Easy Mini Cinnamon Buns

These are probably the easiest cinnamon buns I've ever made. I like them mini, so I could finish one in 2-3 bites. You can always make them normal sized by not cutting the dough in half before rolling. :)

It's important to use pasteurized milk, otherwise the bacteria will likely kill the yeast. Although I wouldn't worry about it, since most milk is pasteurized these days.

Definitely eat these while they're hot. Otherwise I'd just nuke them in the microwave for about 5 seconds to warm them up if eaten after they've cooled down.


Easy Mini Cinnamon Buns
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsps (or 1 packet) instant yeast
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup (semi-)melted butter, divided
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 6 Tbsp sugars, divided
• Canola oil, for greasing bowl
• About 1 cup cream cheese frosting (1/4 of this recipe's frosting is good enough)

Directions:

1. Heat up milk and 3 tablespoons of butter until the temperature reaches about 110F (the temperature of bath water/just a bit warmer than your body temperature), either in a small sauce pan over medium heat or in a 2 cup measuring cup in the microwave.
2. Transfer butter and milk mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar and salt. Mix well.
3. Add 2 cups of flour to the liquid mixture. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to mix dough until it gets sticky and a ball of dough starts to form. Roll it out onto a floured surface and knead, adding flour as needed, until the dough is just tacky and no longer sticky (usually about 2 1/2 of flour and 5 minutes of kneading will do). Form the dough into a ball. Grease the mixing bowl with canola oil and place the ball of dough in it, rolling it in the bowl to get it greased up.
4. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave it in the microwave for 1 hour, or until the dough doubles in size. Do NOT turn on the microwave. It's the best place to let the dough rise.
5. Line a 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a thin rectangle. Brush with 3 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle 1/4 of sugar on top and then with the cinnamon. Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut the rectangle lengthwise (to make 2 long rectangles).
7. Starting at one end, tightly roll up the dough and situate seam side down. Repeat with the other rectangle. Using the same knife or pastry cutter, cut the dough into 1 1/2 - 2 inch long pieces.
8. Place the cinnamon buns into the parchment lined pan. Spread remaining butter over the tops of the cinnamon buns.
9. Place the pan on top of the oven to rise while the oven preheats. Preheat to 350F. Bake in the middle rack for 25-30 minutes, or until slightly golden brown. While the cinnamon buns are baking, make your cream cheese frosting.
10. Spread the frosting over the hot cinnamon buns. Let cool for a couple of minutes before serving with milk or coffee.

Baked Blueberry Cinnamon Croissant French Toast

I bought all these little micro croissants cuz I just really wanted some. I had a feeling I'd have leftovers and wouldn't know what to do with them and man was I right. Luckily I have some guests over so they can be guinea pigs for this dish. I had considered just making French toast out of them, but then decided to bake it so it'd be ready for everyone at the same time without needing to keep the earlier cooked ones in the oven.


Baked Blueberry Cinnamon Croissant French Toast
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 14 micro croissants (or 4 large croissants)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Place croissants in a 8" x 8" square glass pan, squishing them all in one layer. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt. Gently mix in blueberries.
3. Pour mixture over croissants. Place a plate on top of the croissants and press down so that they're fully submerged in the custard. Chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350F. Lift the plate off of the croissants and bake for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.
5. Serve with maple syrup or whipped cream, etc. and coffee.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bread

Rarely do we have bananas that are ripe enough for banana bread these days but it does happen once in a while. I've been craving peanut butter and/or wanting to put peanut butter in everything lately so I figured I'd put some peanut butter in the banana bread. And then of course I thought to put chocolate chips in it. I mean...how could you not? :P

K's daycare is a nut free environment. This means this is definitely not daycare friendly, so I'll have to help K finish this at home. The things a mother will do for her child, eh? ;)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bread

(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, soften
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all natural crunchy peanut butter
• 2 medium bananas, sliced
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer bowl or large bowl with hand mixer, cream butter, sugar and peanut butter until creamy until creamy.
3. Mix in bananas, vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream until well combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add that and chocolate chips to banana and peanut butter mixture. Beat until everything is just combined.
5. Pour batter into the loaf pan. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to knock any air out.
6. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toohpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. If the top becomes too brown, loosely cover with aluminum foil. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Serve with coffee and/or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream or milk, etc.

