Add the milk and flour mixture, alternating between wet and dry ingredients. Mix the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat until stiff peaks form and gently fold into the cake batter. Pour atop the pineapple and bake for 45-50 minutes at 350°F (177°C.) Remove from oven and allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack and then turn over onto a serving dish.