Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

These are a tradition for Christmas morning, served with quiche and fruit. We do make them other times...a rainy day always make me feel like a good, gooey cinnamon roll.

The Dough:
2/3 cup milk
4 Tablespoons butter
1 cup canned/fresh pumpkin puree
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast
2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
(I use all white whole wheat flour and add a couple tablespoons of gluten.)

I heat the milk and butter until the butter is almost melted. Beat the eggs. Adding all the ingredients to my bread machine. I place this in my bread machine on the dough setting. :) Easy.

If you don't have a bread machine: Heat the milk and butter until butter is mostly melted into the milk. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, butter, pumpkin, sugar, and salt until evenly combined. Add 2 cups of the flour along with the yeast to the bowl and mix until smooth. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and knead/mix until a soft dough comes together. You may need to add a little extra flour to make the dough workable, but only add a bit at a time. This is supposed to be a very soft dough! Lightly flour your countertop and knead the dough for a couple turns until you have a smooth dough. Lightly grease another large bowl and turn dough into it. Rub the surface of the dough lightly with a neutral oil, such as canola, cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.


The Filling:
This changes...
~3/4 c. butter
I add cinnamon until it is the color brown I want...maybe 2 Tablespoons.
~ 1/2 c. sugar

Sometimes I add other spices, or brown sugar. Mix this into a smooth mixture and spread over rolled out dough. Sprinkle with nuts, dried cranberries, raisins...whatever your heart desires.

Roll length wise and cut into a dozen 1 1/2" to 2" wide portions. Place in an oiled 13 x 9 pan.

Now you can let rise in a warm place for 40 min or so. Or you can cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. This makes Christmas morning much easier.

If you rise right away: After rising, place them in a 350 degree preheated over for 30 minutes. Remove and glaze/frost.

If you opt for overnight: About an hour before you want to serve the rolls, remove plastic wrap from the rolls and set in an oven with the light on. Place a pan of boiling water on the rack below the rolls, close the oven and allow to warm for about 30 minutes. When you can no longer feel a chill coming from the dough when your hand is lightly placed on top, remove pans from the oven and preheat to 350F. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove and glaze/frost.

Glaze/Frostings:

I oftentimes just use a basic glaze of powdered sugar mixed with orange juice/lemon juice to make it runny. You can use as much as you want.

The picture is a cream cheese based frosting with a bit of extra oj glaze. I had a tub of Trader Joe's Orange Cranberry Marscapone Cream Cheese leftover and decided to use it. You can easily make a cream cheese frosting with:

4 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk/orange juice

Mix until creamy and spread on top of warm rolls. You can add cinnamon, lemon juice (less sweet), marscapone, or cranberries.

Always good, but I like them warm with a good cup of coffee.

Crepes

Sweet, savory, fruit, veggies, cheese, fresh herbs...fill them with whatever you want.

Tonight we had them filled with cheese and vegetables. I used sauteed red onion, mushroom, zucchini and garlic. The cheese was a mix of sharp cheddar and cottage cheese with lots of oregano and pepper.

Morning crepes are great filled with fruit, yogurt and cottage cheese. Top with whip cream and powdered sugar.

Crepe Batter
(This batter needs to sit for at least an hour or overnight.)

4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups of flour (I used WW Pastry)
1 - 2 cups of milk (any type or combination of types)

Blend together all crepe ingredients, using one cup of milk, to a smooth batter. Let rest 1 hour or overnight. Blend briefly before using. If the batter is still thick after a cup of milk add more until you have a runny mixture. I have in the past added up to a cup more depending on the flour. Heat an 8-inch skillet or crepe pan to med-low. Grease pan and pour in enough batter to lightly coat bottom of pan. Cook until just starting to brown. Flip gently and brown the other side. Remove from pan. Fill and roll up. Enjoy the versatility.

If you are doing a sweet crepe and want a sweeter batter, add a tablespoon of honey to the batter.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with a Vegan "Buttercream" Frosting

I took this cake to a Fourth of July party last night and have been asked for the recipe. So since I am not great at measuring or remembering exactly what I did, I am quickly posting while it is still *mostly* in my head! Hope it works for everyone as well as it worked for me. I only had a small piece left, so not the best picture ever...

3 cups flour (I used a mix of whole wheat pastry and rice)
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons vinegar (I used cider)
1 cup water
1 cup milk (I used a mix of coconut and whole grain milks)

~ Oil, flour and line two round cake pans or one 13 X 9. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
~ Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar and stir.
~ In a mixing bowl mix oil, applesauce, vanilla, vinegar, water and milk.
~ Add dry mixture to wet mixture in several parts and mix until smooth.
~ Bake for 30 t0 40 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.


