Snickerdoodle Bread

I never knew I had a thing for Snickerdoodles until I made these Snickerdoodle Cupcakes.  And then, I had to try every Snickerdoodle recipe I found after that.  Some of them have been not so great.  Others have been okay.  And then ones like this one turned out fabulous.  So I share it.  I also have a recipe for Snickerdoodle Blondies that I should be sharing soon. 

This is a sweet bread that I think can serve as a snack, a dessert, or breakfast.  It is delicious and super moist.  And, of course, it's easy to make.  Give a shot, you'll like it, I promise!

Slightly Adapted from:  Creations by Kara

What you need:
1 cup Butter at room temperature
2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla 
3/4 cup Sour Cream
2 1/2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 bag of Cinnamon Chips
Cinnamon and Sugar Mixture for Topping (I don't have specifics here -- I just winged it.  Combine the cinnamon and sugar to taste)

What you do:
1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

2.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add in eggs, vanilla and sour cream. 

3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

4.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (or vice versa) and mix until fully combined. 

5.  Add the cinnamon chips and mix until chips are fully integrated. 

6.  Divide your batter among 4 mini loaf pans. 

7.  Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture on top of the loaves. 

8.  Bake for about 35 minutes or until the loaves are a nice golden brown. 

9.  Allow the loaves to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and allow to finish cooling on cooling racks. 

I have made these in muffin form as well and they were just as delicious, but a little easier to divvy up at work.  Instead of putting your batter into 4 mini loaf pans, put it into lined muffin tins and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar topping on top of each muffin.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown.  

Enjoy!

Honey Corn Bread

This is the first time I made homemade corn bread.  I wanted to make it to go along with the Gumbo I was making.  I knew the gumbo was going to be spicy, so I thought the sweetness of a honey corn bread would nicely offset the spice of the gumbo.  When it's finished, the corn bread has just the slightest hint of honey.  The original recipe  says that it is similar to corn bread served at Tippin's restaurants.  I've never had Tippin's corn bread, so I don't know.  

I ended up eating this with the Gumbo, but I also added some peanut butter and honey and had it for a dessert a time or two.  And, I substituted this corn bread for pancakes or toast for at least one Sunday breakfast.  This recipe ended up being a lot more versatile than I would have initially imagined.  

Source: Dine & Dish

What you need:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups AP Flour
2 cups Cornmeal (I used yellow)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Kosher Salt
4 Large Eggs
2 cups Milk
3/4 cup Honey  

What you do:

1.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray. 

2.  Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

3.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, 1/2 cup of honey, and 1/2 cup of butter. 

4.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. 

5.  Poor into prepared baking dish and bake for about 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven when the cornbread turns a nice golden brown. 

6.  While the bread is baking, combine the remaining 1/4 cup of butter with the remaining 1/4 cup of honey.

7.  Immediately after you remove the corn bread from the oven, brush the honey/butter mixture over the top of the bread.  Allow the bread to cool completely before cutting. 

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

I had another Christmas gathering this past week.  Yes, I realize we are well into January.  And, yes, I did say a Christmas gathering.  What can I say?  I'm a lucky lady with lots of people to share holidays with. . . which can result in awkwardly timed holiday celebrations.  


Anyhoo, I was in charge of bringing a dessert.  But, I was in the middle of my $4 a Day Challenge, so my options were limited.  I headed over to my Pinterest account and browsed through my Recipe Board for a recipe that I had the ingredients for in my cabinets.  This was the winner. 


I followed the recipe exactly and it came out fabulously!  There were some leftovers from the party, so I heated those up for breakfast once or twice.  Why?  Why not?  


Cake for breakfast?  Yes, please.  


And, it really did taste just like a cinnamon roll, so it was practically breakfast anyway. 


Source:  Chef in Training


Here's what you need for the cake:
3 cups Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Sugar
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 cups Milk
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Butter, melted


Here's what you need for the cake topping:
1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Flour
1 tbsp Cinnamon


Here's what you do to make the cake:
1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with nonstick spray.  Set aside. 


2.  Mix together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla. 


3.  Slowly stir in the melted butter. 


4.  Pour into the baking dish.  


5.  Set aside. 


6.  Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon for the topping.  Mix until well combined and creamy.


7.  Drop evenly over the cake batter in the pan by tablespoonfuls.  


8.  Use a knife to swirl the cinnamon topping into the cake batter. 


9.  Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 


10.  While the cake is baking make the glaze as directed below. 


11.  After removing the cake from the oven, let it cool slightly.  Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake. 




Here's what you need for the glaze:
2 cups Powdered Sugar
5 tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

Here's what you do to make the glaze:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk. 

Although this taste great cold, I preferred it served warm. 

