I have a tendency to latch onto baking and cooking ideas. And once I’m latched, it’s only a matter of time before I make the item. Because I just can’t get things out of my head! I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s just so true!

(please bear with the pictures from this post. I’m trying to take the training wheels off my camera. See #27 on the list. And I really wanted you all to have this recipe before Thanksgiving, because you need these at Thanksgiving dinner. And for Turkey sandwich leftovers!)

Not that I’m particularly prompt in executing these ideas, but they’re like little seeds that are planted in my brain and eventually they bloom. Sometime, somehow!

This particular seed was planted earlier this fall. At the beginning of pumpkin season, I was looking for more savory pumpkin recipes to feed my undying love, and I knew that the idea of a yeasted pumpkin bread was very appealing. I looked at pumpkin bagels, tried pumpkin waffles and yeasted waffles, but nothing stuck. Then when I was at a friend’s house for the AC Marathon, she had a yeasted pumpkin bread, so I knew it could be done. But I still wasn’t sure quite how.

Then last Sunday, after I opened a can of pumpkin to make baked pumpkin oatmeal and I was looking for a way to use the rest of it, I was poking around the King Arthur Website. And I found it. A yeasted, slightly sweet pumpkin bread recipe from one of their old Baking Sheet newsletters. And it had a ton of favorable reviews. So I went for it. And the rolls that came out were amazing–like the best potato roll I had ever had with just a hint of fall spiciness. Basically fall bread nirvana. We ate them with chicken salad, apple butter, egg sandwiches, and just plain with a bit of butter. All wonderful. So please try this now!

Pumpkin Yeast Bread
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

I contemplated making this dough by hand, but since I made these on a busy baking day, I decided to go with a bread machine method for dough making instead. This will only work in a machine if you have a large one, preferably with double paddles. No bread machine? Try the instructions at the King Arthur website.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
2 packages (2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups puréed pumpkin, either fresh or canned
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, more for dusting
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The bowl of your bread machine, combine all ingredients in your normal method (by normal method, I mean however your machine takes ingredients. Mine likes liquids on the bottom, dry stuff on the top, with yeast on the very top!). Set the machine for the dough setting and start. Keep an eye on the machine as it starts to knead the dough, if after about a minute it doesn’t seem to be mixing, use a spoon to manually combine the ingredients a bit. Six cups is A LOT of flour for most bread machines. Close the lid after you mix and allow cycle to complete

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a well floured surface. The dough will be sticky, so well floured is important here. Deflate the dough, then cut into your desired number of pieces–2 for loaves, 14 for large rolls, or 20 for smaller dinner sized rolls. Shape into the desired shape (I made rolls) and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or in a loaf pan. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for about one hour, or until doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven. Loaves bake about 30 minutes, rolls about 20. Rolls should be golden brown on top when they’re done. Immediately remove bread or rolls from pans and cool on a wire rack to prevent crust from becoming soggy.

Back when I invested in the unsung hero of our kitchen I swore that I would use it to make our sandwich bread every week. Noel smiled and nodded, sure that I would make bread for a couple of weeks then abandon the habit once I discovered it was too much work.

Six months later, I’m happy to report that I’m not only still making our sandwich bread, but I’m actually making all of our bread. And Noel is happy about this! After our recent trip to the happiest place on earth, we were in a pinch, and we had to buy a loaf from our old bakery. After exactly one sandwich on the bread we formerly thought was the best on the planet, Noel and I were both ready to chuck the end of the loaf and go back to homemade. I don’t know if it’s a freshness thing or the recipe, but we’re hooked on homemade bread from the mini zo!

But back to making all of our bread–you’re probably wondering how much bread do two people need? Well, it’s not really two people, it’s really just me. I’m a big salad and a piece of awesome bread for dinner person (to any low carb readers out there who may be gasping, my doctor actually tells me this is good for me because of metabolic issues…woohoo!) so I like to have bread around for when the urge for a greens-based dinner strikes. This used to mean keeping a loaf of crusty bread around. But for the past six months it’s meant dinner rolls, stowed in my freezer and ready for a quick thaw and a few minutes in the convection oven.

There are lots of dinner roll recipes out there, and many of them are very, very tasty. Especially this one for Parker House Rolls that I made for New Years Eve dinner. AMAZINGLY delicious!! But also [not so amazingly] something I wouldn’t want to eat on a regular basis. I try to save most of my white flour for cake after all.

