Recreating Glory

So. Confession time. Man vs Food makes me feel like I can take on anything! Most of my family gets grossed out watching that guy eat...me? Yeah, sometimes it hurts me to watch him...but other times he inspires me!!

Adam traveled to San Antonio in a rerun that was shown recently. And this particular time watching the episode, I was inspired to bake.

I was inspired to attempt a recreation of glory...otherwise known as the cinnamon rolls from Lulu's Bakery and Cafe.

 (skip to 1:15 for the glory)

Now. As a disclaimer, I did not actually make a 3 1/2 lbs cinnamon roll. I DID however, make some pretty ginormous ones! Aaaaaaannnndddd. THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!! Can you guess what recipe I used?? Just take a wild guess, and if you have no clue, you need to read my previous posts. :D

**SPOILER** 

I used the best bread recipe in the world as the roll part.

THE LIFE OF A CINNAMON ROLL

starring: a ginormous cinnamon roll

directed by: Molly Marie

Prior to Baking

In the Oven!

Beautious!

The frosting looks fantastic! :)

It's not 3 1/2 lbs...but it's close!!!!

It seems to have a heavenly glow...

The last bite

Bread recipe can be found at: Our Best Bites

for the filling:

1/2    cup    butter

1       cup    brown sugar (firmly packed)

3-4   TBS   gr. cinnamon

for the frosting:
2       oz   cream cheese
1/4   cup  butter
1      cup  powdered sugar
1/2    tsp  vanilla

The very essence of heaven. No joke. I wouldn't lie to you.

Enjoy!
~MollyMarie

Back to My Bread

*sigh. Sometimes I wonder if I should just turn this into a bread blog. I honestly LOVE my bread recipe so much!! And since I didn't have time to try making anything new for Valentine's Day. . . I decided to put a twist on a recipe that I know EVERYBODY loves!!

So it's really just a normal bread braid using the dinner roll recipe from previous posts, but instead of leaving it in a line-braid, I connected the ends and then pushed the middle in the make a heart shape. Easy, delicious, and PERFECT for Valentine's Day :)

This idea could be used for any holiday or just for fun! A four-leaf clover for March? Maybe an oval shape for Easter? even a Mickey head? This recipe is quite delicious in whatever shape you eat it!!

~Molly Marie

(the roll recipe can be found at Our Best Bites Seriously, check these guys out. Everything they make looks FANTASTIC!)

THANKSGIVING!!! the day of reckoning...

Thanksgiving FINALLY came!!

Last night was spent in the kitchen...and I mean ALL last night...AND ALL yesterday morning...or as I so intelligently called it a few days ago "last morning." (Yeah. I got teased for that one! But the more I think about it...the less wrong it sounds lol. I may just go with it haha.)

As you may have guessed. . . . I didn't go to Magic Mountain. My responsible side won out. But I'm glad I chose to stay home. Not only did I finish the rolls, which turned out splendidly, I went to class, which was super good because even though the teacher said that not coming wouldn't penalize people. . . we ended up learning A LOT! I'm pretty sure that if I had missed, I would have come to class Monday and been completely and utterly lost. BUT I went and so I'll be great and good on Monday :) Also. I ended up making cookies!! Peanut butter for my Mom and sugar cookies for Thanksgiving night.

 ADORABLE right?!? haha follow the link to see where I originally got the idea! Only thing I changed is due to laziness! Instead of using icing for the beak and feet and M&Ms for the eyes. . .I just stuck a candy corn on for the beak and used some leftover candy from my gingerbread kit for the eyes. It doesn't look quite as good as the original, but I'm still pretty happy with them!
http://theherberfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanksgiving-treats.html

 

Yeah check out my other post
 for the recipe and better pics!
nutty for my peanut butter

BUT I KNOW THAT YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT. . . . . .  THE ROLLS!!!!

Well. Here they are :) My babies. . . . 

 There are sooooo many. I think I've made my quota of rolls for the next decade!! lol. But I did enjoy perfecting my own roll recipe!








Only a few of the batches...

They LOOK SO GOOOOOOOD!!!! And they taste even BETTER!!! Huurrraaaahhh for perserverance and hardwork! Go Me...and of course all those who helped me succeed!

We'll see how it goes!!
MollyMarie

PS: I wrote this BEFORE our Thanksgiving Feast...But IT WENT SPECTACULAR!! My next post will include comment on people's reactions and on just Thanksgiving stuff :D

Batter Bread Up!

