TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

I love crumb toppings. They can make any bread good. What a moist little bread. This bread has the perfect amount of spices. They give the bread a little deliciousness, but they are not overpowering. I used dried apricots which work well with the cinnamon, nutmeg,and cloves flavors.

I made mini loaves, because they are so cute and fun. That way I don't over eat and I can give some to neighbors and friends. I am off to go do deliver some goodies to neighbors.




If you are interested in this recipe you can visit Natalie of Oven Love. Happy Baking!

Cinnamon Roll Trick

Cinnamon rolls are one of our favorites around here. Definitely a special occasion treat. I will admit making these babies has taken a little practice and a good amount of instruction from a few baking experts (aka:mothers and mother like figures, susie). Last fall Liz and I had a bake off to see whose cinnamon roll recipe was better. I cannot really say who won, because I am pretty sure that we had too many kids in one house to be able to properly pay attention to our rolls. Sometimes mothers do too much at one. Both turned out great and I think we are both partial to our own recipes and our husbands are definitely partial to their own wife's recipes. So really with no clear judge who is to pronounce the winner? Can you really go wrong with cinnamon and sugar with fresh rolls. NO WAY!!

Okay so not to tempt and leave no recipe, but out of request from the owner of my cinnamon roll recipe I have agreed not to share her recipe. However I will share with you one of my favorite tips that you can use with your cinnamon roll recipe.

First off here is my average cinnamon roll. Yummy!



My favorite tip is: Make your own homemade caramel sauce and pour on top of chopped pecans in your pan before adding your cinnamon rolls and after it bakes flip them over and enjoy AMAZING caramel pecan rolls, which we happen to like better than regular. And if you want you can make it easier and even just pour in some store bought caramel icecream topping (blasphemy, I know....store bought) over your pecans and you will still be in heaven. Enjoy!

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

I LOVE raisin bread! It is such a treat in our house, only you can have it for breakfast and feel okay about it.



I made two loaves of this bread. My kids and husband don't like raisins so I did one loaf with and I couldn't bear going without them myself so I did a second laof with raisins. Hands down the loaf with raisins was better. I made the mistake of cutting the bread and eating it while warm, because I think bread is best when it is warm. It kind of fell apart and the flavor did not pop. This bread was best after it cooled and then toasted and buttered. I loved it so much I think this is what I ate for all three meals for two days. Let's just say I am not counting carbs. Yum!



My dough did not look as Dorie described it (satiny). It looked like most roll dough does, but it still turned out great. I loved that the sugar and cinnamon were pre measured so I let my 4 year old sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top. It was a fun make, but it did take time. It wasn't too difficult, but as always for homemade bread you have rising times and such.



My little guy woke up from his nap in my last stages of baking so I set him on the counter and let him play with the flour. At first he wasn't too happy about getting flour all over himself, but he quickly got over it.

If you want to give this a try you can go over to food.baby for the recipe.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

Well....I realize it has been a good long time since we have posted a Tuesday with Dorie. Some recipes have been made and not posted on. I guess life gets busy with new babies in most houses here on Celestial Confections and I really have no excuse other than life is still busy even without a baby in my life. Anyhow I am finally posting about a delicious recipe.

I think our home has been overloaded with treats lately so it was a nice change to make biscuits for my Tuesday with Dorie. I was shocked that these biscuits were so flaky and delicious even without butter. I suppose replacing butter and milk for heavy cream still allows for a good amount of fat and richness so the biscuit is bound to be good.



These were a cinch to throw together. Dare I say....just as easy as a mix, truly. Mix the dry ingredients...pour in the cream...blend with fork, roll out, cut in circles. Bake and enjoy! Holy easy and so tempting straight out of the oven.

I made our favorite honey butter recipe and together the combination was heavenly. The Honey butter recipe is from my good friend Susie whom I lived with in Arizona during my husbands internship. Here is the recipe for any who would like to try it out next time they make, biscuits, rolls, or bread.

Honey Butter

2/3 c. butter, softened (10-11oz)
1 1/3 c. honey

Beat until fluffy
Add:
1 cup whipped, whipping cream
Shake in a little cinnamon


Anyone who is interested in making these sweet cream biscuits visit Melissa at Love at First Bite

TWD: Honey-Wheat Cookies

I made this Tuesday with Dorie out of pure curiosity. After reading the title and ingredients I really wanted to see how these would taste and turn out. I was picturing an airy cake like little cookie with some great texture from the wheat germ. They were not what I was expecting, but they were still good and a fun make.



The Making
These cookies were a cinch to whip up. I had the batter finished in minutes and let it stiffen for a few hours in the fridge. These cookies do have wheat germ, which makes you think they are a healthy snack, however I must admit that the butter might not make it as healthy, but hey that is the part that makes it like a cookie. I used orange zest instead of lemon. I like the orange flavor quite a bit, but I think it would be great with the lemon.



The Tasting
The cookies were a bit more dense than I thought and perhaps a little dry. Not really bad dry. They tasted more like a heavy biscuit for dipping in hot chocolate. You can taste the butter flavor and it complimented the orange nicely. The wheat germ added some texture and a little nuttiness. My husband and I like them and our one year old liked them, but not our 6 and 3 yr. olds. They really aren't fans of anything citrusy and zest is way out of the question. When my 3 yr. old tasted the batter she first asked me if it had chocolate chips in it. So her expectation were set pretty high when she thought it was "cookie dough." After tasting it she said...."This is disgusting....Mom, I think we need to throw this in the garbage." I had to laugh a little. I baked them up anyway and Glenn and I enjoyed a few. While this was a fun different treat I may not repeat it again. Everyone has to like it or it causes me problems on the scale later.



If you are interested in making these little cookies you can get the recipe from Michelle of Flourchild.

