Jalapeno Cheddar Rolls

*Updates*Below*

I saw these on one of the cooking blogs I follow regularly, and I had to make them asap! The only thing I needed was some Jalapenos, so after a trip to the store I made them right away.

I added more cheese and an extra Jalapeno. I knew that these weren't going to be that spicy with the ribs and seeds removed and I wish I had stuck to my gut and left a few ribs in. To me they didn't have much Jalapeno or Cheddar flavour. But I will try again! The other thing that concerned me a little was there was no direct yeast proofing step. They did rise, but I expected a bit more.

The recipe also said to cook 25 minutes. I had to cook these for almost an hour, 55 minutes, in my non convection oven.

Kitchen Tip: I preheat my oven to as low as it will go, about 170 F. When its heated I turn it off and let it sit with the door open a couple minutes. I then put my dough that needs to be risen into this now warm oven. The amount of rising you will get vs on your counter is incredible! Always make sure you cover it with a damn towel or stretch wrap or it'll get a bit crusty this way.

Don't get me wrong, as is, these are great - and almost gone. Here are the things I'm going to try next time.

- I will only remove half of the ribs, but still all the seeds. OR dry the jalapenos slightly under the broiler to help add some heat.
- I'm also going to proof my yeast in the warm water with the sugar and then mix in to the dough. I don't know how much of a difference it will make but it seems worth a try.
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Ok, I had a bunch of Jalapenos left over from making Jalapeno Jam (still working on those posts) so I figured I could give these another try, with my changes of course. There's a serious victory to being right about something. It probably made me jump happily up and down a little. But the only one here was my dog, so you'll never know.

I used 3 peppers this time, but removed seeds and ribs from one and kept them in the other two. Minus the ones that fell out. I also added a bit more cheese. Probably about 1/6 of the 700g block each time. I doubled the recipe again.

I proofed my yeast. I had no idea if this would make a difference or if it would just be some wasted time so why not? To do this I added 1 TBSP (of the 3) of the sugar to the hot water and sprinkled the yeast on top. While this sat for 5 minutes or so I combined the rest of the recipe as directed. Complete with the other 2 TBSP of Sugar. I wish so badly that I had taken a photo of what the risen dough looked like last time. I sure did this time! I had the same amount of dough in 2 different sized oiled bowls. THIS is what risen dough should look like. The one is touching the stretch wrap! I got 22 buns vs the 17 I got last time because there was just so much more air. I once again used my method to letting the dough rise in the warm oven.

I wasn't going to do the egg wash this time but I regretted it instantly when I took them out to switch their places in the oven (bottom to top, half way) so I quickly added it on since they had at least another 15 minutes left.

These only took 30 minutes to cook this time, compared to 55 last time.

They don't look much different after they're done. They're lighter and fluffier than my last ones and are a bit bigger.

Jalapeno Cheddar Rolls
(Adapted slightly from Jalapeno Cheddar Rolls)

1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3 large jalapeños (seeds and ribs removed), finely chopped
1 cup water water (100-110 F)
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature

I added 1 TBSP (of the 3) of the sugar to the hot water and sprinkled the yeast on top. While this sat for 5 minutes or so.

While this is sitting - Add the flour, remaining sugar, salt, cheese and jalapenos to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Beat briefly on low speed to combine. In a measuring cup, whisk the water, oil and 1 of the eggs together until combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add the wet ingredients and continue mixing until the dough comes together (you may need to scrape down the bowl once or twice). The dough should clear the sides of the bowl and cling to the bottom - you may need to add a little flour or water to achieve the right consistency (every time I've made this recipe I've needed to add 2-4 tablespoons of flour). Knead the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball and place in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 75-90 minutes, or until doubled in size. ** See kitchen tip

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Transfer the dough to your work surface and divide in half. Divide each of the two pieces into 4 or 5 equal pieces, depending on whether you want oversized or more traditional rolls. Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place on the prepared baking sheet, then flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Space the rolls about 1/2 to 1-inch apart - you want the edges to bake together in the oven.

Cover the pan with a damp towel, and allow the rolls to rise for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water to make egg wash. Brush the rolls with the egg wash. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the tops of the rolls are deep golden brown.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the rolls cool for at least 15 minutes. Store in a resealable plastic bag at room temperature, or wrap tightly and freeze.

Makes 8-10 rolls

Here's the dough picture:

Here's the final Product!

