What else to do on a lazy saturday morning?  What goes great with Coffee or Hot Chocolate?  Why Cinnamon Buns do.

I love the sweet buttery, cinnamon smell thes buns give off when the bake.  It fills the whole house with that wonderful fragrence.

Here is my reciepe for for Cinnamon Buns.

For the Dough:
3-3/4 cups of AP flour
4 tsp. of yeast
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of softened room temp butter
1 cup very warm milk

The Filling:
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tbls cinnamon
1 tbls apple pie spice
1 pinch of nutmeg
Softened Butter

The Glaze
1 1/2 cups of 10x (powdered sugar)
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Milk, enough to thinn out to a nice glaze you can drizzle over the top
Add 1/2 of the flour and all the other dry ingredients together.  Add the milk and butter.  Mix on medium for about 2 minutes.  Add the rest of the flour to form a nice dough. Knead about 5 minutes till smooth and supple.  Rise for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Punch down dough and roll out to about 10 x 15 on a lightly floured surface.  Rub enough softend butter over all of the top of the dough.  Mix all the filling ingrediantsthen spread out all of the filling over the top of the dough.  Begin rolling up starting on the 15 inch side. Roll tightly.  Trim end to make even.

Cut into even rounds, using a serrated knife.  Place into buttered 9×13 pan.  Or you can cut into larger rounds for giant rolls, in that case use your choice of pan for desired results.  Let rise again for 30 minutes. Here are the rolls after the second rise.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  I like to go a little less since I like a more doughy style roll.  Remove from oven and let set about 5 minutes before removing from pans.  Remove to cool on a cooling rack.

I have finally come to grips with making bread. Real bread, not bread machine bread. I was tired of the funny shaped loaves that the bread machine makes. So I put on my big girl panties and started to knead!

These cool fall days scream out for warm toasty bread straight from the oven. And the smell is like heaven. I wonder if they make bread scented candles????

I find that I am really loving egg breads right now. This is a modified Challah bread, but made in a loaf instead of the braided loaf. I love the looks of the braid, but well, I just dont find the braided bread makes good sammichs!

This is one recipe that is a no fail for me.

3-3.5 cups of bread or all purpose flour
1 cup warm water
1/4 ounce of yeast
2 eggs (room temp)
2 tbls veggie oil
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp sugar

I like to mix half of the flour with the other ingredients for about 2-4 minutes on low with a hand mixer. Then spoon in the remaining flour as needed. You may need more of less flour depending.

Place on lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl ( I use Pam cooking spray) place in warm part of your kitchen to rise about 1 hour until almost doubled. I like to turn my oven on to warm for about 3-5 minutes, then turn it off and place the bowl inside the oven to rise. When its minus 40 outside my kitchen is not warm enough to get a good rise out of the dough.

After risen, punch down the dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Roll out dough with the width aprox. the size of your bread pan, in a rectangle shape. Roll up dough lightly and place in greased bread pan with the seam side down and edges tucked in if they are too long. Let rise again for 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can brush with egg wash and put poppy seeds or seasme seeds on top as well.

Bake at 375 for aprox. 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and a light tapping on the top and bottom of loaf make a nice hollow sound. Turn out and cool on cooling rack.

I love to serve this with a nice honey butter or a compound butter of garlic and rosemary.

Ahhh, fall is here in Alaska. The first snowfall of the year has come. The days are getting shorter and the temps are falling fast.

The perfect time of year to enjoy apple pastries. This is very similar to the Recipe from the Barefoot Contessa, with a little Susie twist.

It is a beautiful pastry, sweet but tart with a lovely crisp pastry. I love to serve this warm with creme fraiche or lightly sweetened cream.

Here is my simple recipe

3 Granny Smith Apples, or a good cooking apple of your choice
1 prepared puff pasty sheet, rolled out to about 10×10
1/2 stick of butter
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/3 cup of Mango Jam/Preserves

Roll out the puff pastry and place on silpat or parchment on a baking sheet. Lightly prick with a fork, but leave the outside edge un-pricked. This will let the edges puff up when baking, but you dont want the center to puff up and ruin the crust. Peel and cut apples in to even slices. Arrange slices in a decorative pattern on the pastry crust.

Mix nutmeg, sugars, and cinnamon together. I like to put this in a shaker and shake over the top of the apples. Cube the butter, actually you can use less butter than this but I love butter! And sprinkle on top of apples.

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Keep an eye on this. You want the apples to carmalize but not burn. And you want to look for a nice brown puff crust. Remove from oven when done. Depending on how thick your apples are it could be more than 40 or less than 40 🙂

Take your Mango Jam and heat on the stove or microwave until its melted down and gooey. Add some water to think it out a bit. Brush this over the top of the pastry. Slice and add your cream. Perfect desert!

I would like to introduce myself. I am Susie. I currently live in Fairbanks, Alaska. I love food and cooking. I am on a personal journey to try new tastes, flavors, and most of all to have fun with my food.

I hope you enjoy what you see!

Bon Appetit!