I have a confession to make. I have never really made cinnamon rolls from scratch. At least not the yeasted ones. I have made my easy cinnamon rolls countless times through the years.
They are made using biscuit dough and are the ones I grew up with and the ones I used to make for my children. They were always very easy to make and to be honest I have always loved them more.
That's because I have/had never tasted a fresh out of the oven warm cinnamon roll. Believe it or not. The only yeasted cinnamon roll I have ever had were ones from the shops and to be honest I was never impressed.
Of course who knows how long those are in the shops before you get to eat them and most yeast breads don't taste as good the day afterwards.
I just always thought, why go to all that trouble for something which doesn't even taste that good. I was always just happier with my version, until today that is!!
I was looking for something small batch to bake. I usually only do baked goods like this on the weekend because I know that is when people have more time to bake. I spied this recipe for cinnamon rolls in a book I have called "Small Batch Baking", by Saura Kline.
The recipe made only six rolls, just the right size for me to enjoy myself and then gift a few on, so I thought why not!
I have to say the dough was very easy to put together. Of course I have that lovely kitchen aid stand mixer now (Thanks to Jen) and so yeast baking is not as much of a challenge for me these days as it used to be.
It went together in a snap and was rising before I could say lickety split. I was happy about that as I am on a tight deadline for today (Saturday as I write this) with a project which needed finishing by the 15th. (I can't wait to share it with you!)
So I wanted something easy to bake and who knew it would be these cinnamon rolls.
Leaving the dough to rise left me to get on with what I needed to be getting on with. It is a very easy dough.
It was also very easy to pat/roll out and then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar filling. It is made simply of brown sugar and ground cinnamon.
There is no faffing about. Just pat or roll out the dough, sprinkle on the cinnamon and then roll it up like a jelly roll, pinching the edges shut.
It was also easy to cut. You can use a piece of (NON-minty) dental floss for this, or a piece of invisible thread, like I did. Easy peasy.
Once its cut, just set the cut rolls in a buttered baking tin and leave them to rise again. Go off and do whatever while you wait.
Once again, very handy for me as I had things to do!
Then you just bake them. 22 minutes later you are rewarded with beautiful, tasty, soft, brown crusted cinnamon rolls. Ready to slather with a delicious cream cheese frosting.
The frosting was also really easy to make. I just banged everything into a small bowl, whisked the butter and cream cheese together and then banged in everything else until it was smooth.
It was recommended that you slather the icing on while the buns were fresh and hot out of the oven. Apparently they absorb some of that rich icing adding even more to their scrumptiousness!
And let me tell you, these ARE incredibly scrumptious!
I was only going to have a little taste and before I knew it I had inhaled the whole bun! Oh my but it was some good.
The dough was nice and soft and yeasty, with a lovely crisp crust.
That icing was lovely and rich. Not too sweet, but just sweet enough.
And it was beautiful, soaking down into all of the nooks and crannies of the bun. All of those little crevices, soaking up that rich deliciousness.
The two together were pure and utter bliss. And there was just enough sweet brown sugar cinnamon filling. It was the perfect amount.
Any more and it would be cinnamon bun overload. I wouldn't add anything else. Not raisins. Not nuts, nothing. These were perfect just as is.
David would have enjoyed these so much. Oh well, there is always the next time they come down and I truly hope that there will be a next time.
Oh, and my brother told me about a friend of his from Bangalore, Nazia, who sometimes reads the blog. I wanted to say a special hello to her! Hi Nazia!
What a small world we live in today. We can have friends and acquaintances all over the world. The world truly is a much smaller place now than the world we grew up in.
You need to bake these delicious cinnamon rolls. I know I plan on baking them again soon. I just know Tim and Eileen will really enjoy them! I think you will too! They are incredibly easy to make, delicious and really easy to eat! Maybe too easy! 😋
Cinnamon Rolls (Yeast, small batch)
Yield: 6 rolls
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 22 Mininactive time: 1 H & 30 MTotal time: 2 H & 7 M
There is only one word to describe these, GORGEOUS! I kid you not. Easy to make and oh so scrumptious!
