Sourdough Sharing - Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Buns and More

This month's sourdough sharing is cinnamon buns or other variations.  I decided to try some pumpkin pie cinnamon rolls.  I got the original idea from here.  I got the dough recipe from Sourdough Cookery by Rita Davenport.  

Ingredients
dough
1 1/2 c sourdough
3/4 c milk (I used 1 c pumpkin puree instead)
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter or marg
1 tsp salt
2 - 2 1/2 c flour (I needed about 4 c flour)

filling
1 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c butter
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla

My sourdough was very bubbly but not as thick as usual.  So that plus using pumpkin instead of milk may have accounted for the need for that much extra flour.

To make the dough
To sourdough add and mix in all ingredients except flour.  Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.  Knead until smooth, adding more flour if needed.

 

Place in a greased bowl and let rise until double.  The original recipe said 2 hours but mine took all day.

Roll dough into a rectangle.

To make filling
Combine pumpkin (I used homemade puree) with other ingredients and stir well.  I did not add the butter at this stage but you may if you wish.

I spread the butter evenly on the dough like you do for regular cinnamon buns.

Spread the pumpkin filling evenly, leaving a bit of dough at the edges uncovered.

Roll up dough sealing the edges.

Cut and place in greased pans.

Cover and let rise until double.

 

Bake at 400°F for 25 - 30 minutes.

 

Rita Davenport suggests drizzling on a mixture of icing sugar, milk and vanilla (no amounts given).

 

Mama Taney suggests pumpkin cream cheese icing.

 

I did neither and we ate them as is.  Usually I find icing on cinnamon buns too much sweetness but these would have been nice with the cream cheese icing as they are not too sweet.  They were tasty and the spiced pumpkin had a nice flavour.

 

I wouldn't bother adding the pumpkin to the dough next time because all it did was turn the dough a nice golden colour.  Pumpkin doesn't have much taste by itself so I don't think it added to the taste.

 

Enjoy these or some of the other recipes below.

 

 

 

 

Apple & Cherry Buns

I found the recipe for Apple Buns here and decided to give them a try. I decided to make both apple buns and try cherry buns so I made a double batch of dough.

Ingredients (for a double batch)
Dough
2 c milk, scalded
1/2 c sugar
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
5 tsp yeast
6 c flour

Fillings
#1.  2 - 3 apples peeled and diced
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 c brown sugar
cinnamon

#2.  for cherry filling I used the above with 1-2 cups pitted frozen cherries instead of apples
cornstarch for thickening

#3.  I had extra dough so mixed up some spiced apricot jam, chopped nuts and chopped raisins.  I did not cook this filling but used it as is.

Scald milk and then mix with sugar, oil and salt.  Cool until lukewarm and then add yeast.  Let sit 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes frothy.  Mix in flour and knead for 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl to rest and rise until double in size.

I made the dough first and while it was rising, I made the fillings.

Melt butter in pan and add brown sugar.  Stir to combine, then let caramelize at medium high heat.  Stir only enough to keep from burning. 

 

Add apples and cinnamon and cook until apples are soft and mixture has thickened.  Let cool before using.

 

For the cherry filling, I added some cornstarch as it was cooking because they are much juicier than the apples.  I just sprinkled on a bit at a time and let it cook until thick.  Cool before using.

 

The original recipe was for 16 buns but with it doubled, I only got 24.  Roll the dough into a circle and the fun begins.

 

I used this video as guide for shaping the buns.  I watched it numerous times as my fingers kept forgetting what I wanted them to do.  Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the dough.

 

Pleat the dough following the video making sure the filling is all inside.

 

Continue pleating until entire edge is done.  Once my fingers got the feel of the action, it was fairly easy, but I had to stop and rewatch the video because they would sometimes fumble and forget.

 

 

Once the dough is in a nice bunch, twist the dough as they do in the video to close and seal the bun.

 

Voila!  I was impressed with myself!  The buns actually looked nice.

 

Place buns twisted side down on a baking sheet.  You can brush top of bun with egg wash if you wish.  (I didn't)

 

Bake in a 400°F oven for 15 minutes.

 

Cool on rack.  I found that a few of the jam and cherry buns leaked a bit and the filling burnt to the pan.  I think they were not sealed as good as the others but also those fillings were juicier than the apple filling.

 

All three fillings were tasty.  Enjoy!  ;)

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where things go wrong and you figure you should climb back into bed?  Well, this was one of those.

