Sweet Honey Rolls

Some people *coughprobablyonlymysiblingscough* may have noticed that I haven't posted a recipe for awhile. School started, I'm busy, lame excuse, lame excuse, lame excuse, but I'm back now. Besides this recipe, there are two others just today, yay! There should be a few more coming soon too, but I don't make any guarantees. For now, let's just focus on this recipe, alright?

I like making breads. They are my favorite things to make. There is no better feeling than pulling out a perfect loaf or a tray of rolls from the oven; I absolutely love it. I have been wanting to do a sweet dessert roll for awhile, but something not cinnamon roll-esque. These sweet honey rolls were the creation I came up with, and I am quite pleased with the results.

Ingredients:

For the rolls:
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup warm milk
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
3 cups flour (I use 2 cups all-purpose, and 1 cup whole wheat, mix and match as you see fit.)
1 tsp salt

For the glaze:
1/8 cup honey
1 cup powdered sugar
1-4 tsp milk

We are going to start these rolls like all the other breads we have made in the past. Mix the water, yeast, and sugar together and wait for it get nice and foamy. Oh, yeah, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

After the mixture gets nice and foamy, add the rest of wet ingredients into it. The wet ingredients would be the egg, milk, oil, and honey. I have used mango honey, and tangerine honey, but normal regular clover honey will work just fine.

Wet Ingredients.

Set the wet ingredients aside, and mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough until it is nice and smooth. Now comes the waiting game. Put your dough aside and let it rise until double, it will take about an hour. Once your dough has raised, dump it out onto a floured surface.

Ready to Roll.

Roll the dough out into a large circle.

Rolled Out.

Cut the dough into strips, try the strips into cut little knots and place the rolls on a greased cookie sheet.

Ready to Bake.

Place the rolls in your preheated oven, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

While the rolls are baking, it's high time to make the glaze for these beauties. Mix the honey, and powdered sugar together with a whisk.

Honey and Powdered Sugar

Add enough milk to the mixture to form a thin glaze.

Glaze.

Once you take the rolls out of the oven,

Baked Rolls.

Spoon the glaze over the rolls, while they are still warm.

Glazing the rolls.

Ready to Eat.

Serve the rolls while still warm, and dip them in any extra glaze, if you wish.

These are intended as a sweet dessert roll, but I totally wouldn't knock on you having them for breakfast.

Food Challenge: Butternut Squash Pie

It is that time of year again; the time of year when everyone [on the planet] becomes obsessed with pumpkin. I like pumpkin just fine, but my obsession lies with a different squash, the butternut. In fact, I love butternut squash so much, that my obsession rubs off on those around me. Daniel is starting to like butternut squash so much, that he asked me to make a pie out of it.

This pie is very similar to pumpkin pie. It has a slight different flavor, but if you don't tell anyone, they probably won't know the difference. So, if there isn't much difference, why should you make butternut squash pie? Well, butternut squash is naturally sweeter than pumpkin, therefore, you don't need to add as much sugar. That seems like a pretty good reason to me.

Ingredients:
2 cups pureed butternut squash
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
Prepared (but not baked) pie crust

This recipe calls for pureed butternut squash. Since this is going to be a pie akin to pumpkin pie, you are going to want the consistency to be about that of canned pumpkin. I had to add a little water when I blended my squash, but it turned out looking like this:

Squash Puree

The prep work(making crust, pureeing squash) before making this pie can be a pain, but actually making the pie is a cinch.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients (other than the pie crust) together until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Pie Filling.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pie crust (store bought is fine, I used a modified version of a Betty Crocker recipe. I added whole wheat, because I can't help myself.)

Prepared Crust.

Ready to Bake.

Carefully place your pie in your pre-heated oven. The middle rack is probably the most appropriate. Bake the pie for 15 minutes. At this point, lower the temperture of the oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 35-45 minutes. When it is ready, a toothpick will come out mostly clean, and the pie will no longer jiggle.

Baked Pie.

Let the pie cool for at least an hour, more if you are able, and serve the same way you would serve pumpkin pie.

Ready to Eat.

Frankly, I love this pie. Butternut squash in a dessert, heck to the yes. It's a goo pie to give a try this Thanksgiving. If you have picky eaters, just don't let them know it is butternut squash, and they will be none the wiser.

I labeled this one as an easy recipe, because the recipe itself is easy as pie (pun definitely intended), but if you count cooking and pureeing the squash, and making the crust, this is probably an intermediate recipe.

Mustard Cheese Sauce

Last time I wanted to have burgers for dinner, I was thinking about ways in which I could make them different than the usual. I decided that I would serve them on pretzel buns, but I wanted something else to be different too. I wanted to stick to the pretzel theme, so I thought about what went well with pretzels. Both mustard and cheese came to mind. Instead of simply putting them on the burgers, I decided to make an awesome sauce that utilized both ingredients. Mustard Cheese sauce may sound a little strange, but let me tell you, it is awesome smothered on a pretzel burger.

Ingredients:
1 TBS butter
1 TBS flour
1 cup milk
4 oz grated cheddar cheese (That's right, I'm giving it to you in ounces.)
2 TBS yellow mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp seasoning salt
1/4 tsp pepper (fresh ground is recommended)
salt to taste

We are going to start out with a standard white sauce procedure. Melt your butter in pan, medium-high heat should do, and stir in the flour, until it gets a little bubbly.

Bubbly flour and butter.

Next we are going to whisk in the milk. It may be helpful to heat the milk a little bit. This helps it to combine a little more easily.

Pouring in the milk.

Milk whisked in.

Once the milk is whisked in nicely, let the mixture boil until thickened, stirring occasionally. After it is thick and bubbly, add the cheese.

Adding the cheese.

Stir the mixture until the cheese is completely melted and everything is nice and smooth.

Smooth Sauce.

Stir in the the remaining ingredients until they are mixed in well. At this point you may decide the sauce isn't thick enough, if that is the case, just let it boil down a little until you reach your desired consistency. After the sauce reaches the consistency you wish, slather the warm sauce all over your burger (pretzel or otherwise).

I designed this sauce for the pretzel burgers I was having, but it can be used in other ways as well. Simply dipping pretzels in it would be scrumptious. It can go on a regular burger, a hot dot, anything thing where both cheese and mustard would taste good. Make the sauce, put it something crazy, and let me know about it in the comments!