Another season, another wreath

Nearly a month and a half later, it seems I've finally come across something I've loved too much to not post on the blog. There have been plenty of times I've thought to share something, but life has gotten in the way... Work to be done. Doctor's appointments galore. A messy house that I swear produces more dust than any other house on the planet. Holidays. Growing a human in my belly. You know, those kinds of things.

Anyway, I find it all too funny that my last post was about a felt fall wreath. Why? Because though the autumn decor has since been taken down and replaced by Christmas trimmings, there is still a new wreath in my life. And this one you can eat! It's a cinnamon roll wreath, inspired by a photo on Pinterest I repinned months ago.

After visiting the original site (which, humorously, is a forum for people who like to cook while camping), I was inspired by the idea but wasn't sold on two things: the original recipe and the SIZE. It was made to feed about 20 people, and I just wanted to bring some treats to our staff meeting. So I went perusing allrecipes.com to find a recipe I was happier with.

I landed on this one, which did NOT disappoint. Be forewarned, the gooey cinnamon goodness does ooze out of the buns quite a bit (it dripped off my baking sheet and onto the bottom of the oven, which then had to be scrubbed and cleaned). If not for Christmas, I would definitely just make these in a muffin pan in the future, per recipe instructions... but for this special season, I had to go all out. I made a cream cheese frosting to top them, but let everyone frost to their heart's content after the wreath was broken into.

Cinnamon Roll Wreath

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water, egg and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
3. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, softened margarine.
4. Roll out dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Spread dough with margarine/sugar mixture. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in 12 lightly greased muffin cups.  (To make a wreath, score dough log into 12 portions that are still connected, about 3/4 of the way through. Shape log into a circle, connecting the ends, and fanning out the individual buns until you are happy with the shape) Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until browned. If applicable, remove from muffin cups to cool. Serve warm.

NOTE: I wanted these for an early morning meeting, so I made the dough and filling and prepared up until Step 4 the night before. Then, I covered the entire pan with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. The next morning, I took the wreath out 30 minutes before I wanted to bake it so that it could come to room temperature and re-rise. I baked as per instructions. Still came out super fresh, without having to wake up at the crack of dawn.

Original recipe found at: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ninety-minute-cinnamon-rolls/detail.aspx

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies

There has to be a better name for these delightful cookies. Obviously, the title of this post is pretty indicative of what these guys are all about. What I wish it expressed is the perfect ratio of sweet and salty, soft and crunchy, and chocolate and peanut butter baked into one oh-so-good treat.

The first time I made these at Bryan's parents' house, they were gobbled up overnight with a request for another batch the following day. Making batches in pairs seems to be the trend, because when I made these last week for a Bible study (in my antique oven, of course), they were devoured...only to be requested a few short days later when my family came into town. The great thing is that when you purchase the ingredients, there's enough in each bag to make them more than once.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Pretzel Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen


1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter at room temp.
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup smashed pretzel pieces
Sea Salt

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl or stand-up mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

3. Add the sifted flour mixture and beat just until there are no big streaks of flour. You don't want to over-mix the dough. Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips, as well as pretzel pieces.

4. The original recipe calls to refrigerate the dough at this point for an hour. In the four times I've made these, I've done it twice and just baked it then twice. I've never noticed a difference. Whether your dough is room temp or cold, scoop well rounded tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The dough will not spread much while baking, so you may want to smoosh them down a little bit. Sprinkle amount of sea salt on top of each dough ball. Trust me. You don't want to omit that step. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are slightly golden brown. Allow to cool on a baking sheet for a few minutes before removing them.


Recipe found here.

Fourth of July Cake

This was not my idea. I don't know how people come up with an idea like putting an American flag inside a cake, but I sure do wish I had thought of it first.

That said, this cake was my contribution to our family's Independence Day festivities. It was a big hit --I mean, who wouldn't love a flag inside a cake?-- but the best part about it was, it honestly wasn't that hard. Time consuming, yes, but not difficult to execute. Trust me, I'm confident you could do it.

I realize sharing a 4th of July cake on the morning of the 4th of July doesn't give you much time to make one up for yourselves, but maybe the idea of it will get your creative juices flowing... I'm thinking Christmas tree in a cake? Easter egg? Pumpkin? The possibilities are endless. So here's a little how-to-bake-your-own-Old-Glory.

You will need:

• 2 boxes of cake mix (and ingredients indicated in package directions)
• Red and blue food coloring
• A minimum of two 8-inch round cake pans
• One circular cookie cutter, 4 inches in diameter
• Frosting. You could use the stuff from a can, but why bother when you can easily whip up a delicious homemade frosting? I made a fantastic almond cream cheese frosting, found here.

