Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns

I've been wanting to make this recipe for months, even if it is improperly named. Breakfast buns? Umm...I think not. These cheesy, yeasty lovelies taste great any time of day. In fact, I think they'd make a great dinner bread, joined up with a Claire's type soul-sustaining soup, or a hearty roast. Sure, you can eat them for breakfast...but something this good was never meant to be limited to morning hours.

I couldn't find the instant yeast in any of my local grocery stores but, after reading other people's comments, decided to substitute bread machine yeast. The buns turned out great. I've since found out Smart and Final carries the instant yeast so maybe next time I'll buy the 10 gallon drum they probably sell. 

Is it silly to say that I love these kind of roll-up doughs? As I work the dough into the prescribed tight log, there's the feeling of being a child and getting to mold play dough one more time. Except this time it's ok to eat the dough. 

Cheddar Swirl Rolls

from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

Note: To make ahead – prep the dough to the point before the first rise and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. Just bring to room temperature before you continue with the recipe. (This does work because that's how I did my rolls. I also read that you can easily half this recipe.)

Dough


3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour


1 teaspoon salt


pinch of black pepper


1 tablespoon sugar


2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast


1 cup milk


1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing the rolls

Filling


1/2 cup grated onion (about 1/2 medium onion)


1 1/2 cups (170 g) grated sharp cheddar cheese


2 teaspoons minced fresh dill


1/4 teaspoon salt


pinch of black pepper

To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and sugar. Mix briefly to combine. In a medium measuring cup, whisk the yeast into the milk to dissolve. Add the yeast mixture and the melted butter to the mixer and beat on low speed just until a rough dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball and place in the prepared bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together all of the ingredients for the filling. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a rectangle measuring about 12×16-inches. Spread the filling evenly over the dough, leaving about 1/2-inch border at the edge. Starting with a short side, roll the dough into a tight log. Cut the dough into 12 rolls, each about 1-inch wide. Place 6 of the rolls into each of the prepared pans, spacing them out evenly. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and gently brush it over the rolls. Cover the pans with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 F when the rolls are nearly done rising.

Remove the plastic wrap from the pans, and bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and the cheese bubbles. Serve warm!

Lunch Lady Brownies

When I have to make snacks for small group it's hard not to over think the menu. Last year, these mental exercises seemed particularly ludicrous because the folks in that group would've eaten just about anything...and did. It was definitely gratifying to serve up all kinds of foods and get immediate positive reactions. One of our members died unexpectedly last fall. I miss many things about him - including the way he'd come into my house talking about how he couldn't wait to eat whatever I'd cooked up. How could you not love a guy like that?

This year is harder. People either don't eat at all because of dietary constraints or they're Martin type selective about what they consider a decent snack. (OK, maybe it's just Jim and Martin that are choosy but since our group is smaller this year, those two plus the non-eater do constitute a fair percentage of folks who will be partaking of whatever is being offered to snack on.) For every exotic dessert or savory recipe to drool over, I find myself coming back to the old standards when I'm cooking for this crowd. Old standards such as these lunch lady brownies. The story has it that some cafeteria worker at a junior high school in Idaho has been making this recipe for decades. If food is good enough to stay on a school lunch menu for 50 years, you have to figure it'll be good enough for my small group.

Thinking about all those kids in Idaho eating up the Cafeteria Lady's brownies for fifty years made me recall my own school lunch experiences. I had the typical standing in the lunch line waiting for my plasticky tray to be filled with bland school food fare. None of it memorable. By high school, I was packing my own lunches though I do recall often standing in a long line to get the very much sought after warm cherry turnovers with a sugary icing criss-crossed over the top. In my jaded memory, I doubt those pastries were homemade every morning, but maybe there IS an Arizona counterpart to the Idaho Cafeteria Lady and maybe she's still making up batches of those turnovers fifty years later? I'll start googling Lunch Lady Turnovers now.

Lunch Lady Brownies
 Recipe courtesy of: http://www.saltboxhousecreations.com/2008/12/have-brownie.html

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter (I use unsalted)
1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the Butter  and put into a mixing bowl.  Add cocoa and mix together until smooth. Add flour and sugar. Beat together and then add eggs, vanilla, and nuts. Mix until combined. Do not over stir!

Pour into greased, floured  9x13 baking pan. (The batter will NOT be runny like your average cake mix.)

Bake 20-25 minutes @350 F or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool for about 10 minutes.  Frost while they are warm (not hot).
The frosting it what makes these brownies so good because they are not very sweet on their own. The warm frosting sinks into the brownies just enough to marry that dense cake with sugary sweet icing. You know how I always talk about the picky eaters in my life? Well, here's a confession: I can be pretty choosy when it comes to icings, preferring sweet over buttery/lardy type spreads. I used regular milk when I made the icing for these brownies and thought it tasted great. Next time, I'll definitely try the evaporated canned milk. Because there will be a next time.


The Chocolate Icing Recipe:
While the brownies are baking mix together:
1/4 cup of softened butter
1/4 cup of evaporated canned milk (regular milk is fine)
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
3 cups of powdered sugar
Dash of salt

Mix all together and frost as desired.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Sometimes I love pecan pie and sometimes I don't. I think it's the sticky over the top sweetness that makes me thumb my nose at the mere idea of sharing Thanksgiving (pretty much the only time I would be inclined to make a pecan pie) dessert with anything other than the perfection of pumpkin pie.

Even so, there's something deliciously attractive about pecans, butter, and brown sugar mixed up into any kind of dessert. While it can be tricky to get just the right consistency for the filling on a pecan pie, these muffins are super easy and super delicious. All the goodness of a traditional pie with none of the fuss. Other than possibly the pecans, you're going to have every one of the ingredients on hand, such that you can remember late one night that you have to bring snacks the next morning for bible study and still whip up a batch. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

I like the bite size portion for these muffins though I'll warn you that they taste so good you might find yourself eating three or four (or five or six), before you remember that scarfing down many small muffins all at once still adds up to lots of calories. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Maybe it's the tiny size of the muffins or the way they have so little flour in comparison to the brown sugar and pecans; but for whatever reason these little bites of yummyness really do feel closer to pecan pie than muffin. Not as gooey wonderful...but close enough. And an added bonus, pecan pie muffins are way more portable than pecan pie. You can baggie up a few and throw them in your purse for a snack while you go through your busy day. Or, you can stay home and sit by the fireplace watching a rare San Diego rain fall while drinking coffee and eating these sweet treats. Definitely not hypothetically speaking.


Pecan Pie Mini Muffins

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425°. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Stir together butter and next 2 ingredients; add to brown sugar mixture, and stir just until moistened. Coat 2 (12-cup) miniature muffin pans well with cooking spray. (Make sure you give a liberal dose of the cooking spray. Otherwise the muffins will stick when you try to remove them.) Place 1 tsp. finely chopped pecans in each muffin cup; spoon batter over pecans, filling almost to top. Place muffin pans on an aluminum foil-lined jelly-roll pan.
2. Bake at 425° for 10 to 12 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 2 minutes. Run a knife around edge of each cup to loosen muffins, and remove from pans.