Ingredients
For the rolls:
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 cups plus 2 TBS (270g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large free range egg
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (50g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp cinnamon
For the icing:
- 2 TBS butter, room temperature
- 2 TBS cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup (65g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1 TBS milk
Instructions
- Warm the milk slightly. Sprinkle the yeast over top and leave to sit for 5 minutes.
- Measure the flour, salt and granulated sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one, fitted with a dough hook. (Alternately you can use an electric hand mixer.) Whisk together.
- Pour in the yeast mixture and mix on medium speed. Add the egg and butter and continue to mix until well combined and the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. It will be tacky.
- Butter a bowl and tip the dough into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise.
- Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Butter an 8 inch square pan. Set aside.
- At the end of an hour, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured counter top. Roll out to a 10 inch square with a lightly floured rolling pin. Sprinkle the top with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1/2 inch border all the way around.
- Roll the dough up tightly, like a jelly roll, from one edge. Pinch the edges closed. Cut the roll in half crosswise, then cut each half into three equal pieces. (Dental floss or clean fishing line work well for this.)
- Place cut sides down in the prepared baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise at room temperature for half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4.
- Bake the cinnamon rolls in the preheated oven for 22 minutes, until well risen and evenly browned.
- While the rolls are baking make the frosting. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla and just enough milk to give you a smooth frosting, beating all well together.
- Remove the baked rolls from the oven and slather the icing evenly over top immediately.
- Serve warm. Best eaten on the day.
A rose by any other name and all that!
What it is is a magical dessert where the batter splits into two discernable elements, with a delicious light and airy cake on the top and a rich indulgent lemon curd pudding on the bottom.
It is basically a very simple dessert which uses simple every day ingredients in a most delicious way to create something ethereal and wonderfully whimsically magic.
There is nothing out of the ordinary or unusual in it ingredient wise. Nothing magical. Just simple things.
A lemon, butter, flour, milk, sugar, cornstarch. That's all. Simple.
You may even think that if you are a singleton or a couple/smaller family, that this dessert is out of your reach unless you are having company.
You are wrong, if that is what you are thinking. Totally and completely and utterly wrong. Prepare to indulge yourself to the nth degree!
The version of that simple dessert I am sharing with you today is perfectly sized for just two people, or one with leftovers. (And who wouldn't love these leftovers!)
Small in size, yes, but not lacking any of the largesse when it comes to flavor of the larger original sized dessert.
That magical cake topping is perfectly light and airy, beautifully lemony.
A wonderful sponge as light as an angel's wings . . . a delicious angel. A lemony angel. A wickedly delicious angel . . . but that's not all . . .
You have that same beautifully, delicious, rich and lush lemon curd filling on the bottom. Oh my so yummy.
Indulgent and lemony. Not too sweet. Just tart enough.
It goes together quickly and easily. The most difficult part is waiting for it to cool down when it comes out of the oven.
But trust me when I tell you it will be more than worth the wait. You may think that it is something which you couldn't possibly make, but let me assure you it is incredibly easy to make. Just follow my handy tips.
First you will need to create a water-bath to bake the pudding in. This is nothing fancy, just a baking tin large enough and deep enough to accommodate your pudding dish with a bit of space surrounding it.
I used a small casserole dish for my pudding, approximately 7 1/4 by 5 1/4 inches in size. I set the pudding into my 9 by 13 inch cake tin. You then just carefully pour in boiling water to the depth of half the height of your pudding dish.
Just be very careful not to get any of the boiling water into the pudding itself (pour it in from the side of the cake tin) and careful not to splash any of the boiling water onto yourself as you put the whole thing into the oven.
I use oven mitts to transfer the pans and pop them onto the top rack, set in the middle part of my oven.