FINE! Sue me, sue me! What can ya do me? I love...BREAD! (haha I hope you all caught the Guys and Dolls reference. Frank Sinatra holds my heart and I don't think many will ever be able to even hold a candle to him in my mind...so you see why I'm still single and will most likely continue to be so for a while lol) Pretty much all of my baking time has gone into attempting different bread recipes.

This particular recipe is a batter bread recipe which I got out of the Taste of Home Book of Baking called, Sally Lunn's Batter Bread. The link'll take you to the Taste of Home website so if you search under the recipe name, it will take you to it. I DEFINITELY say go make this bread!! Goodness. Gracious. Amazing!

Isn't it just soooo pretty!!! 

And my family LOVED it! This one's a keeper for my recipe book.

SALLY LUNN'S BATTER BREAD

Ingredients

• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
• 1 cup warm milk (110° to 115°)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 5-1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 
  HONEY BUTTER:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup honey

Directions

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, butter, sugar, salt, eggs and 3 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
• Do not knead. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Stir the dough down. Spoon into a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Bake at 400° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.
• Combine the honey butter ingredients until smooth. Serve with bread. Yield: 12-16 servings.

I didn't actually make the honey butter. Totally forgot and the bread was gone too fast for me to do anything about it once I did remember haha. BUT I'm sure it's delicious. I'll be sure to make it next time!

   it cut so nicely!

     and the inside was                 perrrrfect!

Advice from Molly Marie: GO MAKE THIS BREAD FOR YOURSELF!!!! You will not regret it!!

~Molly Marie

What else to do with my *FANTASTIC* roll recipe??

Make Cinnamon Rolls!!!!

Gosh and golly, I hate to brag. . . but they were INCREDIBLE! Jon helped with a lot of it. He made the filling and rolled them up. Ah. Sooo good! I'm totally making them again!!

The recipe works beautifully for cinnamon rolls and the glaze can be changed up to add variety. Maybe using the lime glaze from the banana bread a couple posts back? Or you could try adding spices, using lemon, or creating something unique!

Make food your own. It's one of the best parts of life!!!

~Molly Marie

More Roll Attempts!!

Eh...they're getting there!!

This time, using the same recipe, I tried to make them smaller. Smaller rolls = more rolls per batch = less baking at crunch time (day before Thanksgiving). I think I let them rise too much the second time and they fell back into themsleves because the texture of the bottoms was a tad off...........but the taste was de-doubldee-licious!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the AFTER the dough was baked haha. Once they were baked, they expanded A LOT! I wish I had gotten a picture!! But they went lickety split, so all I have is the pre-completed product.

A couple more goes at these rolls and I will be confidently bringing them to be judged by my extended family! I wonder what THEY will think of the roll replacement.......but I still have much more perfecting to do before I'm ready to put my work on that chopping block lol.

~Molly Marie

Touch of Lime

My adventures with BANANA COCONUT LIME BREAD from Our Best Bites ( oh how wonderful the discovery of this lovely website / blog was! ) and my personal alterations.

Now I'm not a huge banana bread fan.......but I do love to bake. And trying new things is always of big interest to me. I love to experiment! In fact my little brother was recently quoted as saying "Molly should just stop trying to find the perfect recipes for our cookies ( he was referring to snickerdoodles at the time ) we already have the perfect recipes". Which just goes to show you how subjective "perfection" really is. I LOVE our recipes, yet I keep searching to see if what is already great can be better! . . .  But I digress.

Banana Coconut Lime Bread caught my interest just by the sheer interest each flavor gave me. So I tried it...and here are the results...

Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze
adapted from Our Best Bites who adapted from Cooking Light

2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1/4 C (4 Tbs) real butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas (about 4 large bananas)
1/4 C sour cream
2 Tbs milk plus 1 Tbs lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C coconut

Topping: additional coconut
Glaze: 1/2 C powdered sugar whisked with 1 1/2 Tbs fresh lime juice

"Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add eggs and beat to combine. Add banana, sour cream or yogurt, apple juice (or milk), and vanilla. Beat until blended.
Add flour mixture and beat at a low speed until just combined. Stir in 1/2 C coconut.

Pour batter into a 9×5″ loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle additional 2 Tbs coconut on top.

Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until a knife or skewer inserted in center comes out clean.Note: Check bread after about 40 minutes. If the top has browned and the coconut pieces are looking toasty, cover top of bread lightly with a piece of foil. Continue baking until done.

