September 23rd, 2007

Sourdough Cinnamon rolls!!
Okay if you are on a diet of any sort please look away now!!!!! Because I am about to give you the recipe for my gorgeous sourdough cinnamon rolls...
First you must make your dough and I did this in the bread maker on the dough setting and let it go through the paces for dough.....

Take 1 cup of your starter and place in the bread maker pan.
Add 1/2 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons butter and place on a low heat in a small saucepan until it is just warmed and the butter starts to melt. Don't get it too hot or you will kill your yeast. Just warm to the touch.
Add this to the pan along with one egg.
Add 1/4 cup sugar and a 1/2 tsp salt
Add 2 1/2 to 3 cups of strong white bread flour.
And one packet of yeast..... Let your bread maker do it's thing, checking at the start that it isn't too moist or too dry. Add some water if too dry and add some flour if too wet.
Now for the really really bad part........
Cut the dough in half and working with one half at a time roll out I didn't measure the thickness, but sort of like a thick pizza dough. (I only made half and the other half I just made into plain rolls, I was trying to watch the diet a little.)

Take and melt some butter, roughly about 3 tablespoons or so... I used the microwave for this job.


Now brush the melted butter, you can spread on softened butter if you like, but I was again trying to watch the calories just a little.


Now I know some of you out there have little helpers in the kitchen. But I bet I have the first cat that is interested in cooking!!! He loves to watch me cook. And is soooooo funny as he seems genuinely interested in what I am doing!!! Brian had to pick him up for him to have a look at what I was making.

Now sprinkle or spoon on some dark brown sugar. Muscovado would be even better. Sorry I didn't measure, but you want a good coating.

Next sprinkle over some cinnamon. The best cinnamon you can find. Use as much or as little as your tastebuds dictate to you. A really good dusting!!!

Next a sprinkling of pecans. As if there weren't enough calories already!!! And drizzle on more butter.. Not alot, but just a little.

Now along the wide edge start rolling up. I streched it a bit while rolling too. Pinch the edges shut.

Now slice into rounds.... about 1 to 1/2 inches.

Place into a really well buttered non stick baking tray.

Sprinkle on more brown sugar and cinnamon and put a pecan half on top. Drizzle more melted butter over the tops too.

Cover and let rise till double in size.......

Meanwhile here is our good ole friend Herman being fed!!!


Now bake in a preheated 190C fan oven for about 20 to 25 minutes till nicely golden brown. I would put a pan or foil under this pan to catch the dripping sugar that comes off them. You don't want a mess in your oven.

Next take and make the icing. I took about a tablespoon of butter and melted again in the microwave.... Stir in some icing(powdered/confectioners) sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract. Add icing sugar and stir till you can't anymore and then start adding a bit of milk or cream to get to this consistency.

Turn your rolls out, and I turned my upside down so the gooey bit was on the top. Now drizzle with your icing......

Get a nice glass of milk or cup of coffee and invite some friends over to help you enjoy. Less calories that way!!!


Gadgets

This is another of my kitchen gadgets that I have great fun using.... It does some really great carrot shreds for salads..... It is a mouliex I think that is how it is spelled. Any way you insert the cutting blade disk and then the handle locks that into place. You open it up and put your carrot or whatever in the little hopper part and clamp down on the long white handle and turn the other handle....

And this is what you get..... Just right for a salad and quick!!!


Quick supper dish!

Put on a pan of water to boil and cook some pasta I used fussilli.
Take some chicken breasts and chop into chunks..... Coat in a mixture of ground cumin, chilli powder(I used mild), and smoked paprika. Add some oregano and some chopped garlic. Stir fry in a wok.

Next add in 1 sliced onion, 1 red and 1 green pepper sliced and stir fry.

Add the drained pasta saving some of the liquid if you want more sauce or if your pasta gets too dry, add in some chopped tomatoes and a tin of chili beans. Heat through and serve topped with some shredded cheddar or red leister cheese.

Enjoy!!

Kitchen disasters.
Okay This was my failure for the past week..... I made another dish that I thought was a failure so didn't photograph it because it looked really bad, but it tasted really really nice.... The nice dish recipe was....
Take a swordfish steak and spread on some pesto. Pan fry with some sliced onions until done on both sides. Add some black and green olives and serve on some cooked spaghetti... Top with pine nuts and freshly grated parmesan. It really did look horrible, but the flavour was out of this world. We will be having that again even with it's bad looks!!

But not this dish.....Well not the same way I cooked it here.... First you make pancakes using flour and oats and yeast. It is a german recipe. These were really nice. Then take some vegetables and cook adding a teaspoon of curry powder(mistake one) And then my second mistake I added quark to the hot vegetables. It separates and looks rather disgusting!!!!!! So don't cook Quark!!!!! I should have just spread it onto the pancakes. Would have been much nicer. Then top with slices of tomato and then the veg. I will be doing this a whole different way next time. So I have learnt from my mistake.

But it looked okay.... Much nicer than the swordfish dish!!! Oh well just goes to prove you can't always tell until you taste it!

There is an UPDATE to the Garden blog the garden in a box has been installed!!!