Breakfast on Toast

Breakfast. The best thing about breakfast is runny eggs. No joke. A runny egg will make almost any food 100 times better. :)

I know it's hard to tell, but there's actually a slice of toast underneath all that bacon. You can even see a teeny tiny piece of avocado peaking out on the right. This is pretty good. But you know what makes it even better? Salsa. Or you can use some pico de gallo if you have it.


Breakfast on Toast
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of bread
• 2 eggs
• 3 strips bacon, cut into halves
• 1 small avocado, sliced
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup salsa or pico de gallo
• 1 Tbsp butter

Directions:

1. In a small skillet, melt butter over medium low heat. Break eggs into the skillet to cook sunny side up eggs. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Meanwhile, toast bread slices. Once toasted, spread 1/2 of the avocado slices onto each of the toasts. Top with bacon strips (3 half-strips per toast) and then an egg on each toast. 
3. Serve with salsa and coffee, tea or milk.

Note: Been making this as a sandwich (without toasting the bread) and with my breakfast sausage patties instead of bacon and it is FRIGGIN' DELICIOUS! So good that Hubby wants to sell it. As if someone hadn't thought of that already somewhere. Lol!

French Toast

Healthy French toast? HAH! I suppose it could happen. I use my Silver Hills bread for it, even though I drench the whole thing in maple syrup. Does that count? ;)

Seriously though, brioche or Challah bread is the best when it comes to making french toast. I didn't plan on making it, so I didn't buy any. That's okay. I had way too much sliced bread anyway.

Usually when I'm using sliced sandwich bread, I'll be able to make 10 pieces of French toast. Otherwise, it's only 8 pieces.


French Toast
(serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 Tbsps honey
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• A pinch of salt
• 8 slices 1 inch thick brioche/Challah bread or 10 slices sandwich bread
• 4-5 Tbsps butter, divided
• Maple Syrup

Directions:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs with honey, cinnamon and salt. Stir in milk.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat in a large skillet.
3. While butter is melting, dip 2 slices of bread into the custard mixture. Let excess drip off and lay them on skillet to cook. Once brown, flip over to cook the other side. Repeat with remaining slices of bread. 
4. Serve with fresh fruit, maple syrup, honey, fruit compote, powdered sugar, flavoured butter, Nutella, whipped cream, etc.

Eggnog Panettone Bread Pudding

I've always had a distaste for raisins in my food. I don't know why. I don't mind them when I eat them separately. I just don't like them in my food. It feels weird. But then I had some Afghan rice at some vegan restaurant and it was so yummy. Mind you, it's rice, so I'll almost always think it's the most amazing thing I put in my mouth. Rofl. Seriously though, I started thinking that maybe it's not so bad.

This Xmas we had Panettone bread and I've realized that I don't like eggnog that much by itself. Shocking. Kinda but not really. I've always mixed my eggnog with milk because I found it too sweet. In any case, so we had extra of both, so I made bread pudding. K loves it. I put it in his lunch for daycare and he ate all of it. Sweet. (Almost) Nothing makes me happier than when I see him polishing off food I make. :)


Eggnog Panettone Bread Pudding
(serves 6-9)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb panettone, cubed
• 2 cups eggnog
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 8" x 8" pan. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggnog, eggs, sugar and cinnamon. Toss in panattone, raisins and cranberries, making sure the bread is soaking up all the custard.
3. Pour into the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the middle is set.
4. Cut into squares and serve with ice cream and coffee.

Fluffy Whole Wheat Rolls

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!! >_<

Seriously these are fluffy. I think I've found my go to bread recipe for all soups and stews. Woohoo!

I gotta try making this into a loaf. Or a giant bread bowl for my French Onion Spinach dip. OMG or even use it as a soup bowl. I wonder if the bottom would be sturdy enough. Or make mini french bread-ish loaves for sandwich making. Or add some spices/herbs to make it into a fancy kind of bread. Oh the possibilities...


Fluffy Whole Wheat Rolls
(makes 16 small rolls)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 Tbsp instant yeast
• 2 Tbsps sugar
• 2 Tbsps canola oil, plus more for greasing
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten + 2 Tbsps water (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer's bowl), stir together warm water, yeast and sugar. Let stand for a couple of minutes while you get everything else together.
2. Add in the oil, salt, whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Using the dough hook on your stand mixer, mix on low. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn it on medium speed and let it knead for about 8 minutes until smooth and elastic.
3. Pull the dough ball up using one hand and the other to lightly oil the bowl. Turn the dough around to coat in oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until the dough doubles in volume, about an hour. In the mean time, two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
4. After an hour, uncover the dough and punch out all the air. Separate the dough into halves until you get 16 equal sized pieces. Form into round balls and place 8 onto each of the parchment lined sheets, spaced evenly apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let it rise while you preheat the oven to 400F. This should take only a few minutes but if you have time, let the rolls rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. (Optional) In a small bowl, mix egg with 2 tablespoons of water and brush on top of rolls before baking to have a nice shiny top.