Mini Cheesecakes

I have a bit of a cheesecake obsession. I'm always looking for a new one. Recently I've had a couple occasions (excuses) to make some mini cheesecakes. These are my favourite. Since they're rich you can split one, but if you have a whole one its not so bad...

The first one, with berries on top was for meeting my boyfriends Mom, around her birthday. I hoped it would help me out a little.. AND it did :)

The second one was to celebrate a nice raise at work. Who doesn't deserve cheesecake??

I have a mini cheesecake pan that makes 6 cheesecakes. I always follow the recipe on the pan pretty closely for amounts, but I'm pretty sure a 9-10" cheesecake would make the same amount. The saddest part about this post is that Williams Sonoma no longer carries this pan. I'm sure you can find something like it somewhere though. Bed bath and beyond always has fun pans!

Here's the recipe and then another one I modified a bit to make chocolate swirl cheesecakes. I always use either all light cream cheese or at least half light and half regular.


Recipes:

Crust:
5 TBSP Butter, Melted
8 Graham Crackers (140g), Crumbled
2 TBSP Sugar

Filling:
500 G Cream Cheese, cut into cubes - Room Temp
3/4 Cup Sugar
1.5 TSP Salt
2/3 Cup Cream
2 Eggs

Set oven to 325F

- Pulse crust ingredients in food processor until it starts to stick together.
- Divide evenly among Cakes
- The recipe said to use your fingers but I found that the bottom of glass worked perfectly
- Pre bake the crusts for about 10 minutes or until set.

Lower the Oven Temp to 300F

- The recipe suggests using a food processor to cream all the ingredients together, this or a mixer will work fine!
- Mix the cream cheese first until smooth, then add the other ingredients.
- Mix till well blended.
- Divide the filling between the cakes, about 2/3 cup in each

- Bake the cheesecakes until the edges are set but the middle is still slightly wobbly. 48 - 52 minutes.
- I don't have a convention oven, I found they took about 55 - 60 minutes
- Transfer to a wire rack (still in pan) and let cool for 2 hours.
- Push cheesecakes out of pan and remove from disks. Transfer to parchment lined sheet and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or up to 2 days.

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The things I changed the second time:

- I used Oreo crumbs
- I used all light cream cheese (I usually use half light and half full fat)
- 1% Milk instead of cream
- I melted 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and added it to half of the cream cheese mixture
- I poured the chocolate on first, the regular cheese mixture on top
- I attempted swirling with a wooden skewer

- I also used a water bath, a brownie pan filled 3/4 with water in the over at the same time.
- I left the cheesecakes in the oven after it was off for about an hour

These were the best looking cheesecakes I ever made, they didn't crack or fall at all.

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My cheesecakes have a tendency to fall and crack without a waterbath so I covered these with berries and made a chocolate drizzle.They were well loved... And no one saw the cracks!

 

My Chocolate swirl cheesecakes didn't quite swirl, I was afraid I'd disrupt the bottoms. But they still turned out great. They had a waterbath, well a brownie pan underneath.

 



Blueberry Greek Yogurt Pancakes (With Sprinkles!)

Let me just start by saying that these are the best pancakes I've ever made. Maybe ate. I was sceptical of the greek yogurt in them. But sprinkles = fun so my skeptisim went away. I found them through twitter, I follow Kitchen Magpie (You should too). These are definitely the best thing I've seen and made from twitter.

I had all the ingredients, except cream - so I substituted milk. I also used no fat greek yogurt, as its what I had in my fridge. Made me feel like they certainly weren't the worst thing I could be eating in the morning. I added some sprinkles to the batter bowl and sprinkled some on the pancakes as they were cooking, definitely the best part. If you have pancake molds, these pancakes were perfect for them. Since the batter is super thick (like a cake), it stays in form. We found these were actually better without syrup because they had such good flavour.

I cooked mine on a well (breakfast) seasoned cast iron griddle, so they turned out a bit darker then I would have liked. But thats the risk of cast iron. Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with Le Creuset. But they turned out great. I will definitely make these again. And they made enough for 4 (like the recipe says!) which means my boyfriend and I got them two days in a row!

Heres the link and a photo!

Blueberry Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon buns surprisingly don't have that much cinnamon in them. Not the recipe I used anyways. There's very little to be changed in baking and this recipe had the reviews to back it up.

I made extra frosting - because, I know my people. Other than that, I don't have a bread machine so I did it the old fashioned way. I have a big old jar of yeast so I used that and I used butter instead of margarine. I did a bit of kneading with my hands but I used my kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook mostly.

