Cinnamon Roll Cake with Maple Drizzle

tastes like a cinnamon roll, but is far less annoying.

I love cinnamon rolls.  I LOVE THEM.  I think the only thing I love as much as cinnamon rolls is s’mores.  Recently, I  made the frozen kind in the tube, and forbade Dom from eating any.  (He doesn’t cook, he doesn’t get dibs, that’s my rule.)  I’m even territorial about the kind of gross, frozen, in-tube kind of cinnamon rolls.  You should see how nasty I get over homemade cinnamon rolls.

The thing about homemade cinnamon rolls is that they are a giant pain in the arse (arse is less offensive than a** because it’s British, you know).  There are two things in cooking that I hate: baking with yeast and deep frying at home, and the reasons are because I am impatient and because I hate a mess.  I made Alton Brown’s Cinnamon Rolls a long time ago, and while those were heavenly, they both required yeast AND made a big mess.  The good news is that cooking blogs are always coming up with ways for lazy bakers like me to eat cinnamon rolls without using yeast/waiting for dough to rise/waiting for it to rise again/rolling it out/waiting overnight.

Like this Cinnamon Roll Cake.  It’s basically a homemade version of the in-tube store bought cinnamon rolls, except cake batter instead of yeast.  It even has a sugar/butter mixture you spread on top and then swirl around.  It’s also REALLY easy and doesn’t make a ton of cake, which is probably best for everyone.

I timed myself, and this took 21 minutes, from measuring out the ingredients as I went, to melting the butter in the microwave, to softening the other butter in the microwave*, to spooning on the butter/sugar, to swirling it around with a knife to getting it in the oven.  21 minutes. Plus 5 minutes to make the icing.

*My A+ method for softening refrigerated butter to room temperature: take the stick, in the wrapper, and microwave it 5 seconds at a time, turning it after each 5 seconds, probably 4-5 times.  This method does require you have a reasonably deep understanding of your microwave’s cooking strength, but if you’re concerned, turn the power down to about half and I promise you this will work like a charm.  If your butter is frozen, instead of refrigerated, as mine often is, do the same thing, except use the defrost setting for the 5 second increments, and then after 6 or 7 of them, switch to full strength.  The method isn’t as foolproof for frozen butter as it is for refrigerated butter.

Cinnamon Roll Cake with Maple Drizzle, from Cooking for Seven

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup all purpose)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, melted

For the topping:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp flour

For the icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 tbsp maple syrup

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, and spray Pam on an 8 inch cake pan.  In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients for the cake, the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Into that bowl, mix the egg, milk and vanilla, and mix until just combined.  Then, slowly mix in the melted butter until combined.  Pour the batter into the cake pan and set aside.

Next, in a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients: the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, until well mixed.  Drop this in spoonfuls onto the cake batter, and then spread it out across the top of the cake.  Take a knife and swirl the topping into the cake batter, so it looks like this:

mmm, sugary butter.

Bake the cake for 28-32 minutes, until the top is set and a toothpick inserted into it comes out with only a few crumbs.

when it's done baking, it should look like this. firm to the touch, but with valleys from the melted butter.

While it’s baking, mix together the icing ingredients: maple syrup and powdered sugar, until it’s a drizzly texture.  When the cake comes out, let it cool until room temperature or just slightly warm, then drizzle the cake with the icing.  Serve warm or at room temperature, or hide it from whoever you live with and eat it on the sly.

- Cat

i probably should have baked 3 of them.

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

isn't that mug pretty? i never use it.

Perhaps it’s a result of my upbringing in cider mill country (if you’ve never eaten a cinnamon sugar cider mill donut while drinking fresh apple cider, you haven’t lived), or of my Grandma Bev’s much loved snickerdoodle recipe (I didn’t know she didn’t invent them until I went to middle school and wondered who in the hell had stolen my grandma’s recipe when I saw snickerdoodles in the lunch line), but I’m a real sucker for cinnamon sugar things.  Churros, elephant ears, donuts, cookies, cinnamon toast, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, leftover pie dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and rolled up into perfect little swirls (without cinnamon also called, in some adorable Nebraskan circles, Sugar Pie).  All delicious. Cinnamon sugar biscotti is like a grown up version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, in that it’s elegant, you can dunk it in coffee and no one judges you for eating it, but it pretty much tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I think my personal baked goods provider (Linda) originally made me cinnamon sugar biscotti, but now I don’t live with her anymore and recently when I asked her to make me some she said make it yourself.  So I did.

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti, adapted from Giada de Laurentiis’ recipe

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

cinnamon sugar, for sprinkling

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.  When fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time.  Beat in the flour, salt and baking powder until just combined.

On a parchment lined cookie sheet, arrange the dough in a kind of long, oval blob, like this:

i sprinkled some cinnamon on it and forgot to tell you to do that.

Bake the blob for 40 minutes, until golden.  It will expand a lot, like this:

gigantor cookie blob.

Let the blob cool for about a half hour or so, move it to a cutting board, then cut it diagonally into strips with a serrated knife.  Arrange the slices on the cookie sheet, cut side up, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for another 15 minutes, turn all the biscotti over so the opposite cut side is facing up, sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar and bake another 7-10 minutes.  The idea is to let them get as dry and crunchy as possible without burning them.  This will probably be easier for everyone not living in the drippiest, moistest region of these United States.

