Easy (and DELICIOUS) Homemade Rolls

I have been on a roll baking kick lately. Bubba has been training for the Tough Mudder and has been trying to eat really healthy-proud of you babe! So...I make a deal with him that I wont make a sugary, sweet breakfast for him Sunday mornings if I can bake rolls for dinner. And that is what I have been doing for last month! I have tried a few recipes and this is our of my favorites. I found it on Pinterest, of course. I just decided not to do the honey butter. Hope you like them!

Easy (and DELICIOUS) Homemade Rolls
Adapted from High Heels & Grills

Ingredients: 

• 1-1/2 cups hot water {as hot as you can get it out of the tap.}
• 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3-1/2 to 4 cups bread flour {or all-purpose flour is fine)
• 1/4 cup salted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a large bowl (I used my Kitchenaid), mix together water, yeast, and sugar; let stand until frothy, about 5 minutes.
3. Combine the oil, salt, 2 cups of flour, and the yeast mixture until well combined.
4. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and is no longer sticky.
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until elastic, about 8 minutes.
6. Place the dough in the greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth; let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. *I will turn my oven on warm, put the bowl in the oven and then turn off the oven. This seems to help the dough rise much more quickly*
7. After doubled, punch down dough and lay on floured surface. 
8. Roll dough out until about 20 inches by 12 inches.
9. Brush dough with melted butter.
10. With a pizza cutter, cut dough lengthwise into sixths and crosswise into twelfths.
11. Make stacks of 4 dough squares and place each stack into a greased muffin tin cup.
12. Allow rolls to rise again, about 20-30 minutes. 
13. Preheat oven to 375F. 
14. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. 
15. Once out of the oven, brush with additional melted butter if desired. 
16. Serve warm.

Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love to bake. I mean, I LOVE it!!! There is just one thing...with me being pregnant and Bubba training for the Tough Mudder in a few months, we have been trying to eat even more healthy than we normally do. With that, I have been trying to come up with some healthy (or at least healthier) recipes to bake that will still hit the spot! And boy did I come up with one tonight!

I love banana bread! It has always been one of my favorites! You can find my go-to banana bread recipe here. However, it is full of delicious sugar and butter. I wanted to make a recipe that was a bit healthier. This recipe has no butter, no oil and only 1/2 cup of brown sugar! A little whole wheat flour, oats, banana and applesauce makes a scrumptious, chewy treat! And at just 110 calories each, you really can't go wrong!

Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins

Adapted from Joy the Baker.

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 whole egg, beaten
2 egg whites, beaten
½ cup natural applesauce
3 ripe bananas
½ cup chocolate chips, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with fork. Add whole egg and applesauce.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. The batter will be fairly thick.

In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions. Fold in chocolate chips if using.

Spoon batter into muffin tin. Fill about ¾ full. Bake for 16 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Creme Brulee French Toast Casserole

I had this at a baby shower a few months ago and I fell in love! It is rich and delicious. If you like french toast, then you will love this. I would tell you to watch the broiler because it easy for it to get a little too crispy.

Creme Brulee French Toast Casserole
Adapted from The Pastry Queen

1 large loaf of French bread
8 large eggs
2 1/4 cups milk
1 cup plus 4-5 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 T vanilla extract
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp cinnamon
3 T unsalted butter

Combine eggs, milk, 1 cup sugar, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, vanilla, orange juice, and 2 T melted butter in a large bowl. Whisk together until well incorporated. Use remaining butter to heavily butter a 9x13 baking pan. Slice bread into 1/2" thick slices and then cut slices into cubes. Combine remaining cinnamon and 1 T sugar. Add bread cubes to pan and toss with cinnamon sugar mixture. Pour custard mixture over bread cubes, pressing cubes down with a spoon to thoroughly soak bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate at least one hour or overnight. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake approximately 40-50 minutes until golden brown and set. Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining 3-4 T of sugar over the top of the casserole in an even, heavy layer. Set broiler on high and return to oven or use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar. The sugar will turn brown and liquefy and then harden as it cools. Serve warm with maple syrup if desired.

Orange Rolls

Everyone loves orange rolls! We used to have them for Sunday Dinners when I was growing up, but I hadn't had them in years. I found this recipe and it is yummy! They tasted so good, but they didn't rise like I would have liked. I am going to double the yeast next time to see if that makes a difference. The recipe says to bake the rolls on a cookie sheet, but growing up, all of our orange rolls were baked in a muffin tin so I decided to give it a try. They all came out looking very uniformed. I hope you enjoy!

Orange Rolls

1 1/4 Cup Scalded Milk
1/2 Cup Margarine (not butter)
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 Packet Yeast
4-5 Cups Flour
1/4 Cup Orange Juice
2 TBSP Orange Rind

Icing:
2 TBSP Orange Juice
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. orange Rind

Mix milk, margarine, sugar, salt and yeast. Let sit for about 15-20 minutes. Add 4-5 Cups Flour to make sticky dough. Let rise until double in bulk. Grease hands well and punch down the dough. Divide into 2 segments and roll out the first into a large rectangle. You can either cut them into 1/2 inch strips and tie them into bow knots, or roll it up and cut it into individual rolls. Place on parchment covered jelly roll pan and let rise until double in size. Bake @ 400 degrees for 12 minutes.

