Cinnamon Twists

They may not be pretty, but they are tasty!

Big, chunky twisted bread sticks filled with cinnamon and sugar, drizzled with a sugar glaze. Yum!  These are more commonly known as cinnamon rolls, sweet rolls or even sticky buns, but I chose to make these cinnamon twists.

Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls, right? They're sweet and gooey and simply delicious. These twists are just as sweet, maybe not as gooey, but equally delicious and they smell sooooo good when they're baking, they are irresistible. 

To make these tasty twists, you will need:

4 to 4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Directions:
Combine 2 cups flour with yeast.
Heat and stir milk, butter or margarine, sugar and salt until warm and butter is almost completely melted.
Add this  to the flour mixture along with the eggs.
Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl, then beat on high speed for approx. 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour ( 2 to 2 1/3 cups) as you can.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (about 3 - 5 minutes). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double in size. (About 1 hour)

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Roll half of the dough into a 12x8 inch rectangle. Melt 3 tablespoons butter or margarine; brush half over the dough. combine 3/4 cup sugar and 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; sprinkle half of the mixture over dough. Fold dough in half and then in half once more. Cut strips of dough along the short end and twist sealing the seams.

Place in a baking sheet. Cover; let rise till nearly double about 30 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes. (Be sure to check them, they brown easily.)

For the sugar glaze combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk. Continue to add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you get a drizzling consistency.

Enjoy!

Other places to find this recipe:



HALF HOUR MEALS
KEY INGREDIENT

Whole Wheat Goodness

I love Focaccia, who doesn't right? A long time ago I had an Italian boyfriend for many years. Great guy, just not for me, anywayssssss,,, his mother got a hold of this Focaccia recipe and we would make it all the time, I just love it. The Focaccia is thick and crisp on the outside while soft in the center. Olive oil, salt and Rosmarino (Rosemary) are what top this delicate bread and give it a wonderful smell and taste. Here in Costa Rica, people are used to the flat Focaccia, you know more of a flat bread than a thick bread. I like them both but I believe I prefer the thick one.

Seeing as how I had no regular flour at hand and am in sort of a health kick at the moment, I used whole wheat flour, I said, what the hell, let's try to make it whole wheat and see what we get, it can't be that bad.

It came out really good actually, I mean, it's the same recipe, you're just substituting the type of flour right? I like whole wheat and I thought this Focaccia was really good, the texture may be better with regular all purpose flour but this option is somewhat better for you.

500 grs. whole wheat  flour (or use regular that's ok and yes, Italians use grams, not cups)
1 small glass of warm water ( this is how I got the instructions, I'm just passing them along)
3 teaspoons and a little bit of dry active yeast
salt
Olive oil
Rosemary

Pour flour and salt in a bowl, mix to combine. Dissolve the yeast in the water until there are no lumps. Add to the flour and salt, stir until a uniform dough is formed that no longer sticks to your hands. Form into a ball, cover and let rise. This takes about one hour, but the more it rises the better the end result.

When the dough has at least doubled in size, grease a pan with oil, using your hands. That's right, pour some oil into a pan and spread it all out with your hands. Now take the dough and spread it out onto the pan. I like mine kind of square, I don't know where it says that by law they have to be round. But you can spread it out any way you like, hell, make a star shape if you want, as long as you spread it out. Poke holes into the dough with a fork or knife. Sprinkle Rosemary, salt and drizzle top with olive oil.

Now the dough is ready for baking, that's right, you don't need to let it rise again, goes straight into the oven.

As for the temperature, my instructions were, have your oven as high as it goes. Ok, what temperature? As high as it goes. My oven goes to 550 F, so that's what I had it on. It sounds scary I know, but trust me, just turn that sucker on to the max setting and pop the Focaccia right in. It usually takes about 20 minutes for it to be done, but be sure to check it. Mine was done really fast like 15 min this time, maybe it was the whole wheat flour huh. I suggest you check after 10 minutes, just be sure that the bottom is golden and crisp. Take it out and enjoy!!!!