But after six months of tinkering, I’ve worked out the perfect stand in. Still delicious, light and fluffy, but made with whole wheat flour, skim milk and a lot less butter. And as a bonus, I get to use a few of my favorite local ingredients–milk, eggs, and honey.

Honey Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

I use my Mini Zo, which can knead up to 3 cups of flour at a time, to do the heavy lifting for me on this recipe. I just love hitting dough cycle and coming back 2 hours later to discover magic. The instructions below are for making these rolls in a bread machine, but if you want to try these and you don’t have one, check out the link above to the King Arthur website; they have a method for making these by hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup 100 percent whole wheat flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup potato starch or flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup skim milk
1 egg
2 1/2 teaspoons (one packet) instant yeast

Directions:

Assemble all of the ingredients in the bowl of your bread machine. The Zo calls for all wet ingredients to go in first, then for the dry ingredients to be added, with the yeast added last, in a well in the dry ingredients. Set the machine to the dough or manual cycle.

After the machine has completed it’s cycle, remove the dough and cut it into 16 evenly sized pieces of dough. Roll each piece into a ball. Prepare two 8 inch round pans by spraying them with cooking spray. Place 8 balls in each pan, seven around the outside and one in the middle. Cover the pans loosely, and allow them to rest for one hour, or until the balls are almost doubled in size.

Bake rolls in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. If you’re serving immediately, you can brush the tops of the rolls with butter. Or, if you are planning to freeze the rolls for later, allow them to cool completely, then break them apart. Store in a freezer safe zip top bag. To defrost, microwave for 30 seconds before placing in the toaster oven for a few minutes.

Enjoy a dinner roll so lovely, you won’t even remember it’s whole wheat!

I’ve wanted to make bagels for a long, long time. I love bagels, but I’m pretty particular about them, because if a piece of bread is going to be the center of my meal, I want it to be good bread. And so, I find that only small batch, made by hand bagels seem to hit the spot. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat a doughy monster in a pinch. But for a real bagel craving, I need the real thing, which usually means a trip uptown to our favorite bagel spot, so it doesn’t happen that often. Thus the need to try for the homemade.

I think I waited so long to try out a recipe because I thought bagel making was going to be really, really hard. Like endless hand kneading hard. And despite what you may think based on my other baking adventures, I’m not always a fan of hard. Especially when it come to bread making, where hard = more likely to screw it up, resulting in hard and inedible. Not a good combination.

So imagine my delight when I discovered a bagel recipe that could be made with the assistance of the unsung hero of my kitchen–the Mini Zo. I bought this baby last fall at the suggestion of one of the ladies in the King Arthur test kitchen, and it’s been the best investment. With it’s help I bake bread, knead roll dough, all sorts of magic stuff! And it lessens the margin of error for bread making–always a plus when I’ve made a commitment to make all of my bread at home!

After my health emergency passed last week, the threat of surgery no longer loomed, and I was free to eat again it was decided. I was making bagels! Because nothing erases the memory of four days of chicken soup like a delightful piece of bread!

But after all of the delaying, and all of the worrying (would they boil okay? would they taste alright?) these bagels ended up being shockingly easy to make. So easy, I kept checking the recipe to see if I had missed a step. And shockingly delicious. Just like the bagels from our favorite shop. But with a little bit of my love mixed in.

Whole Wheat Bagels
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

If you have a bread machine, this is the perfect recipe to try your dough cycle out on! You put the ingredients in, and a hour and a half later, you’re ready to roll! Don’t have a bread machine, or want to try mixing and kneading by hand? Check out the link above, where KAF has instructions for putting these beauties together by hand.

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 cups (16 ounces) water, warm
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tablespoon salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in the bowl of your bread machine. Set to the dough cycle. When dough is done, remove to a floured work surface.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a rope 8 to 9 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Form each rope into a circle and join the ends. Alternately, you can roll each piece into a ball and punch a hole in the center. Place the bagels on a tray that’s been dusted with cornmeal, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, secure the plastic wrap around the edges, and place the pan in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.

Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and let them rest at room temperature for 45 minutes. While they’re resting, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and preheat the oven to 450°F.

Place a few bagels at a time in the pot and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. If the bagels aren’t totally submerged when you put them in the water (mine floated) cook them for 1 minute on each side. Use a spoon or flat strainer to remove the bagels and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake the bagels for 15 to 20 minutes, until they’re brown. Remove the bagels from the oven, and cool them on racks.