My second baking adventure of the day was some whole wheat banana bread. I got this recipe from my friend Jill. My husband is not eating treats during the week right now so I am trying to keep my baking relatively healthy. These had less butter and had both wheat and oat flour as opposed to white flour. It was more dense than I thought and I had to bake it for longer to get it cooked through. But when it came out my kids ate a ton, so that was worth it to me. Here is the recipe if you are interested.



Banana Bread
This banana bread is moist and delicious with loads of banana flavor!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour (mix wheat, white, and or/ oat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
¼ cup applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

TWD:Cocoa-Nana Bread

Things have changed a bit around here so we won't be posting every week. With the New Year there are always resolutions to eat better, and these recipes certainly don't help that at all. :) Two of us are having babies, one within days and myself in about a month, so it seemed that right now was the time to slow it down a bit. That said, there is no way we could completely abandon Dorie and her fabulous recipes!

For January, we decided it would be fun to have a TWD Dessert night. We met the first Saturday evening of January at April's house and it was great! Fun for the cousins to get together and play, and fun for the adults to get to taste all of the great treats. Lizzie made the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake, April made the Chocolate-Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars, and I made the Cocoa-Nana Bread. Lots and lots of chocolate!

So, onto the recipe. The Cocoa-Nana Bread came together easily, and came out of the oven looking, and smelling divine. When it came time to slice it to serve, it fell apart. I was disappointed with the final product. It was dry and crumbly and not the best banana bread I have ever had. Of the three treats that night, April's definitely took the prize.

If you want to give it a try check out Obsessed With Baking for the full recipe, or find it on page 46 in Baking From My Home to Yours.

TWD- Brioche Plum Tart

This was my first attempt at making a brioche dough. When I initially read the Brioche Plum Tart recipe, I was concerned about the amount of time and attention it took to prepare the brioche dough. With four kids, a house and yard to care for, babysitting my brioche dough was not at the top of my priority list! As I read through the P&Q comments on the TWD site, I noticed someone asked if it would work to use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day brioche recipe and a light went on in my head.

The recipe varied slightly from Dorie's recipe in ingredients. The Artisan Bread recipe used honey as its sweetener instead of sugar, and did not have milk as Dorie's recipe did. Other than that the ingredients were the same. What I liked was I only had to mix it, let it rise once and then put in the fridge until I used it. That's my kind of dough.

I was able to find plums for only 88 cents a pound at Sunflower Farmer's Market (my favorite store right now!), but was unable to find plum jam. I had a jar of Cherry Boysenberry Preserves I had left over from a previous TWD recipe that I decided to use. I wanted to use almonds but didn't have any so I had to settle for walnuts.

The assembly was rather simple and quick. As the tart baked it smelled divine! It came out of the oven nicely browned and the plums were tender and juicy and plump. I made half the Artisan Bread brioche recipe, and used about 2/3 of the dough that I had. I think it was probably more than there would have been with the original recipe.

The finished product was quite good. The plums were a bit tart, but the sugar balanced it nicely. The walnuts gave a slightly crunchy texture and the brioche was light and tender. This is definitely more a breakfast pastry. Not quite sweet enough for dessert but it made for a great evening snack for the hubby and I and I think the kiddos will enjoy some for breakfast in the morning. At some point I will attempt brioche dough the way it is supposed to be made, but it just wasn't in the cards for me right now. If I were to try it again I would love to experiment with other fruit combinations.

If you are interested in the complete recipe, head on over to Chez Us. Until next week!

Happy Baking!

Hooked...

I am totally hooked on baking bread right now. Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day is wonderful! Look what came out of my oven on Sunday night! It looks (and tastes) like a loaf of bread I would pay $5 for at a good bakery. And the best part, it is so easy. The basic recipe has been a huge hit at our house. I have yet to venture out to try variations or any of the other doughs but hope to do so in the next week or so. If you like bread with a crusty outside and a nice crumb inside this is a must-have book in my opinion. I am currently using the library's copy and am anxiously awaiting my own copy to arrive in the mail. 

Baking Buddies

Hello Ladies...I am up and going and ready to bake. I recieved my book this weekend in the mail. It looks amazing!! I can honestly say that most the items in there are way over my head as far as skill level so this is going to be good for me. Please be forgiving when my items don't come out awesome or pretty. I thought I would share my baking from this weekend. Sunday is our day for a treat and I also thought I would do a practice round for my turkey day rolls.

Lizzie's Rolls



Okay so technically these are Teresa's rolls which Lizzie has perfected. Whenever we did Sunday dinner at Lizzie's house in college it would not have mattered if there were ramen noodles in front of us as long as we had Liz's rolls we were happy (fyi: we never ate ramen noodles for sunday dinner). Seriously amazing!! I have never been great at breads and so after making her rolls a few times I was determined that my fate was to be flat dry potato looking rolls, but viola this time they worked and I actually think they turned out pretty. I am glad I tried them again. Thanks for the recipe Liz. I will let her share it with you just in case it is a family secret or something. Oh, wait we are all family, but maybe she doesn't want the world to have it.

Estrellas Chocolates



I realize the picture isn't all that great, sorry I have poor lighting here. Anyhow,
Sarah sent me these lovely Renyolds fun shapes baking cups that are star shaped. We both love chocolate lava cakes from the kraft website and she made them in these and loved them even more so she sent me some. I finally made the estrellas chocolates or star shaped chocolate lava cakes. She sent me a recipe along with it which was different than mine so I tried hers. They were actually pretty different so I will include both recipes so you can take your pick. Sarah's, Estrellas Chocolates,have a more cake like substance to them and the recipe I have, Chocolate Lava Cakes, are a little thicker and more brownie like (I use semisweet chocolate chips instead of semisweet baking squares).