It's practically winter here and cold most of the time, so it's hard to find a warm place to let any dough rise. But I always have my microwave! It's the best place for keeping your dough when you want it to proof. Just cover it with a damp cloth, shut the door, set the timer and remember not to touch that microwave door for the next hour. As long as the door stays shut, it is THE BEST place for the bread to rise. It works every time. ;)

You can also just stick all the bread rolls onto one parchment lined baking sheet if you don't mind the sides sticking together.

Oh oh and the water temp. I'm too impatient/lazy/whatever to bother testing the temperature for the water. My rule of thumb is to just stick a clean hand or a couple of fingers into the water. If it's just a little warmer than me, then it's good to go. Human beings tend to be about 96F degrees and the water is supposed to be 110F degrees, so if it's a little warmer than I am, then I'm golden. This method hasn't failed me yet!

Pork Dressing (Stuffing)

So I found out that apparently stuffing isn't called stuffing unless it's stuffed in something while it cook...and if you don't do that it's called dressing. How strange. I suppose it makes sense to not call it stuffing, but it's weird to call it "dressing". Am I supposed to use it to "dress" the food on my plate? Hmmm...English can be such a funny language sometimes.

It's yummy though! Especially if you "dress" it with gravy. HAHA. Or I suppose you can. >_>


Pork Dressing (Stuffing)
(serves 10-12)

Ingredients:

• 2 lb lean ground pork
• 3 apples, cored and diced
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• 1/4 loaf of bread, cubed (I used Cheddar & Jalepeño)
• 2 cups bread crumbs (I grounded up the Cheddar & Jalepeño bread)
• 2 Tbsps fennel seeds
• 2 tsps dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 2 Tbsps canola oil (I used bacon grease)
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat up oil over medium high heat. Brown ground pork wish fennel seeds, oregano, cumin and red chili flakes.
3. When the pork is no longer pink, add in apples and onion strips. Cook until onions are soft and meat is cooked through.
4. Stir in bread and season with salt and pepper.
5. Transfer to a casserole dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the top layer is golden and crispy.

Garlic Toast

My bad! I completely forgot to take a picture of the toast before digging in. As you can tell, we just ate straight from the pan. We had another small pan but it wasn't pictured. Family style, right? :)

It doesn't look like much but it's yummy. Next time maybe I'll add some parsley to add a little colour.


Garlic Toast
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf French bread, sliced to 1 inch thick pieces
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 2 Tbsps parsley, chopped (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Lay bread on a parchment lined baking sheet. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until well incorporated.
4. Generously spread butter mixture onto the bread.
5. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until butter has melted completely and the edges start getting golden brown.
6. Serve as a side or snack with some milk.

Caesar Salad Dressing & Homemade Garlicky Croutons

Apparently this dressing brings all the boys to the yard. Haha. I just had to try it. It's a family recipe. My sister's soon to be mom in law's recipe. I'm glad she's one of those people who share all her recipes. Cuz this was yummy. Even Hubby likes it and the only Caesars he likes are the alcoholic kind. Definitely not the salad type. Which I adore.

The dressing is even better after it's been sitting in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. So it's perfect to make ahead. :)


Caesar Salad Dressing
(Makes 1/2 cup)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 + 1 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/4 + 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Combine mayonnaise and olive oil in a mason jar. Cap and shake well until smooth.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Cap and shake until well blended. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Homemade Garlicky Croutons
(Makes 2 cups)

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of whole wheat bread, cubed
• 2 Tbsp garlic salt
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine everything in a large bowl and toss until cubed bread is thoroughly coated.
3. Spread in one layer on a parchment lined baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly toasted. If using a toaster oven, just put tray in and start toasting on level 4 on the bottom rack.

I like to have everything bite sized, so I always cut my romaine lettuce into bite size pieces or as close to it as possible without it looking like small little dices. Add as much or as little dressing and croutons as you'd like. I don't particularly care whether there's Parmesan cheese or not in my salad so I don't bother. Bacon is always nice but I like my salad simple. Maybe I'll add an egg or grilled chicken or salmon or something for protein but that'll have to be next time. :)