Step 1: Bake the cakes (two of them). I totally cheated and used boxed cake mix. And I'm not ashamed. I used white cake mix and added 1 Tbsp. of almond extract, because it's delicious. Here's the thing though... you have to dye the cakes (duh), which requires some planning. You will need 2 layers of red cake (=one whole cake), 1 layer of white (=1/2 cake), and 1 layer of blue (=1/2 cake). Still tracking with me? No? Let's try this again. Bake one box cake mix, prepared according to package directions and dyed with red food coloring, in TWO 8-inch round pans. Then, prepare a second box of cake mix. While it is still white, pour half of the batter into ONE 8-inch round pan, then dye the second half of the batter blue, and pour it into another pan. When all the baking is complete, you will have 2 thick red layers, 1 thick white layer, and 1 thick blue layer. 4 layers total.

Whew!

Step 2: While your cakes are cooling, take some time to make your frosting. If you're using stuff from a can, skip to the next step. The cream cheese frosting recipe I used was super simple (and absolutely delicious.)
       1 (8-oz) stick of cream cheese, room temp.
       1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, room temp.
       1 tsp. flavored extract (I used almond, you could use vanilla)
       4 cups of powdered sugar
       Milk

• Place butter into large mixer and beat on low-medium speed for about 15 seconds. Add cream cheese, and blend until combined, about 30 more seconds. Add almond extract and powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed until the frosting starts to get fluffy. Add milk slowly until frosting reaches desired consistency. I only needed about a tablespoon to make a nice, spreadable frosting.
• NOTE: Since this is made with perishable dairy products, keep refrigerated until you're ready it use it, and store any extra in the refrigerator.

Step 3: After the cakes have cooled completely, use a serrated knife to cut the red and white layers in half. This will give you 4 thinner red layers and 2 thinner white layers. DO NOT cut the blue.

Now you're ready to start assembly!

Step 4: Beginning with a red layer, start building your cake. Use frosting between your layers to create a stack of 3 layers, red, white, and red.

Step 5: For the top part of the cake, you will need to hollow out the inside of your thick blue layer. Use a 4-inch circular cookie cutter to remove the center of the layer. Then, stack it on top of the red and white layers you've started building.

Step 6: Use the same cookie cutter to remove the center of the remaining thin red and white layers. This part works like a puzzle. You're going to put the smaller white and red circles you just cut inside of the hole in the blue layer. Make sure to frost around the inside of the blue, and between your white and red layers. When you're done, the exterior should look like this.

Now comes the fun part! Decorate the outside of your cake however you like. I chose to leave the frosting plain, but I've been loving all the cake bunting on Pinterest, so I cut out some red and blue stars from scrapbook paper and threaded them together with dental floss (hey- it's all I had on hand!). I used kebab skewers to keep it in place, and added ribbon to be festive.

I'll be honest, at this point, it was about 11 pm (I got a late start), and the kitchen was an absolute mess. I'm not a very clean cook to begin with, but add late-night sleepies to the mix, and things start getting reaaal sloppy. But I couldn't stop! 

Despite this fun, flag-tastic, FINISHED cake in front of me, all I could think about was the pile of the leftover cakes still on the counter... you know, the outside of the red and white rings from the top, the center of the blue, and a whole layer of red that went completely untouched.  What a waste! So I did what any girl would do with a demolished cake. No, I did not start a food fight with Bryan (who was sweetly helping me with all my dirty dishes)...though in hindsight, that would have been fun. 

I made cake pops! 

Watching the clock tick its way far past my bedtime, I knew I was in for at least another hour's worth of work, but the cake was already baked and I figured my Sunday school class would be happily surprised with the treats. (PS, for those of you who have not yet been introduced to the world of these bite-sized, heavenly treats, I suggest you hop on over to Bakerella.com and spend at least an hour drooling over the endless possibilities of mini cakes on a stick.)

Moving on... I smashed up all the leftover cake in a large bowl, got out a can of frosting (I was out of the good stuff by now), quickly mixed 1 Tbsp. of almond into the frosting, and added enough frosting to hold the cake crumbs together. Then I rolled them into bite-sized balls. For an ordinary cake pop recipe, you'd usually add about one whole can, depending on how moist your cake is, but since this was less than a whole cake's worth, I just kept adding a little more until I found a good consistency. Too much frosting will make your (dough?) too sticky and difficult to roll and/or dip in chocolate.

A half hour in the freezer later, and these guys were ready to be stuck with lolly sticks, dipped in dark chocolate, and drizzled with some festive red and white candy melts. Okay, okay, the drizzling was probably excessive considering it was nearly 1 am at this point-- but I can't do anything halfheartedly.

Please excuse the mess. I told you I'm no Mrs. Clean in the kitchen, especially past bed time.

Ahhh, all done. And it all worked out lovely! The cake did, indeed, look like a flag when I cut it, and the cake pops were g-o-n-e by the time I walked out of church on Sunday. Success!

I hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July! And it's still not too late to make your own patriotic treats to celebrate our great country!