Elias asked for a sweet frosting like on a normal cake. I am a huge fan of cream cheese/whip cream frostings and don't care for buttercreams, but he prevailed. I think the frosting was too sweet, and would cut back on sugar next time. I did spread it thin and topped it with unsweetened coconut. I didn't want to distract from the coconut I put on top and didn't add a larger amount of lemon juice as I normally would have. So here is an estimate on what I did do....

1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup vegan shortening
~ 3 cups powdered sugar (I have no clue how much I just dump in until I get the right consistency)
1 - 2 Tablespoons of milk (I used coconut)
a teaspoon of vanilla
a dash of lemon juice

~ Beat the margarine and shortening until creamy.
~ Add powdered sugar until you have the consistency you like taking turns with a bit of milk, vanilla and lemon juice.

I topped this with coconut, but you could add any flavor you wanted including cocoa powder and top with nuts, seeds, fruit etc.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

These brownies are incredibly dark in flavor. They are a bit on the bitter side, so if you like a sweeter brownie add a larger quantity of sugar. I think they are perfect for a scoop of ice cream. Let the brownies cool before removing them from the pan, as they will crumble when hot (still taste good though!)

1 cup butter
1.75 - 2.5 cups sugar
4 large eggs
scant 1.5 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
1.5 cup flour
4 ounces of dark chocolate, chopped (or about 2 cups dark chocolate chips)
Nuts if you so desire!

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13″ x 9″ pan.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

Add the sugar and melt just until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

In another bowl, crack eggs and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth.

Stir the butter mixture into the egg mixture until smooth.

Stir in the flour and chocolate. Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool before serving.

Plethora of Peaches

We purchased a case of peaches at the co-op. I thought it would give me an opportunity to freeze some for smoothies, oatmeal, etc later on. They were really good peaches and we ate the vast majority of them just sliced. Some of them made it into pancakes or oatmeal and the other day a number of them jumped into a pie.

My mom had a custard type of peach pie recipe that was wonderful. It has since been lost and I am now in a quest for a good recipe. This version was pretty good, but not as good as my memory of mom's (granted the memory tends to make everything taste much better!).

The recipe (which is approximate since I never measured):

1 pie crust
Mine was whole wheat (butter, flour, salt, water)
2 T. flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 - 4 T brown sugar (My peaches were sweet so I sprinkled in very little)
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract
6 - 7 peaches, diced


~ Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place prepared pie crust in pie plate.
~ Sprinkle in flour.
~ Whisk eggs, cream, yogurt, sugar, vanilla and almond together.
~ Add peaches and stir. Pour into pie pan.
~ Cook until center is set ~30 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Craving Experiments

Rice krispy treats sounded really good today. Unfortunately I don't keep around rice krispies...I did have puffed millet! So in a "why not" mood we created these:


I have given up calling them "millet krispy treats" and we just call anything of this variety Krispies. A couple tablespoons of butter, bag of small marsh mellows melted together. I then added some peanut butter (~ 3/4 cup) and stirred in ~ 6 cups of puffed millet and a handful of cranberries. I was going to add sunflower seeds and saw them sitting on the counter all lonely after I had finished. Place in a greased 13 x 9 pan and press using wax paper. Cool and cut.

These turned out wonderfully and are so easily adjustable.

Nut Butter

Almost finished pressing and then I will freeze them so we can have cookies the first week this baby is here.

3/4 c. nut butter of your choice (almond, cashew, peanut...)
1/2 c. butter or oil
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

Heat oven to 375. Cream nut butter, butter/oil, sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Stir together the dry ingredients and add in several parts to butter mixture. Beat well at each addition.

Roll the dough into one inch balls and press with fork in an x pattern...I cinnamon and sugar coat the fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Trail Mix Cookies

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 banana
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup oats
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 c. almonds
1/2 c. coconut

Heat oven to 375. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl. Mix the brown sugar, applesauce, eggs, margarine, and vanilla in another bowl. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Add oats the rest of the ingredients.

Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp organic sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease.
Combine cinnamon and 3 Tbsp sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tarter and salt then set aside.
In a large bowl beat sugar with softened butter for 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and then roll in cinnamon mixture to cover. Place cookies two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until the tops are light golden brown. Do not over bake.
Allow cookies to cool for two minutes before removing them from the baking sheet. Transfer to rack to cool completely.

I figured since I have had several requests for the Chai cookie recipe and a couple of other requests, I would place all the cookie recipes I made this week up.

From Left to Right - (top) Chocolate Chip Walnut, Snickerdoodles,(bottom) Almond Butter, Chai, Trail Mix

Chai Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cupa whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter with granulated sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until well blended. Stir in flour, spices and salt until just combined.

Scoop and roll dough into small teaspoon-sized balls and place about an inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then cool completely on rack. If you want them sweeter you can sprinkle them in powdered sugar after baking.