Cinnamon Biscuits

I see it is my turn to give a tour of our Christmas home. I am working on it...finishing up some pictures first. Meanwhile we were hungry this morning { while working on Christmas pictures }, a perfect morning for something warm and sweet. Something called a Cinnamon Biscuit!!!

 There is a restaurant back home in North Carolina that had the best cinnamon biscuits. 

I have wanted to make my own several time and just never did, until today. They took all of 5 minutes to make, 15 minutes in the oven.....

This is what we ended up with.  A cinnamon biscuit so much better than any restaurant could make.  Light and fluffy, which is essential in any good  biscuit. A sweet topping and crust that was just the right amount of sweet. No sugar high here today:)

We don't have this kind of breakfast very often. Despite all of my sweet treats I post on here, we actually do eat pretty healthy....most of the time:) These would be great Christmas morning. So quick and easy!!

But not today. Today was a cinnamon biscuit kind of day, something special, something warm from the oven as we sat and watched the snow fly.

Enjoy!!!

 Mary Elizabeth

Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375. Butter and medium cast iron skillet.

Mix together the dry ingredients and then cut in the butter until you get course crumbs. Add just enough of buttermilk until everything pulls away from the sides and is just combined. { Sometimes I use it all and others I leave a tablespoon or so out }.  Drop large spoonfuls of dough into skillet, lightly smoothing out the tops. Cover with brown sugar topping and bake for about 15 minutes. 

Yields 8-10 biscuits

Brown Sugar Topping

1 stick very soft butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix together until smooth. Spoon onto biscuits and gently spread on top.

Firday's Treat ~ Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

It has been entirely too long since my last Friday's Treat post! Or any post for that matter, My two little babies keep my days full. Especially since they lack { for the most part } the desire to sleep!! I will post all the goodies I have been making as time allows, there are several you won't want to miss!

I have been ready to make something pumpkin for a while but the office seems to enjoy chocolate and more chocolate....well, not today:) Sorry ya'll!!

I have been eyeing these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls for several weeks and I am so glad I finally made them! They were just as simple as regular cinnamon rolls, if you can call cinnamon rolls simple. I think I will try a different recipe next time, or just use a plain dough and do a pumpkin filling. Just to mix things up a bit. I found the recipe on Six Sister's Stuff website. They have some great fall recipes so check them out.

These are every bit as good as they look. I didn't make the cream cheese frosting. I thought the brown butter caramel drizzle would be better. These rolls do not lack sweetness and I think the cream cheese frosting would have been too much...

my little helpers hard at work. I officially need more counter space:)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
      from Six Sister's Stuff

Dough:
1/4 c. warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
1/3 c. margarine, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
5-6 c. flour

Filling:
1/2 c - 2/3 c. canned pumpkin puree (to your preference)
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 T cinnamon
*optional: 3/4 c. raisins, 1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 T butter    1/2 tsp vanilla     2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Combine warm water, yeast, and teaspoon of sugar in small bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until froth doubles.
2. In mixer fitted with dough hook, combine milk, eggs, pumpkin, margarine, the 1/2 c. sugar, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. Mix until smooth (don't have a mixer? You can still make these. I first used a wooden spoon until it got to be too hard and then I started using my hands. You have to knead it for a while to get that smooth consistency, but it can be done!).

3. Add 4 cups flour to mixing bowl. Pour frothed yeast mixture on top of flour. Knead about 5 minutes, adding flour 1/2 c. at a time until dough barely begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl. Dough should be smooth and moist, but not sticky.
4. Spray a bowl with non-stick cooking spray. Place dough in greased bowl. Cover with wet towel, or plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Allow to raise until doubled, about 1 hour.
5. While dough is raising, prepare filling. Place room temperature butter and pumpkin puree in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture is smooth. In another small bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon, set both bowls aside.
6. Pour dough out on slightly floured surface. Roll into a rectangle 16x21 inches, dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the pumpkin/butter mixture over rectangle. Next, evenly spread the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top, slightly pressing it into the dough.
7. Roll up long side of dough, forming long tube. Cut tube with sharp knife about every 2 inches, making 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9x13 baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

9. Bake rolls in oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract to make frosting. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Brown Butter Drizzle/Frosting:

1 stick butter, melted and slightly browned

1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar, homemade makes it so much better

2-3 tbls milk

1-2 cups powdered sugar

melt butter in pan until slightly brown. add brown sugar and milk and stir to combine. remove from heat and add enough  powdered sugar to get your desired consistency. I only used about 3/4 cup for this recipe because I didn't want it to be too thick.

Homemade Bread

I should start this post about my newest kitchen machine, but I couldn't wait to get pictures of it and the whole process. I finally have my grain mill up and running. And I am SO EXCITED about it. I now mill grain for flour. It's pretty easy and so much better for you. Did you know that flour loses all of it's nutrients within 72 hours of being milled? There is nothing good for you in store bought flour. I realize that not everyone wants to mill their own flour. It is definitely worth the little extra expense to get started. I'll take pictures of the process this afternoon and show you.

So, on to the homemade bread. This is one of the best and easiest recipes for homemade bread. The kids love it and eat it more than bread I made before. They also love being involved in the process of milling the wheat.
 Here's the recipe from Uncle John's Original Bread Book:

Braue's Home-Baked Whole-Wheat Bread
2 packages active dry yeast (2 Tablespoons if you use bulk yeast)
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup brown sugar (homemade)
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups scalded milk
2 tablespoons melted butter (I need to do a post for homemade butter)
7 cups of flour 

Dissolve yeast in water for about 10 minutes. While the yeast is dissolving, scald milk, then add brown sugar, salt and butter. Combine yeast mixture and milk mixture. Slowly add dough 1 cup at a time until the down doesn't stick to the side of the bowl.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until springy and smooth. Shape into a bowl and place into a lightly floured bowl. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until double in size.
Then divide dough into two balls. Shape each into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Cover with clean towel and let rise again until double in size.
Bake at 350 for about 30 - 45 minutes. The time depends on the size of the loaves and if using fresh flour. I have noticed that things bake a lot faster with the fresh flour. I'm not sure why. When I find out I'll let you know. Bake until the tops are golden brown. If using fresh flour until the temperature reaches 120-125 degrees.
Let the loaves cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then remove from pans and let them finish cooling.

The result is a loaf of the best bread you will ever eat.

Christine

Another Pumpkin Recipe

via Pinterest

Yesterday afternoon I had a few spare minutes when half the kids were sleeping and the other half were outside. Actually, I just decided to get on the Internet instead of working on my to-do list. I decided to check out Pinterest and saw this recipe for pumpkin cheese bread. In the process I found a new food blog that had a few recipes that I would like to try. I apologize ahead of time for no pictures, it was gone before I could take any. Which is a good thing I guess. Check out this recipe if your family loves pumpkin as much as mine does. I did add more pumpkin then the recipe called for and made one bread loaf size. I can't remember exactly how much longer it baked for though. This was really good but it doesn't have a sweet cakey taste. It was perfect after dinner with a cup of coffee and homemade pumpkin spice creamer drizzled with homemade caramel sauce.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Have a great weekend! Hopefully this afternoon I'll be able to post a couple of pictures for our trip to Seward last weekend. This has been a long week, we were all sick (including me), but fortunately did not lose any power. Which is weird because people all around us still don't have any power.

Christine