Make Icing while first batch is baking. Spread over rolls within the first few minutes of them coming out of the oven.

Jam Filled Muffins

This is fun way to eat a muffin! With the jam already inside! Hope you like them!

Jam Filled Muffins

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
raspberry or strawberry jam (or any kind that like)

Directions:
In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, butter and lemon peel; add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir just until moistened. Spoon half of the batter into 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Make a well in the center of each; add about a tablespoon of jam. Spoon remaining batter over jam. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Serves 12.

Sweet Muffins

This recipe is great to have. It has helped me in a pinch when we have had last minute company for dinner and I needed an extra side dish. The ingredients are things that I always have on hand and they take less than 30 minutes from start to finish. And the best part of all is that they are yummy too!

Sweet Muffins

1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together. Place batter into a greased muffin pan (Makes 12 muffins). Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with butter and jam.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

In the past, when I lived in Utah, I would borrow either my mom's or my mother-in-law's electric wheat grinder to grind wheat for different recipes. This year for my birthday, my sweet mother-in-law sent me a wheat grinder. And I love it! But I have to do it by hand and I must say that it sure gives you quite the work out! It was totally worth all the work for this yummy bread recipe!

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking) plus additional for topping

1/2 cup warm water (105-115°F)

2 tablespoons active dry yeast (from 3 packages)

1/2 cup mild honey

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus additional for buttering pans
3 cups stone-ground whole-wheat flour

About 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon salt

Vegetable oil for oiling bowl

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Special equipment: 2 (8- by 4-inch) loaf pans

Heat milk in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan over low heat until hot but not boiling, then remove pan from heat and stir in oats. Let stand, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until cooled to warm.

Stir together water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon honey in a small bowl; let stand until foamy, 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.) Stir yeast mixture, melted butter, and remaining honey into cooled oatmeal.

Stir together whole-wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour, and salt in a large bowl. Add oat mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead with floured hands, adding just enough of remaining unbleached flour to keep from sticking, until dough is smooth, soft, and elastic, about 10 minutes (dough will be slightly sticky). Form dough into a ball and transfer to an oiled large bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel; let rise at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Lightly butter loaf pans. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead several times to remove air. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a loaf, then place 1 loaf in each buttered pan, seam side down, tucking ends gently to fit. Cover loaf pans loosely with a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly brush tops of loaves with some of egg wash and sprinkle with oats, then bake until bread is golden and loaves sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 35 to 40 minutes. (Remove 1 loaf from pan to test for doneness. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen.)

Remove bread from pans and transfer to a rack to cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours.

Bread Sticks

I tried this recipe out last week when we had friends over for dinner and it was a hit! It is really easy too! It is simple and goes great with lots of different dishes. I found this recipe at mcconkiemenu.blogspot.com.

Bread Sticks

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tbs sugar
1 tbs yeast

Let sit for 5 minutes

Then add:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

Mix until smooth and let sit for 10 more minutes.

Divide dough in half. Roll out dough on a floured board. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder and salt.Fold in half and cut into 1 inch strips. Twist before placing on cookie sheet. Let sit for 15 minutes. Repeat with second half of dough.

Bake at 400F for 7-10 minutes. Immediately after baking, brush with more butter and sprinkle with salt and grated parmesan cheese.

*You can also add parmesan to the to the dough before you cut and twist it. It turns out great!

Homemade French Bread

This recipe came from my mom. It is a great recipe and it doesn't last long at our house! I like to serve it with homemade pesto and Bubba likes to eat it the next morning with Nutella. This makes two large loaves so I will often half the recipe or freeze the second loaf.

Homemade French Bread

In a liquid measuring cup add:
2 tbs or 2 pkgs yeast
1/4 cup warm water
Pinch of sugar

In a large mixing bowl add and mix well:
2 cups hot water
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs salt
3 cups un-sifted flour

Add yeast then mix. Add 3 more cups of flour and mix until incorporated. Add more flour as needed. Dough should be sticky, but not too firm or runny.

Stir down every 10 minutes for 50 minutes. Grease cookie sheet. Divide dough in half. Mold dough to desired length. Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Create splits on top of bread and brush with egg wash, sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds if desired. Bake at 370 for 25 minutes.

Banana Bread-Cake

This has become one of my favorite banana bread recipes. It is really easy to throw together and always turns out great. It has this delicious sugary crust that is irresistible! It doesn't last more than a day or two in my house.

Banana Bread-Cake

3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup mashed bananas
1/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cup flour
1 1/8 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
dash of cinnamon

Mix all of ingredients together starting with the liquids. Then add the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.

To prepare the bundt cake pan, spray with a cooking spray, then coat the inner edges really well with sugar. This will make a really yummy, sugary, crispy, thin outer layer.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.