When done, remove pan from oven. Let cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then carefully remove from pan. Whisk powdered sugar and lime juice together for the glaze and then drizzle over top. Cool for another 15 minutes before slicing."

Overall, a decent recipe...not my family's favorite creation that I have tried. BUT the smell while it was baking was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! So I would recommend trying the recipe even if all you do it for is the aroma!! It could just be that my family isn't made up of very big banana bread fans...who knows. You could be an instant celebrity with your family and friends serving this to them! ;)

~Molly Marie

The Pathetic Attempts #3 ...and a new approach

Fail. Fail. fail fail FAIL.

Only word to describe my experience. 

See? They rose this time, at least. And the taste was good...they just...weren't Uncle Danny's. Or maybe my brain and tastebuds have glorified the memory of those rolls. Either way, these rolls just did NOT cut it. It could be due to the fact that the rolls are cursed...and only Danny can recreate them. More likely is that the recipe was produced by request and came from roll-making that was primarily by "feel". So since my Uncle is in Australia, I haven't been given the Roll Initiation. There hasn't been a "showing me how" rather a "look at the recipe and flail miserably in the land of fail" kind of attempts.

SO.

I have decided to perfect my own roll recipe. And I am well on my way....

Exhibit A:

DELICIOUS!!!!! And I don't even care if I sound conceited.

They aren't perfect yet...but they are pretty darn close. And they'll only get better. Thanksgiving is looking promising!

These babies were huge. And a big success with my family.

Next step is to try them out on other people until they become PERFECT!! Time to think of a name for these delightful delectables...suggestions??

~MollyMarie

The Pathetic Attempts #2

I tried again!! So pros: I didn't use rancid oil (everyone is safe) and I didn't kill the yeast. They actually rose!! woohoo...but the cons: they aren't the beautiful rolls I want. They taste a little yeasty still and they didn't rise as much as they should have. I MUST be doing something wrong. I WILL FIGURE IT OUT!!!!!!!

I mean, they're good. Don't get me wrong. They are edible and not bad. But when I'm involved, "fine" is just not going to cut it!! By Thanksgiving they WILL be perfect or I'm not bring them haha. I have areputation to uphold.

Here's a picture:

(Sorry the picture quality is so bad. I don't have a camera right now...so a phone shot is all I could get!)

I'm not giving up!! Soon, you'll have a professional looking photo of delicious, perfect, fluffy, and anything but pathetic dinner rolls. Just you wait!

~Molly Marie

The Pathetic Copy of Danny's Dinner Rolls: Attempt One

My uncle recently moved to Australia. Now, this is a sore subject on a couple accounts. Firstly, WHAT?? That is like the coolest thing I can't be a part of!! I WISH I could live in Australia. I mean, making friends with koalas, kangaroos, and all manner of marsupials, who wouldn't want that?? My little cousins, Hannah, Ben, and Lizzy (all under 12 years old!) get to live in another country!! haha...but really not so much a haha but a sighing no fair. Secondly, I have no money and therefore can't visit. Thirdly, my Aunt Rachel is like the sweetest most creative person ever...and secretly I was planning on asking her to help with my wedding cake. It would have been the envy of everyone! But alas...her being in Australia for at least the next 5 years makes that a wee bit impossible. I just hope she'll be able to make it over to the US to see me get hitched! (...but...I'm not even dating anyone right now...so who knows, maybe the wedding cake will never be a problem!)

And finally, the most pressing matter of my uncle's moving is Thanksgiving. On this holiday, my Dad's family all gets together for a lovely and delicious feast. Present at this feast, in all their golden and delectable glory, are my Uncle Danny's dinner rolls. THEY ARE FANTASTIC! And this year, the possibility of getting them is slim (here is an appropriate place to shed a few tears and feel sorry for me). SO...

I decided I would attempt to recreate them and make sure a little piece of Danny, Rachel, Hannah, Ben, and Lizzy graces our Thanksgiving feast. I can guarantee, if my first attempts are any indication (like, I killed the yeast and accidentally used rancid oil. yup great start. so great that i'm not even going to post pics), that these dinner rolls will be a meager replacement...so I'm just going to call them "the Pathetic Copy of Danny's Dinner Rolls". haha. I'm not posting the recipe...it's his recipe after all...but maybe someday when i ask permission, he'll let me give it to you guys :)