It started with Lulu coming into my room and waking me up.  I usually sleep in later than she does but she stays quiet until I get up.  She usually didn't come into my bedroom at all, but several times in the last week or so she's been sitting there waiting for me to wake up.  Today, she decided to start chattering and woke me up.  When I got up, she squawked and yakked and headed over to her nesting box.

It usually takes Lulu several hours to lay an egg.  She sits and mutters and peers out trying to see what I'm doing. Since her nesting box is back in the corner of the closet/pantry, she can't see much.  But she's so nosy!  If I'm in the kitchen, she seems to be asking, "Mom.  Mom! What are you doing in there?  Are you getting food?  Do I hear you in the fridge?  Are you eating something?  Mom. Mom?"

Usually I take Lulu with me when I go shopping but went on my own since she was in her nesting box and I didn't want to wait until she was finished laying.  I needed some milk and eggs for the buns I was making.  When I got back, Lulu was still in her box so all was fine.

Since Easter is on its way, I started by making some Hot Cross Buns.  I featured them before on my blog. http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2011/04/hot-cross-buns.html

First off, I didn't melt the marg.  It had been sitting out and was soft so I figured it was fine.  NOT!  It didn't melt completely in the milk so I had large lumps to work with.  It would have been fine if the milk had been hotter but by the time I thought of that, they were already in the mixing bowl.  It was not that big of a deal because it worked out in the end but it was the start of my goof-filled day. 

The store didn't have the deluxe fruit I usually use so I bought a container of glazed pineapple chunks and another of glazed cherries.  I had to chop them and while I was chopping them up, I added the flour to the mixer.  I forgot about mixing the fruit with the flour like I usually do so it was a chore to add the fruit and currants when the dough was already all mixed.  The fruit didn't seem to want to stay in the dough - anytime a piece worked its way to the surface, it would fall out.  I had to take the dough out of the mixer and knead it by hand to try and keep the fruit in the dough.

While this was happening, Lulu laid her egg and jumped out of her box and started towards the back door chattering the whole way.  I put her out by the garage and went back to my baking.

While the Hot Cross Buns were rising, I decided to start on my other buns.  I was going to use the recipe for Carrot Rolls that I featured earlier http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2011/04/hot-cross-buns.html  and adjust it.  I decided to use pumpkin instead of carrots since I have quite a bit of pumpkin in the freezer.  I brought it out the night before and thawed it in a strainer to remove the excess moisture.  I decided to add 1/2 tsp of ginger to the 1/2 tsp nutmeg because in my mind pumpkin seems to need ginger. 

Every thing was going nicely until I ran out of flour up here and went down to get some out of the cold room.  I knew I had a partial bag there but didn't realize that it was whole wheat.  Since I didn't want to run back to the store, the buns now were going to be whole wheat.  I probably used half and half white and whole wheat. 

I forgot that in the past I divided the dough in half when kneading it in my mixer.  I have found that if I don't divide bread dough, it climbs the dough hook and makes its way up into the slot where you attach the hook.  Then you have to dig out dough with a toothpick!  Well, that was me today.  I don't know where my head was because I didn't catch the dough before it got away on me.  It is a pain in the butt kneeling on the floor twisting your neck so you can sort of see what you're doing.

While this was going on I checked on Lulu and she was in the front yard squawking up a storm.  It wasn't alarm-type of squawks but she was being very vocal.  I went back and got the mixer all cleaned and the dough kneaded. 

While the dough was rising, I checked on Lulu again and she was at the back door wanting in.  She muttering and chattered as she came in and hustled over to her nesting box and jumped in.  I think she must have forgot that she laid her egg because she sat there again for over an hour.  When she was done laying her invisible egg,  she jumped out, grabbed a few bites of food and a drink and headed to the door to go out again!  Crazy girl!

When I was cleaning up the kitchen, I found that somehow I hadn't attached the dough hook correctly and now it is stuck in the machine.  I did that once before and needed help from my husband to remove it.  Well, so far no luck at removing it and my husband won't be back for two weeks so it may just sit until he returns.

Now on to making the buns.  The Hot Cross Buns were fiddly because the fruit didn't want to stay in the dough.  I had currants and bits of fruit that kept falling out and needed to be pushed back into the buns.  I also had trouble cutting the crosses - maybe the dough was softer or I used a different knife but several of the buns got a bit mangled.  When they were finished baking, I forgot to remove them from the pan to cool and only remembered after I had iced them so I got my hands all sticky taking them out.

The Pumpkin Rolls turned out fine but are not a nice orange like the carrot ones.  They look just like whole wheat buns.  I also forgot that carrots and sweet potatoes are sweeter than pumpkin so could have added a bit more sugar.  The spice was a waste of time too because the whole wheat flour overpowers the bit of spice I used.

