CINNABONS

Hey guys!  It's been awhile!
Well, I'm making cinnabons today and I realized I never put the recipe up before.
The first time I made this was w/ a friend for a bake sale.  We tried the recipe out before we used it for the bake sale, and it was DELICIOUS.  The original recipe is called "Clone of a Cinnabon".  Not exactly and cinnamon roll, not exactly a cinnabon.
And I'm going to try to put up all the recipes I tried out for Christmas last month.  It takes a lot of time to time them all up, so I've kind of been avoiding it...

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CINNABON:

• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
•  
• FILLING:
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
•  
• FROSTING:
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BREAD MACHINE:
1. First put your oven to 200F (unless you have some other area that's warm.  When ready, turn off the oven (this is need to make the dough rise).
2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl (you can add the some or all of the sugar if you want) and wait to see if foaming. 
3. Mix in the sugar (however you prepared it), margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour (you may need to add more if you're using all-purpose flour) and mix well. 
4. Knead the dough (around 12 times) into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. 
5. Put in a bowl and cover it with a wet paper towel.  Place the bowl into the warm oven/warm area (that's turned off) and let rise about 1 hour until doubled in size.
3. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in the warm oven/warm area again until nearly doubled, about 20-30 minutes. 
5. After, take out the rolls and preheat oven to 350F.
6. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

TIPS:

-Make sure to read all my notes in "(...)" in the instructions

-I like to put the unbaked rolls on parchment/wax paper rather than directly on the pan.  It's easier to take out that way and the rolls won't get stuck.

-After the rolls were baked, it's good to flip them over to another pan so the cinnamon syrup can drip back onto the top of the rolls

LINKS:

Clone of a Cinnabon: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clone-of-a-cinnabon/detail.aspx 

Cream Puffs & Swan Cream Puffs

I've really been into baking these days since I've been baking more than usual. And buying my new pastry bags gave me new motivation to set up my own private baking business for school and church. So I decided I wanted to try out lots of French pastries including cream puffs, creme brulee, meringue, and custard. For now I'm starting out with cream puffs since I LOVE them. Originally they should be filled with custard or pudding mixture, but I don't have the time to make that so for this time I'll be filling the puffs with whipped cream. I also found a cool video on youtube on how to make swan cream puffs and they're REALLY EASY.


Cream Puffs:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs

Extra ingredients as suggested:

• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbp sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat egg mixture little by little, mixing well after each time. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or fill a pastry bag and pipe out 1-1 1/2 in. of dough.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry. Poke a hole with a toothpick on the sides of the puffs to release the steam the last couple of minutes of baking. Then turn off the heat and open the oven to let the puffs cool.
4. When the shells are completely cooled, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

Tips:

• It is ESSENTIAL to poke the puffs with a toothpick so it prevents the puff from sagging and deflation later.
• When making the dough and adding eggs, if the dough does not come out sticky and smooth enough (it should NOT still be in a "ball" form), add another egg.
• If making swans, do not pipe too much dough for the head & neck. after baking, the cream puffs will "blow up" a lot so the necks do not need that much.

For Swan cream puffs:
Visit link for visual instructions

• Pipe 1-2 in. oval doughs (this will be the body).
• Then pipe an "S" shape for the neck and head of the swan.
• Pipe more dough on the beginning of the "S" to create a head.

Whipped Cream:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.


Tips:

• You can experiment with whipped cream flavoring by adding small amounts of different extracts such as almond, rum, orange, lemon, etc.
• Add food coloring if you want your cream to be colorful.

Assembly:

1. For the regular cream puffs, simply use a pastry bag to pipe in your whipped cream (or custard if you prefer to use that) by poking a small hole in the puff. If you do not have a pastry bag, simply cut the puffs in half then put in some filling and make a "sandwich".
2. For the swans, take the body and cut it in half. Cut the upper half vertically in half again to make the wings.
3. Fill the lower half of the body with cream until it is "round". Take a neck/head and stick it to the edge of the body into the cream. It should stay upright. Take the wings and stick it to the sides of the body of whip cream. Add more cream if needed.

Optional:
-sprinkle a little confectioner's sugar over the swan and/or chocolate syrup for decoration

Apple Pie

For the last 3 weeks, I've been helping my friend out from school to do a bake sale to help with fundraising for Japan with our Red Cross club. This is the last week, and it's "pie week". We made the crusts at my house and she made the filling with her other friend at another house since I'm too busy. But I needed to make an apple pie for my own family anyways so I did that.

I used both the filling and crust recipes from allrecipes.com. I used Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust and Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I get lots of compliments from this pie from both family and friends, especially from the crust. My own family is actually not very fond of pies, but the only pie they will eat are my apple pies. :)









Pie Crust:
Adapted from Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust
Yields about 2 crusts

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups shortening
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Tips:

• Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge (makes it easier to roll out later).
• When rolling out the dough to make the crust, sprinkle flour on and around the dough.

Apple Pie:
Adapted from MOSHASMAMA

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced (you don't have to use smith apples, I simply use what I have on hand)

Additions:
Based off of the reviews on this pie, here are the adjustments I got to make this even better tasting. :)
ADD EXTRA:

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbp vanilla (take out 1 tbps of water)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar (and extra ingredients), and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Mix sliced apples with syrup (save some to brush on top of crust).
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan and brush with egg white (to prevent sogginess). Fill with apples mixed in syrup, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently brush leftover syrup over the crust.
3. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until apples are soft.

Tips:

• Place flat pan with foil underneath pie for drips in oven later.
• Place shelf in the middle of the oven,
• The thicker your crust is, the longer it will have to be in the oven.