Notes:

I store these in a container with a lid, but I just lay the lid on the container, I don’t close it up.  That way, they’ll stay drier instead of moisten up in there.

You don’t have to make this biscotti cinnamon sugar flavor.  Remove the cinnamon from the batter and you have biscotti base that you can add anything to!  Here are some ideas: orange zest and almonds, then dip the biscotti in chocolate; cranberries and pecans, then dip the biscotti in chocolate; pistachios and chocolate chips, then dip the biscotti in chocolate; espresso powder and chocolate chips, then dip the biscotti in chocolate.

- Cat

Snickerdoodles

I LOVE cookies. Love them. Who doesn’t? I have a lot of favorite cookies, and I like them all for different reasons, I love cookies with nuts in them, and cookies with butterscotch in them, and cookies with oatmeal in them, and cookies with white chocolate in them.  But what I really like are classic cookies, like snickerdoodles! This is one of those cookies where I have memories of making these with my mom and my sister, and rolling the little balls in the cinnamon sugar mix. They are a perfect “kid” cookie, because they are so fun to make! I have a secret ingredient though…a few secrets really. I’m sure all of you have a snickerdoodle recipe…but this is mine, and it’s probably better than yours. (ok, I’m just kidding, but seriously, take some of these ideas into consideration)

Ingredients:

1 stick salted butter, softened

1 stick margarine softened, or 8 tbs butter flavored Crisco

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg

Rolling sugar:

¼ cup sugar

2 Tbs cinnamon

Method:

Cream the butter and the sugar (use a wooden spoon, cookies always taste best when you do it this way!) Add the eggs, and beat until combined. Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda, the salt, and the nutmeg. Beat until combined. Add remaining 1 ¾ cup of flour and beat. Cover and chill dough for at least an hour (or overnight) for easier rolling.

Combine the ¼ cup sugar and 2 Tbs cinnamon in a small shallow dish. Form the dough into ½ inch balls (or close to that, it’s snickerdoodles, they can be bite size or huge!) Roll the ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Make sure to place the balls 2 inches apart (Snickerdoodles spread a lot).

Bake for 8-10 mins at 400 degrees. ** (that means see notes below)

Don’t they look delicious? Maybe if you’re really nice, I’ll send you some for your birthday.

Now for the notes section:

** How large, or small, you make you’re snickerdoodle balls is going to affect your cooking time. I would start with 8 mins, but keep an eye on them. Snickerdoodles are notorious for cracking on the top. So watch closely, when they have a few cracks in the top, they are ready to come out. Remember, cookies continue to bake for a few minutes out of the oven.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, nutmeg is the “secret” ingredient. It’s nothing that special or amazing, but I think it gives just another hint of flavor to the cookies that is really delicious. Cinnamon and nutmeg are a great little pair.

Also, dark brown sugar. This will make the dough a little bit darker in color, but again, it adds depth of flavor. You could of course use light brown, or just use white sugar if you like.

Last but not least- margarine or butter Crisco. Yes, it’s not my favorite ingredient…but in cookies, it makes them soft! If you use all butter your cookies will be really crispy. I like to use both because butter has better flavor, and the “other stuff” makes it soft.

-Sue

Homemade Graham Crackers

So I’m just going to throw it out there. I’m not a super huge fan of graham crackers. However, this may have just changed that. I made these because I wanted a homemade graham cracker as a component of a deconstructed key lime pie that I’m making as a dessert special for my restaurant this week. I did a little research and found a recipe on smitten kitchen (one of my favorite blogs, if you haven’t already, you should read it). The end result of these graham crackers was delightful; they have a distinct honey flavor, and a hint of molasses from the dark brown sugar. Let me just tell you, these would make the best smores EVER.

On to the recipe for homemade graham crackers, from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups plus 2 tbs all purpose flour

1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp kosher salt

1/3 cup mild-flavored honey, such as clover (I used local Colorado honey)

5 tbs milk (full fat is recommended, but I used 1%)

2 tbs pure vanilla extract

Topping:

3 tbs sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

Dough: Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.  I do not have a food processor big enough to accommodate the amount of ingredients, so I used a pastry blender (like the one in the picture below). I strongly urge you to use a pastry blender or a food processor; other alternatives just will not work as well.  Be sure to blend until they are well incorporated.

In a small bowl whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse of and off until the dough barely comes together (or mix with the pastry blender). It will be very soft and sticky. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and dust it lightly with flour, then turn the dough out onto it. Pat it into a rectangular shape. Wrap it, then chill it until firm, about 2 hours or so, or overnight.

Roll out the crackers:

Divide the dough in half and return on half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll out the dough into a long rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. The dough is pretty sticky, so use plenty of flour. Use a knife or a pizza slicer to cut the dough into the desired shape. I made mine into small rectangles.

Place the crackers on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the topping. Make sure to leave about a ½ inch of space in between each because they do spread slightly. Use the blunt end of a bamboo skewer (or whatever you have that is like that) to put little dots into them (like the store bought brand have).

Bake for 10 min, watch them carefully- my first batch burned, and I actually found that 7 mins was the perfect amount. It really all depends on shape and thickness…so the lesson is watch the first batch and learn from there.

These are pretty much equivalent in effort to making sugar cookies. You know, make dough, chill dough, roll out dough, reform scraps, roll out dough again, and repeat. Easy but somewhat time consuming. Believe me though, these little things are tasty and worth it!

- Sue