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Buns




 If you're from the Kansas City area, you know about Stroud's.  If you're not from Kansas City, Stroud's is a restaurant here that makes some really good down home cooking food.  They're pretty well known for their fried chicken and their cinnamon buns.  The cinnamon buns are unlike anything else I've ever had.  They are light and fluffy and are covered in cinnamon and sugar -- there's no icing involved with these cinnamon buns.  Since I love their cinnamon buns so much, I decided to give making them a shot.  I googled recipes and found surprisingly few copy cat recipes.  I chose one of the few contenders and although the result was far from a Stroud's cinnamon bun, they were quite delicious.  This recipe results in a heavier bread than Stroud's cinnamon buns, which I think makes the biggest different.  These do require a bit of work and quite a bit of time, but, in the end, they're pretty worth it.

Slightly adapted from: Chow Hound

Here's what you need:
1 Cup Warm Milk
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Warm Water
1 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast
About 5 Cups Bread Flour

2 Tbsp. Cinnamon
1 Cup Sugar
Melted butter

Here's what you do: 

1.  Mix warm water and yeast with about 1 Tbsp of sugar in small bowl.  Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl mix the milk, butter, salt, sugar, egg.

3.  Add the yeast mixture to the ingredients in the large bowl.  Mix well. 

4.  Add the flour to the mixture, one cup at a time.  Stir well between each addition of flour.  Eventually you may have to mix with your hands.  Keep adding flour until the dough is firm, dry and bounces back when poked.   

5.  Put the dough into a greased bowl and cover with towel.  Place bowl in a warm place (I put mine in the laundry room).  Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. 

6.  Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, deflating it.  

7.  Let the dough rise until it doubles in size again. 

8.  While the dough is rising the second time, combine the cinnamon with one cup sugar.  Set aside until the dough is done rising.  (Feel free to manipulate the amounts of cinnamon and sugar to suit your taste.) 

9.  After the dough has doubled in size the second time, cut it into 12 roll shaped pieces (or however many you want, depending on the size of cinnamon buns you would like to have).

10.  Submerge each dough roll in melted butter and then immediately coat with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.   Place in greased 9 x 12 baking dish.

11.  Once all the rolls are placed in the baking dish, cover the rolls with a towel and allow them to double in size one more time.

12.  After the rolls have doubled in size, place them in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. 

I have some ideas to make these more like Stroud's cinnamon buns, so I'm going to keep trying on that.  But, in the meantime, Enjoy!

Banana Bread Muffins

This one of my family's recipes.  It is meant to make Banana Bread, but I always make muffins with the dough because they're quicker to make and because they're easier to grab and go if you're planning on making this for breakfast.  I have a bad habit of buying more bananas than I can eat before they start to get bad.  So, I often find browning bananas on my countertop.  I stick those browning bananas in the freezer, and when I want to make these muffins I just pull a few out -- they are perfect for this recipe.  If you are pulling bananas out of the freezer for this recipe, be aware that they thaw rather quickly.

Here's what I used:

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup (about 3 medium) Bananas, mashed 
2 Eggs
2 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/3 Tsp Salt

Here's what I did:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a Muffin Tin with liners.

2.  Cream the Butter and Sugar together.

3.  Add the Eggs to the butter/sugar mixture.

4.  Mix the bananas into the butter/sugar mixture.

5.  In a separate bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.

6.  Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ones.

7.  Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 of the way full.

8.  Bake the muffins for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

You can add nuts to your muffins if you'd like.  I do not like nuts, so I omit them from everything.  Simply add 1/2 Cup of Nuts to the dough between step 6 and 7. 

Enjoy!

Cheesy Bread

This is another recipe that I tried for the my bookclub.  It turned out pretty good.  I got the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  She calls it Bloomin' Onion Bread and says it's supposed to taste like a Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse.  While I love The Girl Who Ate Everything, I have to disagree with her on this one.  This bread was good, but, it did not taste like a Bloomin' Onion to me.  You cut this bread almost all the way through before baking it, so each person can tear away as much or as little as they like.  It is perfect for an appetizer or snack when you're entertaining.  Although I was disappointed that it didn't taste quite like a Bloomin' Onion, it still tasted really good.  And, it's ridiculously easy to make.  So, give it a shot!


Slightly adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything


Here's what I used:

1 unsliced loaf of Sourdough Bread

16 Ounces Monterey Jack cheese

1/2 Cup Butter

3/4 Cup finely diced Green Onion

2 Teaspoons Poppy Seeds

Here's what I did:

1.  Preheated the oven to 350 degrees and lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  I cut loaf of bread length wise several times and width wise several times, making a bunch of little pieces of bread.  See the picture above.  Be sure not to cut all the way through the bread, but cut as close to all the way through as possible.

3.  I sliced the cheese into very small pieces (small enough to put between each cut of bread).

4.  I put the bread on the cookie sheet. 

5.  I inserted my tiny cheese pieces in between the cuts of bread.

6.  I melted the butter.  Then I stirred in the green onions and poppy seeds.

7.  I drizzled the butter mixture over the bread.

8.  I wrapped the bread in the foil.

9.  I baked the bread for about 15 minutes.  Then I unwrapped it and baked it for about 10 more minutes.  Make sure your cheese is all melted before you pull your loaf out of the oven.

Enjoy!