Here is the tip from another reviewer:

"Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Then pick up with rolling out the dough. Hope this helped!"

When I let things rise I always turn my oven on to about 180-200 and once its heated turn it off - I then let the dough rise in the oven with the door slightly open. You won't get a better rise. Cover it with a damp cloth or towel though - it can get a bit crusty.

I baked mine at 350 for about 17 minutes - they turned out the same. We were in a bit of a time crunch and my oven takes a long time to heat. More than those extra 2 minutes.

This recipe is 100% fine on its own though - I've made it several times.

Clone of a Cinnabon

S'mores Brownies

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate. This is probably one of the only chocolate recipes I will ever post. But its definitely a good one.

The only thing I changed about this recipe was instead of buttering the baking pan I lined it with parchment paper. You probably don't need more calories than is in here already. In the pictures you can see I leave some paper hanging out. I do 2 sheets, one each direction, it makes it super easy to just pull out of the pan. And then there's pretty much no clean up at all! I also made this recipe at a later date in my two bite brownie pan and topped it with mini marshmallows.

This is a dense recipe, I recommend 16-24 bars over the original recipes suggested 12. I did put these into a calorie calculator (Feel free to look away, I'm about to ruin this recipe), making 36 two bite brownies each one is over 150 calories. They are a great addition to a dessert table though, so you maybe only have one or two!

The marshmallow is the best part, don't cover the brownie completely though or it will take soooo long to cook. I don't have a convection oven, so I assume that is why this recipe always takes me about an hour to bake. I would start checking it after the 30 minutes, it's always taken me at least 45. Even then, a cake tester will not come out clean. At least it hasn't for me. The two bite brownie pan only took 30 minutes.

These freeze well and everyone that I've ever made them for has loved them. Here's my adapted version of the recipe.


S'mores Brownies
(Adapted slightly from Williams Sonoma)

1 Cup unsalted butter
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/3 cups cake flour
3 Tbs. natural cocoa powder
6 graham crackers, roughly crushed with your hands
About 12 jumbo marshmallows or 50 mini ones for two bite

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line 9x13 Baking Dish with Parchment, leaving ends hanging over sides. See Picture below.

In a saucepan (min 4 qt) over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring often, for about 4 minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. 

Whisk in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. 

Whisk in the vanilla and salt.

Sift the flour and cocoa over the chocolate mixture and, using a stiff rubber spatula, stir in until just blended.

Stir in the crumbled graham crackers. Pour into the prepared dish and spread evenly, or scoop with a portioned cookie scoop into Two bite pan (makes 36)

Bake for 20 minutes, and then place the marshmallows on the top of the brownie. This will give the browie a chance to cook with out the marshmallow insulation. 

Bake another 10 to 30 minutes, depending on oven. Start checking for doneness at 30 minutes total. 

Transfer the dish to a wire rack and let cool, then cut into squares. Makes 12-24 brownies depending on desired size.

Still Baking:

 

Finished Product:

Two Bite:

Key Lime Cheesecake

Cheese is my favourite food group. Well Dairy I guess, but cheese is truly all that matters to me in there. Cheese in desert? Yes please. This was my very first attempt at making Cheesecake. It turned out great. Other than the cracks, but if you can be sure of one thing with Cheesecake its that it will indeed crack.

I followed the recipe pretty closely - other than I used vanilla wafer cookies instead of the graham crackers. It took me 2 bags of key limes to get the amount of juice and zest I needed. I also added a squirt of lemon juice to balance the tartness and only used 1/2 cup of the lime juice as recommended by another reviewer. I would also recommend that you butter your pan and pre-bake your crust. Just 10 - 15 minutes at 300 degrees in the oven to set it and to help get it out.

We paired it with some ice wine. Just for fun!


Key Lime Cheesecake

Chicken Risotto

I had a date night with one of my best friends and she desperately wanted to learn to make Risotto. I'm a believer of the saying, "If you can read, you can cook" (the same is not true for baking). I'd never made risotto but I figured, Why not? It can't be that hard. And it wasn't.

I'm pretty sure I did this exact recipe except I only used 2 or 3 Chicken breasts (as I'm not the biggest fan), used onion flakes instead of an onion and used basmati rice instead of regular rice. But I don't think any of these things had a huge impact on the recipe itself. I also added spinach, because in my opinion you just don't get enough greens.

Chicken Risotto