Then when I was finished and reading my email, I hit my glass of water with my elbow and spilled water all over the desk, papers and floor.   Thank goodness, I missed the computer.

Anyway, enough ranting as the buns taste fine and I now have almost 5 dozen buns in the freezer.  Hopefully this was my goof day for the year.

OH! I got an email saying that my laptop has been shipped - so soon, very soon I'll have Lulu pics for you. ;)

Hot Cross Buns

I made these Hot Cross Buns a number of years ago and loved it so much, I've made them ever since.  I can't remember where I got the recipe from originally so it will have to go uncredited. :(

The recipe makes 24 buns which should be enough for anyone for Easter.  A couple of years ago, we had a Hot Cross Bun hankering and I made my first batch in February.  By Easter that year, we had eaten three batches!  Oink! Oink!

Ingredients

1/2 c warm water
2 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar

1 c warm milk
1/2 c butter, melted
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
3 eggs
1 egg yolk

5+ c flour
1 c currants
1 c chopped mixed candied peel (I use deluxe glace fruit - it has whole cherries and chunks of pineapple in it)

1 egg white

Glaze
1 c icing sugar
2 Tbsp milk


Mix yeast, 1 tsp sugar and warm water and let stand 10 min.
In mixing bowl, mix together milk, butter, sugar, eggs, egg yolk, salt and spices. Add flour, candied peel and currants.
 

 

whole fruit



chopped fruit


Add more flour until no longer sticky.  Knead 5+ min. 

This makes a very soft dough.  Place in a greased bowl and cover and let rise until double.

Cut into 24 pieces and form them into buns.  To cut into 24 pieces - cut in half (you now have two pieces), cut each piece in half again (4 pieces), half again (8 pieces), and finally in thirds (24 pieces total).

Place them on a greased cookie sheet not touching each other.

Let rise again.



When buns have risen, take a sharp or serrated knife and carefully slash buns with a cross.



 

Brush them with egg white and bake in pre-heat oven at 400°F for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350°F and bake until buns are golden brown, about 5 -10 minutes more.

Transfer to a wire rack.
Whisk together glaze ingredients, and spoon over buns in a cross pattern.

Serve warm or cold.

 
I wasn't very fond of store bought Hot Cross Buns because they had a tendency to be dry and go stale quickly.  These buns are soft and moist and stay that way.  They are an Easter tradition in my household.  ;)

Enjoy!

Carrot Rolls

I have a recipe for Sweet Potato Rolls that is very good.  I found the recipe at this link:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=165770

My sweet potatoes did not produce this year but I have an abundance of carrots.  Carrots and sweet potatoes do taste fairly similar so I decided to try Carrot Rolls instead. 

I mix my dough in my Cuisinart but you can mix and knead it by hand if you want.

List of ingredients:

1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c. warm water
2/3 c. shortening, butter or margarine
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 c. mashed carrots
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 c. scalded milk
2 eggs
7 to 8 c. flour

Start by peeling and slicing up enough carrots to make 2 cups when mashed.  Cook carrots in very little water until soft.

Mash the carrots and set aside.  Meanwhile, scald 1 cup of milk and let it cool.  In 1/2 cup warm water stir 1 tsp sugar.  Then add 1 1/2 tsp yeast and set aside.

Mix 2/3 cup of margarine, butter or shortening with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp salt.  Beat in 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and the 2 cups mashed carrots.

Add both the cooled milk and yeast mixture to the bowl and mix well.

Next add about 7 cups of flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl while mixing.

Add the rest of the flour (1 cup - more or less), a few spoons at a time until dough pulls away from the bowl.   

Continue kneading 3 to 5 minutes, adding more flour a sprinkle at a time if the dough starts to stick to the bowl.  The dough should be soft and pliable but not sticky.

Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl and lightly grease the top of the dough. 

Cover and let rise in a warm spot for several hours until double in size.  I let mine rise in the oven with the light on - it stays warm and is out of drafts.

Knead the dough and cut in half.

Cut each piece in quarters and then quarters again.  This will give you 32 large rolls.  Form each piece of dough into a ball and place on a greased baking sheet.  

Brush with butter and cover and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours. 

Preheat oven to 375F.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.

I like to brush my buns with butter when they come out of the oven so they are shiny and stay soft.

Remove from pan to cool. 

I found these buns every bit as tasty as the sweet potato ones.  They are a lovely golden colour with a slightly sweet taste. 

Enjoy!  :)