Another thing you will want to do is to ensure that the bowl you beat your eggs whites in is scrupulously clean. You don't want to be using a plastic boil with any film of fat or oil in it from past baking/desserts.
I always use a glass bowl for beating my egg whites. ALWAYS!!
Whisk or sift the flour and corn starch for the cake together. I know they are only small amounts, but you still want everything evenly distributed.
Its a simple thing really. Just measure them into a small bowl and whisk together with a small wire whisk or even a spoon if that is all you have. You want them evenly combined.
Have all of your ingredients at room temperature for the best results. Very easily done. The amounts are so small, you can just measure them out and walk away for half an hour before beginning to actually make the cake.
This is for a few reasons. Room temperature egg whites give much more volume when beaten. Also if you make sure all of your ingredients are the same temperature, you can be assured of a much better result or finish.
Don't panic if your mixture splits after you add the milk and the lemon juice. This is completely normal!
You will still end up with a perfect pudding. Trust me on this.
Size doesn't matter all that much, just so long as your dish holds three cups. My baking dish is a bit on the deep side, but you could use one that is shallower with a larger surface.
The larger dish will cook quicker, that's all. And the pudding won't be as deep. I find that the size I used for this today is the perfect size. You could even use a small loaf tin. Just make sure you butter it well so that the pudding doesn't stick to it too much.
Above all have fun. Enjoy the experience of making this and enjoy the experience of eating this!!
Maybe you are lucky enough to have a grandchild stay over night. This would serve three alright, because the servings for two people are very generous. I have to say.
You may want to serve it with some pouring cream or some whipped cream on top and that would be really delicious. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
Also if you are more than two and wanting to cook a larger version, you can access my full sized version here. Its tasty tasty too!
It serves four to six depending on how greedy you are! No judgement here.
Lemon Delicious for two
Yield: 2
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 Hourinactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 1 H & 45 M
Somewhere between a cake and a custard, this simple dessert separates into two delicious layers when it bakes. Soft, light and airy lemon cake on top. Lush, creamy lemon pudding on the bottom. Perfectly sized for two people.
Ingredients
- 2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature (yolks and white separated)
- 1/2 cup (95g) finely granulated sugar
- 4 tsp plain all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch (corn flour)
- 2 TBS butter, at room temperature
- 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (120ml) full fat milk, at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325*F/160*C/ gas mark 3. Have ready a well buttered 7 1/4 inch by 5 1/4 inch baking dish. (should hold 3 cups). Also a 9 by 13 inch cake tin, large enough to hold the baking dish with some space around it.
- Using a hand held electric mixer beat the egg whites until foamy on medium low speed. Increase the speed to high and begin adding 6 tablespoons of the sugar, one at a time. Beat until the mixture doubles in size and has stiff glossy peaks. Set aside.
- Beat the butter, lemon zest and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl periodically.
- Sift together the flour and cornstarch. With the beaters on low, slowly add the flour mixture until combined. Add the milk and lemon juice.
- Stir in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites, using a rubber spatula. Fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain. Scrape this batter into the prepared baking dish, smoothing over the top.
- Place a folded clean dish rag in the bottom of the larger baking tin. Place the dish with the pudding in it on top. Carefully pour boiling water into the larger dish around the smaller dish to come halfway up the sides.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour. When done it should be golden brown and set with a slight jiggle in the middle.
- Remove from oven and carefully transfer the baking dish to a wire rack to cook for half an hour prior to serving. Delicious warm or at room temperature.
Fruited Buttermilk Muffins, or "Sometimes you're the windscreen, sometimes you're the bug.)
I always try to be very truthful on here in the English Kitchen. For one thing you don't get highly edited photographs. Everything I show you is pretty much just as it is in reality. Sometimes you even catch a glimpse of the chaos surrounding the carefully (as if) set up photo!
There have been complaints before that people can see my laundry drying, or the dog looking on over in the corner, etc. That's because I am a realist and I like to present things to the world just as they are.