(Worlds Largest) Zucchini Bread

This is one of those times where I just have no idea how to start a post. I mean, how do you intro a squash the size of a newborn baby? Really. The harder I've thought and the longer I've stared at my blinking cursor, the more I've realized that there are just no words. Nope. None. Well, except for the 58 it just took me to describe my attitude of speechlessness. Really, take a gander at the giant gourd for yourself.

Am I not right? Is this picture not worth a thousand 58 words? I mean... come on... it's over a foot long!

You're probably wondering where this big boy came from. Which is a fair question. Here's what I gathered... a friend of Bry's grandma has a garden and apparently neglected harvesting her zucchini for a decade, giving it time to grow to this epic size. And then it came home with g'ma. And now it's baked into two scrumptious loaves of bread (well, half of it is anyway-- more on that later).


As I was peeling and grating the gourd, I got to wondering... just how big is the world's largest zucchini? So for those of you who are dying with curiosity, here's your answer: the longest recorded was 69.5 inches, and it weighed 16 lbs. By my calculations, that's over 21 loaves of bread out of one zucchini. You're welcome for sharing that, by the way... I know you'll sleep better at night with that valuable piece of information tucked away in your veggie-lovin' brain.


Moving on... I found this recipe for "Sophie's Zucchini Bread" and thought it looked pretty good. So I got out all my ingredients and started a'siftin and a'mixin...

That is... until I encountered the part that told me to add 1 CUP of vegetable oil. Cringe. One cup? My fact-loving brain couldn't handle it! How many calories would there be in an entire cup of oil?!? I'll give you a hint: it's A LOT. That's right, there are 1,927 calories in a cup of oil, according to this website. Another fun fact, there are only 70 calories in a cup of applesauce. So, I made the 1,857 calorie switch and used a cup of Mott's in place of the oil (but neglected to photograph, so you'll have to take my word for it).


In the end I had two tasty loaves of much healthier zucchini bread. In mismatched pans. No big deal. Such is life when you're cookin in somebody else's kitchen.

(Erin's version of) Sophie's Zucchini Bread  
Makes 2 loaves


3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup applesauce
3 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, baking powder. In separate bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar, vanilla, and applesauce and mix well. Add zucchini to egg mixture.  Add dry ingredients, mixing well (but careful not to over-mix. Batter should be just beyond moistened). Stir in nuts if desired. Pour into 2 ungreased loaf pans. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.


Oh, and remember how I said it only took half of the squash-of-the-century to make these 2 loaves? I labeled and froze the remaining 3 cups for another recipe in the future. Gotta love a veggie that keeps on feedin'!

Symphony Brownies

I did it again. Another pants-popping dessert. I'm out of control over here, people.

Most days, I find myself perusing the pantry just to see what's hiding in there. Yesterday, while pilfering the baking bin, I found 3 Symphony bars. You know, those huge chocolate bars with toffee and almonds inside.

What in the world did we have those for? So I asked the pantry-stocker of the house, Bryan's grandma. She informed me that she makes brownies with them. Umm, brownies with delicious candy inside? Sign me up! So, in the spirit of baking something delicious inside something even more delicious, I put those slabs of chocolatey goodness to use and cooked me up some heavenly brownies.

Symphony Brownies
Makes 24 brownies


1 box brownie mix with walnuts (I prefer DH)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brownies according to package directions. Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x13 pan. Place Symphony bars on top and cover with remaining batter. Bake according to package directions, or until cooked through the center.

Photos found  here, here, and here.

Oreo-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Something that's always been a source of comfort for me is baking. When I was living in the Middle East for a year, taking some time to whip up something familiar brought me peace in times of homesickness. Now that Bryan and I are married, I take that same comfort in being able to toss in a quick batch of cookies. And throw in living with the in-laws on top of that... you better believe this girl is a baking machine! What can I contribute to a house full of adults if not some warm, chocolatey goodness at the end of a long day at the office?

Anyway... cookies are one baked good in particular that I enjoy trying new recipes for. So when I saw this photo on Pinterest a while back (after I wiped the drool off my chin), I decided these puppies were going to make an appearance in our kitchen asap.

Photo Credit: http://veryculinary.com

Due to the sheer size of these Oreo-stuffed monsters, I made only half a batch to start. I'd say it was a good decision too, considering one cookie has the equivalent of 2 servings of dough plus a double stuffed Oreo inside. If there were more than 12 of these lurking around the house at a time, I'd probably outgrow my waistband just by calorie osmosis.

Seriously, that is one pregnant cookie.

But moving on... this is what you really want. The Recipe. And trust me, you're going to want to have a glass of milk handy. Enjoy!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 24 cookies
Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 13 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 package Double Stuff Oreo cookies

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In medium bowl mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.

With a cookie scoop, form balls with the dough.

Smoosh each ball a bit, and place one ball on top of an Oreo cookie, and another ball on the bottom. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is fully enclosed with dough.

Place onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheets and bake cookies for approximately 13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Recipe from: http://veryculinary.com