Cinnamon Rolls

I had been craving cinnamon rolls lately so I finally decided to make them. I followed this recipe: http://www.whatgeekseat.com/wordpress/2008/01/01/rollin-and-tumblin/
I made the mistake of using powdered sugar in the filling instead of regular sugar (I read the recipe wrong). I'm not sure how big of a difference it made. I also feel like there isn't enough filling. I used whole wheat white flour, so the cinnamon rolls do have a bit of an earthy taste, but I don't mind it too much. They definitely would have been better with bread flour. I tried one of these right when they came out of the oven and it was very good - the center was all soft and warm and the frosting was also good. The frosting is just powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. I'm not sure how these will taste the next day. I put them in the refrigerator because they have milk in them and it just seems wrong to leave something with milk in it out. Overall I'm happy with how they came out.

I also got to use my kitchenaid to make the dough! It was my first time using both the paddle and dough hook attachments. It was very exciting.

Kitchenaid doin' it's thang:


A cinnamon roll before it was put in the oven. Not very flattering due to the powdered sugar - it would have been cuter if I used regular sugar.


Here is a cooked cinnamon roll:

Lasagna

I made lasagna again. It's just not very exciting. It's the same way I always make it, with ricotta, tomato sauce, an egg, onions, broccoli, spinach and cheese. I still think it tastes good but I'm a little sick of it. Plus I made it earlier this week with the intent of eating it every night of week but I didn't eat it for dinner once. I did have it for lunch today though.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi! I made extra fatty chocolate chip cookies today. Typically if I make a cookie, I try to find the recipe that requires the smallest amount of butter but today I went all out. I was going for a "chewey" chocolate chip cookie, meaning it requires extra butter. The problem with these cookies is that I didn't know when to take them out of the oven - I didn't want to overcook them and I didn't want to undercook them. The first batch I pulled out too early and the centers of the cookies were completely undone. I ended up putting them back in the oven for a little. The second batch I think I overcooked, since I saw how the first batch came out and didn't want to make the same mistake. Overall, the cookies are good - you can't really go wrong with an obscene amount of butter (1.5 sticks) and sugar (1.5 cups). Quite frankly I think that there's too much butter in them - they have a faint greasy texture which I am not a fan of. I'll have to see what I do next time. This recipe made a lot of cookies, so at least the butter is fairly spread out.

Pasta with Pesto

This was my first experience making pesto. The ingredients are fresh basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pistachios and fresh garlic. I didn't know how much of each ingredient to put in there, so I just winged it and tasted it as I went, adjusting appropriately. I think it turned out fine, I personally enjoyed it. But thas jus me!

Blueberry muffins with chocolate chips on top

I decided to make blueberry muffins tonight. I actually used fresh blueberries instead of frozen but I'm still deciding whether or not they are significantly better than frozen in muffins. They were certainly plumper than the frozen. These muffins turned out pretty good, and I put a few chocolate chips on top just for kicks. I didn't put anything extra healthy in them, other than the flour being white whole wheat. I personally don't feel that chocolate goes well with blueberries but I felt that the muffins needed a little something something on top. I think it worked out fine.

Oh, and thanks to my roommate, I know how to take closeup photos now! Check out this puppy:

Chocolate Sorbet

Howdy, I made chocolate sorbet! This is my first ice cream making experience with my new ice cream maker attachment. I must say that I am very pleased with how it came out. The texture is very nice and ice cream like. It is very rich and sweet, perhaps next time I will use less sugar. This ice cream is even vegan and has my vegan roommate's seal of approval. Shout out to my other roommate who helped get the ice cream maker out of the box. Thanks!

Tomato, Basil and Garlic Pizza

Why hello there! I made pizza with fresh basil, tomatoes and garlic on it. I made it using our awesome pizza stone. I love how the pizza got all bubbly - I don't think it does if you don't use a pizza stone (or it hasn't done that for me before, without the pizza stone). I used Trader Joe's wheat pizza dough, since this was an impulse pizza, and regular tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, 3 cloves of garlic, fresh basil and fresh tomatoes. I copied my roommate by using the basil, garlic and tomatoes. The pizza was very garlicky, but I liked it. The bottom of the pizza was nice and crispy.

My cute little slice:

Challah Back Youngin'

I made challah! This is the first time that I made traditional challah in a while. Surprisingly it came out amazing - the perfect texture and the perfect sweetness. My older sister even asked for seconds!! My 8 year old sister helped me out by mixing some of the ingredients. She even made her own mini challah. The challah I made is a 6 braid.. fancy I know! There's nothing whole wheat about this challah - it's just straight up bread flour. Maybe that's why it's so good! Perhaps next time I'll put chocolate chips in it.

Edit: I had originally written this post after trying the mini challah which was cooked completely. My big challah had some areas that weren't cooked completely (in the center of the big part). Next time I will make sure to cook it all the way though! The recipe only said to cook it for 30 minutes and I believe I may have even cooked it for 40 minutes. The recipe was probably talking about a smaller challah though. I was just looking at the color of the challah to determine whether or not to pull it out.

More Cookbooks!

This is no excuse for a post but oh well, it's the new year! I bought two more cookbooks because I'm worth it. I bought an ice cream book because I haven't used my ice cream maker attachment yet, but I'm determined to do so once I get back to SD. I especially want to make a chocolate sorbet. This ice cream cookbook got pretty good reviews - I hope it lives up to them!



The second one I bought is a bread book. My dream is to be able to bake delicious and healthy bread. (Who knows if that is possible.) I just want to see how this book goes. A lot of the reviews said that the recipes are overly complicated but maybe that's how bread is!