I am not perfect, nor is anyone and I would hate for the world to think that I am. I just could not live with myself if I thought I was presenting something totally unreal to my readers. What you see is exactly what you get.
And that is real recipes, cooked, baked, photographed in real time and under real conditions. Its just one of my quirks. And always I try to present to you recipes which work and you can rely and depend upon.
I am a realist myself and I get really annoyed when I go to other pages and try recipes and end up having wasted until amounts of cash on things which were never going to turn out. REALLY annoyed.
I cannot impress you with that enough. It really burns my butt!!
By the same token it really annoys me when someone tries one of my recipes and then they come back and say, this recipe is crapola. I added this, and took out that because we don't like it, I lowered this, etc. etc. but it didn't turn out!
In short, when they have totally messed with the integrity of a recipe and then complain that the recipe didn't work for them.
These are really, really good muffins. They are delicious muffins. Moist. Tasty. With a beautiful crumb.
Filled with lovely bits of whatever fruit you want to stir into them. Today I used chopped peaches, strawberries and blueberries. Frozen ones.
My brother was going to come over this morning and help me cancel my credit card in the UK. I was having a dickens of a time cancelling it. I've been trying since November.
Although I had not used it since November, my biggest fear was that when it expired, the new one would go to my old house and be stolen. So he said he could help me and actually he did! Problem sorted! Yay!!
I really, really wanted to give them some nice baked muffins when they came over this morning. So I baked these Fruited Buttermilk Muffins. Usually they work really well, but I have never baked them in a glass baking dish before.
All I have is the glass dish here in Canada and muffin papers don't fit into it. I figured if I buttered/sprayed it really well, there would not be a problem. WRONG!
They came out of the oven looking alright, maybe not as tall as they usually are, they did spread out a bit, but they still looked nice.
The problem came when I went to flip them out of my pan. STUCK. STUCK. STUCK!! They could not have been more stuck if they tried!
The tops came off beautifully. The bottoms stayed in the pan. In fact I had to use a spoon to dig hem out.
I am not sure if its because today I cut the recipe in half, or if it was because of the pan itself. In any case, I had egg on my face. That makes two things I have cooked for them that have come out badly. My reputation is taking a kicking here!
So here I am on Friday the 13th and my birthday no less, showing you destroyed muffins. Why? Because I always want to be truthful and let you know that I don't always get things right myself. Sometimes I fail abysmally. This is one of those times.
Don't reduce the recipe by half. Don't bake them without papers. Do enjoy, because even though the bottoms were destroyed, we did enjoy the tops. Not all was lost. Sometimes you just have to laugh, lol
I hope you won't let my bad experience spoil yours. Do try the muffins as written in below recipe, without any alterations, and I can promise you, you will have a tasty muffin to enjoy. Moist and delicious and filled with fruit.
Fruited Buttermilk Muffins (small batch)
Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 40 Min
These are delicious muffins. Filled with fruit. You decide which kind. Just make sure you line your muffin tin with paper liners, because they will stick.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/3 cup (270g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1 TBS finely grated lemon zest
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
- 1 large free range egg
- 2 1/2 cups (350g) all purpose plain flour (you may need an additional 1/4 cup/35g)
- pinch salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fruit
To top:
- 4 TBS soft light brown sugar, divided
- 8 TBS chopped toasted walnuts, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/ 200*C/ gas mark 6. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. (You may even want to spray the paper with non-stick cooking spray.)
- Whisk the brown sugar and oil together in a bowl. Stir in the lemon zest, vanilla and egg yolk until thoroughly combined. Stir in the buttermilk.
- Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, just until combined. Fold in the chopped fruit. If you think the mixture is too loose, add some additional flour to make the batter a bit stiffer.
- Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin cups.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar over each, along with the walnuts, dividing it equally.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Bake for a further 15 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before tipping them out onto a wire rack. Best eaten on the day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons