Thursday’s Culinary Adventure

 

 

Tonight on Thursday’s Culinary Adventure:

Yes!  Just like the song!!

You know, “One a penny, two a penny…?”

“Did you sing the song some time during this adventure, Caitlin?” you ask.

Why yes, yes I did. 

But Brian?  Brian sang the song while dancing a jig.

That’s Culinary Adventure Spirit if I have ever seen it!

I may as well admit to you that I made these buns last night because they take a while with the rising and all. 

You would have figured it out anyway when you saw Joseph’s crusted-blood nose, so I thought that I would come clean.

That’s right, folks, this is a FAMILY Culinary Adventure!

Ready Joseph? (Does clinging to my hip in glassy-wide-eyed anticipation imply readiness?  If so, then he’s in!)

Ready Brian?

 Excellent.

I got the recipe from this website.

Into a large bowl or mixer, throw:

34 c. warm water

3 Tb. butter

1 Tb. powdered milk

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 egg white

3 c. flour

1 Tb. yeast.

-

It should look a little something like this

For the Record: Flour does not taste good on its own.

Look at my big boy standing on the chair and “helping!”

Sigh.

Anyway, mixer this up (or knead by hand) for about two minutes.

Then, add 1 tsp. cinnamon, and continue kneading/mixing for about five more.

Joseph is border-line scared of my mixer,

so I have to fake enthusiasm the whole time its on to keep things light and positive.

You will notice that the dough is VERY sticky- don’t over-flour it or else it wont rise!

My Bosch doesn’t do so well with these small batches, so I actually had to take the dough out and knead it by hand for a little while to make sure that it got properly mixed.

At this point Joseph was done helping and was busy sticking things into my locked “breakables” cupboard. 

He knew that if he stuck something into the cupboard and then whined for a while, I would open the cupboard to retrieve his item- thus giving him about 30 seconds to try to get into everything he could.

But, back to the recipe (FAMILY Culinary Adventures have a lot of distractions!):

Put the dough in a warm dry place, covered with a towel, to rise until doubled (about an hour.)

Once it has doubled, punch the dough down thoroughly, and then let it sit for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 equal(ish) balls and place them on a greased 9x13 pan.

This is a cool trick that a nice LDS lady up here taught me-  If you are trying to make dough-balls, like for rolls, you can pinch off the dough in sections by using your index finger and thumb- like so:

I am making the “okay” sign, and then pinching it off.

This makes the balls pretty smooth, round, and even.

Let your dough balls rise until doubled again- about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until brown.

When you remove them from the oven- immediately transfer them to a cooling rack.

I separated the rolls to cool- but I don’t think you have to.

Top with icing of your choice, in the shape of a cross.

All done!

Taste Testers Say:

Brian:  “These deserve a ‘one-tooth smile’; because they are pretty good, but not great.”

Weirdo.

Caitlin:  “I want to sleep on you, soft pillows of goodness!”

Joseph:  Was asleep at this point.  You snooze, you lose baby!

Summary:

I thought that they were delicious, and Brian (who is not a sweets person, remember) thought that they were just okay.

They are, essentially, a sweet bread topped with a tiny bit of icing.  Like a cinnamon roll, maybe.

Here is my only issue:  How can you eat hot crossed buns, when you can’t put the frosting “cross” on them until they are cool? (or else the frosting melts…I've heard…)

Grade: B+