We ate ours with salmon, cream cheese, and friends. And boy, were we sad they were gone so fast! This is definitely on the make more soon list!

One a penny, two a penny–just in time for Easter–hot cross buns!

Did anyone else sing that song in grade school?? Anyone, anyone? Okay, no. Well it’s okay, because Noel looked at me a little weird when I walked around singing it the whole day I was working on the buns. Apparently my elementary school music teacher was the only one fond of this little english nursery rhyme. But it certainly made an impression on me, since I’m still singing it 20 odd years later.

Did I mention they’re not just any hot cross buns–but rather, whole wheat ones! I know it’s hard to believe that a sweet yeast bread can work with a whole wheat base, but believe it. It worked. And they’re delicious.

It’s all thanks to the wonders contained in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book, which I treated myself to for my birthday. I knew the folks at King Arthur were amazing based on the recipes on their website, but wow, this cookbook has really knocked my socks off. It basically has whole grain recipes for everything that you could possibly want to bake–from quick breads, to cookies, cakes, pastry, and bread! Plus sections on how to, where to buy, and tips. Noel and I actually did a comparison between the whole grain book and the all purpose bakers companion book in the bookstore, and every category in the all purpose book also had a section in the whole grains book. As someone who is always looking to integrate more whole grains into my diet, I was so excited to find this great resource. If you’re a baker who loves to work with whole grains–it’s worth checking out.

And what better way to start out than with an old favorite like hot cross buns? Every year in the spring I start looking for hot cross buns in local bakeries and at *my favorite food guilty pleasure* Panera. I normally end up buying a bunch, hoarding them (i.e. NOT sharing them with Noel), and then quickly devouring them before they go stale. All the way up to Easter it’s the same thing, and then suddenly they’re gone, and a whole year of hot cross buns deprivation looms. But no more! Because these buns are awesome, and deserve to be made throughout the year, not just at Easter time!

Whole Wheat Hot Cross Buns
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

If you make these, be warned, they’re not exactly the light and fluffy buns you get with a white hot cross bun. But rather, you get something richer, with almost a nutty undertone that compliments wonderfully with the currants and the cross of icing. But they’re not any less addicting. I think these lasted exactly 21.5 hours in our house–both Noel and I just couldn’t stop eating them. The usual suspects were fans as well!

Ingredients:
1 cup of currants (or raisins) moistened in 2 tablespoons of water, rum or brandy (I used brandy)
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1/3 cup orange juice
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 1/4 cups traditional whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Icing:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
5 to 6 teaspoons milk or cream

Directions:

In a small ceramic or plastic bowl, combine the currants with the brandy (or other liquid). Set aside.

Combine all of the dry dough ingredients (except the currants!) and mix in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the wet ingredients (still not the currants!) and mix until the ingredients just start to come together. Stop the mixer and switch to the dough hook. Mix until you have a medium soft, smooth dough. This will take a bit–but make sure all of your ingredients are well mixed (if you’re still seeing large chunks of butter, for example, keep mixing). Cover and let the dough rise until it’s puffy, but not quite doubled in size, about 1-2 hours. Your rise time will depend on how warm it is in your kitchen, and how humid it is. If two hours have passed and you still don’t feel like the dough has risen enough, let it go a bit longer.

After the dough has risen, lightly grease two or three round pans (I used two 8 inch pans and a six inch pan). Gently deflate the dough on a lightly greased surface. Knead in the currants. Cut or divide the dough into 24 pieces. Shape or roll each piece into a ball.

Place as many balls as you can in each pan, so there is about an inch of space between each ball. Cover, and let the pans rest in a warm place until they are puffy and almost touching, about 1 to 2 hours. When you have about ten minutes left in your rise time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Uncover and bake the buns, until they’re lightly golden, about 25 minutes.

While the rolls are cooling, mix the icing ingredients, adding one teaspoon of milk at a time until the icing is smooth, but not too thin to pipe. After the rolls have cooled for about 15 minutes, pipe on the icing in the cross shape. If you don’t have piping bags, you can use a zip top plastic bag with the corner snipped off.

And be ready to love a sweet bun like never before!

Cinnamon, sugar, and butter. A flavor combination I can always go for. And something I find myself reaching for to perk up my mood whenever I’m feeling blue. Bad day at work? How about some wheat toast with Earth Balance buttery spread and a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. No toast? Saltine crackers will stand in nicely.

