Yeast Risen Sticky Buns

Here is another recipe of of this year's BH&G Holiday Baking and my second foray into yeasty bread products! I put these together the night before Favorites birthday so that I could get up early and stick them in the oven. They were time consuming but relatively simple to make and boy were they tasty! I wanted to give them room to grow as they cooked so I made them on a jellyroll pan. I think next time I might try cooking them in giant muffin tins because it seems like I lost a lot of filling to the pan. The only other thing I would pay attention to next time is that I think I may have kneaded too much or not allowed the dough enough time to rise either the first time, or before I baked them because even though they were scrumptious, the dough seemed a little tough.

Our Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls

4 1/2 to 5 c. all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 c. milk
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. golden raisins (optional)
1/2 c. chopped pecans

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups of the flour with the yeast. In a small saucepan combine milk, 1/3 c. butter, granulated sugar, and salt. Cook and stir until just warm (120 to 130 degrees) and butter is nearly melted. Add to flour mixture. Add eggs.
2. Beat with electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon stir in as much remaining flour as you can.
3. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours).
4. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest for ten minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease a 13X9X2 inch baking pan; set aside.
5. For filling: In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, 1/4 c. flour, and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender cut in 1/2 c. of butter until crumbly.
6. Roll dough into an 18x12 inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling over dough. leaving 1 inch unfilled along a long side. Sprinkle with raisins and pecans. Starting from the filled long side, roll up rectangle. Pinch dough to seal seam. Cut into 12 slices. Arrange in prepared baking pan.
7. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, leaving room for rolls to rise. If baking immediately, let rolls double in size, about 45 minutes. If baking later, chill for 2 to 24 hours and then let stand, uncovered, at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
8. Break any surface bubbles on rolls with a greased toothpick. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes pr until golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing if desired. Serve warm.
   

Baked French Toast

I don't usually post things I consider to be "meals" as this site is about desserts! However considering this "meal" was baked and contained copious amounts of fruit, butter, and sugar, I feel posting it is justified.



Mmmm baked french toast! Ok so it is a terrible picture. For some reason it was absurdly difficult to capture the texture of this item in the lighting the day provided me. But I digress. This sugar laden start to the morning was prepared as a send off to Favorite's parents. They had come to visit Saturday a little before noon, which started a 24 hour consumption-of-tasty-things fest. We first had turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwiches for lunch on Saturday. Then we went out for homemade ice cream that the candy house down the street makes. It was the perfect sunny, but not-too-hot day for ice cream. For dinner we had Grammy's recipe terriyaki chicken wings, baked beans (not homemade) and potato salad. Favorite then helped me make some cookies (these will be posted tomorrow!) and for dessert we had the cookies and a tasting sampler of beers including a number of Favorite's special homebrews.



After the cookies had been eaten (most of them anyway) and the beer had been drunk I prepared the french toast for the next morning. I used this recipe from Cooks.com with a couple little twists. I used a big fresh loaf of french bread that I had sliced into big fat texas-toast sized slices and had left them out for a day to dry a bit. I made the custard recipe as written and layered by bread in the pan, pouring the mix over the top. I then squished the bread down to sponge up the liquid, covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for the night. In the morning I put a good amount of berries in with the bread, pushing them down into the eggy mixture. I then topped the whole mess with the crumb mixture (I used pecans instead of the nuts suggested) and popped it into the oven before beginning preheat. This was really just to make sure that my cold glass dish wouldn't shatter. I know they are not supposed to, but it made me feel better. I definitely cooked the dish longer than the allotted 40 minutes as the berries exuded a lot of juice that I wanted to reduce so it wouldn't be mushy and gross. I put some maple syrup on the table with the french toast, but I also put down some fresh whipped cream and fresh berries. I don't really think the maple syrup got touched.



Although this was the first time I had made a dish like this, and although I had read mixed reviews about baked french toast recipes being too eggy, or two soggy, or generally not good, I thought this came out great. It also got rave reviews and the lasagna pan I used to make it was nearly empty by the time the four of us were done, so I think I am satisfied. If I made it again though, I would probably cook it for longer than 40 minutes even if I did not add berries (although why wouldn't you add berries? they were fabulous!) just to ensure the thick layers of eggy bread got cooked all the way through. Even with the extra cooking time the french toast was fluffy yet moist and spongy, definitely not dried out. I definitely recommend trying this. It would also be very tasty with small chopped apples in the mix.