I know this love of cinnamon and sugar as the ultimate comfort flavor is a hold over from my childhood. When I was a kid we always had one of those people-shaped containers of pre-mixed cinnamon sugar in the pantry, ready to sand any and all available bread-like surfaces. I remember stuffing myself full of cinnamon toast whenever I had unsupervised time at home. And my grandmother certainly helped to cultivate this love, since she would make us fresh cinnamon rolls every single morning during our weeklong summer visits.

So is it any surprise really that before we even landed in January (and in the midst of all that holiday dinner party planning), I felt an urge to make cinnamon rolls, the ultimate cinnamon sugar delivery vehicle? January is typically one of my hardest months of the year. It’s dark all the time, the holidays are over and I have to cut my baking accordingly (since everyone on the planet is dieting…sigh), and it’s usually my busiest month at work. Nothing like a pile on to make for one tough month.

So I decided, I was making cinnamon rolls. The original plan was to make them for New Years Day brunch, but that soon fell by the wayside and they were pushed back to the first Sunday of the new year. But I did know just the recipe that I wanted to try–Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls! Noel got me her cookbook for Christmas, and I couldn’t wait to crack it open. Plus her recipe seemed a lot simpler than others I had found. Yes, there was yeast involved–but a totally non-scary way to use yeast for you yeast fraidy cats out there!–and it was otherwise so easy: no kneading, no fancy steps. Just sweet yeasty goodness with a hit of cinnamon sugar to pull me out of the winter doldrums.

But then I took a look at the recipe. And although I don’t really do diets—instead preferring to be active and follow Michael Pollan’s “eat only junk food you make” mandate–I didn’t need the full force of that recipe! And my friends, who I was planning on sharing these with, who actually ARE trying to eat a bit better in the new year, certainly didn’t need them. So I lightened them up a bit. And you know what–no one could tell! Everyone loved these so much, I actually ended up making them two weeks in a row!

Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks By Ree Drummond, available online here

I love PW and I love her recipes, but I don’t work or live on a working cattle ranch, so I spend most of my days sitting at a desk, staring at a screen, not moving around. Considering that, I lightened her rolls up a bit. Don’t worry, they’re still delish, but slightly lower in saturated fat! I also halved her original recipe because I can’t imagine what I would do with 50-60 cinnamon rolls at one time! But if you’re interested in her full throttle, makes-enough-rolls-for-you-to-feed-random-people-off-the-street recipe, by all means, click on the link above. But I really recommend these alterations–your taste buds won’t know the difference!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Skim Milk
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 package Active Dry Yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 4 cups (Plus 1/2 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) Melted Butter
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• Heaping 1/8 cup Cinnamon

Maple Frosting:

• 1/2 (1 pound of a 2) bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup or 1 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
• 1/4 cup Skim Milk
• Leftover Melted Butter from above
• 1/8 cups Brewed Coffee
• tiny pinch of Salt

Directions:

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and let it cool slightly. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk mixture. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise in a warm place for at least an hour. Warmth is important here, because if you don’t let your dough rise in a warm place, it won’t get the proper height on it’s rise.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1/2 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. Or if you’re me, put your hand in there and knead the dough a bit to incorporate all of the ingredients. This works better for me, but you could be all civilized and use a spoon. At this point, you can cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – for up to three days. Just check it a few times a day and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down.

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Really coat it, or your dough will stick! Even to wax paper (which is what I usually roll on!) Roll the dough into a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle enough melted butter over the dough to cover it (about 1/2 cup). Now sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar over the butter followed by the cinnamon. Use your hand to spread the cinnamon and sugar around to mix it all together. You know, just like you did with cinnamon toast when you were a kid!

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough towards you. Try to keep the roll as tight as you can. When you reach the end, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spray a pan with cooking spray–I like to use my 8 inch round cake pans and my 9 inch pie plate, but I’ve also used a 6 inch cake pan with luck! Begin cutting the rolls approximately 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. Don’t overcrowd the rolls, or they won’t bake fully inside.

Put the rolls in a preheated, 325 degree oven. If you like rolls that are still doughy in the center bake them for 15-18 minutes, or until light golden brown. For a roll with a crispy outside that is fully cooked in the center, bake them for 20-25 minutes, or until them are a full and beautiful golden color.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed, including the leftover melted butter, and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Make sure you pour that icing all the way to the edges of the pan, so it settles in every nook and crannie!

Now go forth and make cinnamon rolls on this holiday weekend! Something that has twice been declared the *best* cinnamon roll must be good enough to pull you out of the winter doldrums!