Came out kinda round in the end huh? Still tastes great though!

Did you happen to notice how many times I said Focaccia????? Love it!!!!

Tasty Recipe Review

I apologize for the lateness of this post, I've been having technical difficulties with my home computer and also my camera is somewhat dysfunctional at the moment so I don't have any pictures! I had to steal borrow this picture from an amazing blog called Stick To Your Hips it's fantastic!! Clarification: THE RECIPE BELOW IS NOT THE ONE IN STICK TO YOUR HIPS. Although I am DYING to try her recipe.

My current obsession is bread. I am completely and totally delirious with the idea of making my own bread. I have made things like focaccia and cinnamon rolls which are some forms of bread making but I have never truly made my own loaf of bread. Yes I know how it's done, yes I know how to knead but to truly sit down and have a piece of toast, or make yourself a sandwich from slices of bread that you have prepared at home has to be an incredibly gratifying experience that at this moment is all I can think about!

There are so many kinds of bread that you can make, the possibilities are endless. It is said that if you get really into bread making, you can delve deeply into the art and science of the perfect loaf and that there is no limit to the level of obsession passionate bread makers can have.

This recipe was so easy, I couldn't believe it. I wasn't really that intimidated about making bread, I know some people are, but this recipe was fantastic. In 15 minutes, literally in 15 minutes the dough was done. What you need to have is some patience for when the dough needs to rise, because it does need to rise, if it doesn't rise, your bread making days are over! Besides these couple of excruciating hours , because you're so anxious in seeing the final product, this recipe is one of the simplest things I've made in my life.

The verdict: very good! I made my loaf whole wheat and it was very tasty and great as toast! The recipe is so easy and not intimidating at all. I loved making this bread!

RECIPE TAKEN FROM THESIMPLEDOLLAR.COM

1/4 cup milk
5 teaspoons sugar (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons butter (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 package active dry yeast (there are 2 1/4 teaspoons in a package)
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour
Oil or nonstick cooking spray (just to prevent the bread from sticking to the bowl or pan)

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water until there are no lumps. Add melted butter, sugar, salt and milk to mixture and combine. Add 2 cups of flower and mix. Keep adding flour 1/4 cup at a time until you get a uniform dough that is slightly sticky but does not stick to your hands.

Now comes the kneading. I like to knead the bread, I find it therapeutic in some ways. I'm not sure how good I will be at explaining how to knead the bread, because I'm not sure how good I am at doing so, so I thought I would just redirect you to a VIDEO instead.  It's not complicated, just be sure not to over knead the dough. This video is great I'm sure you will have no problems!

Coat the inside of a bowl with oil or cooking spray. Form the dough into a ball and put in the bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise! Just leave it be, preferably in a warm place, many people WARM up their oven a bit and then turn it OFF and put the dough in there.

Leave the dough to rise for approximately one hour, it should be roughly double the size it was before. Punch the dough down then lay the dough out on a lightly floured area and spread it out in a rectangle shape, with one side being roughly the length of the bread pan and the other side being about a bread pan and a half long.

Roll the dough and tuck the ends underneath. Then spray the bread pan down with nonstick cooking spray or grease with oil and put the loaf inside of the pan.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) for thirty minutes. When it’s done, pull it out and immediately remove it from the pan to cool.

I have decided to make my own bread at home from now on so I hope to be posting more recipes hopefully with my pictures!

Till next time, I hope you enjoyed this review and remember, if you have a Tasty Recipe that you would like to share, or if there's a recipe that you have been wanting to try and just haven't been able to, let me know about it. I'll give you a Tasty Review!

Hello November!

November spells warmth to me. We're getting close to Christmas and New Year's but not quite there yet. The air is chillier, and as summer approaches, the afternoons are getting heavy downpours just before it stops raining all together. You see, in Costa Rica we have two seasons, rainy season and dry season, that's it. We're approaching the dry season right now, but right before it gets here there are usually heavy rains preceding it. That's where we're at, heavy rains.

Seeing as it is still raining and doesn't look like it's going to stop soon, my mind immediately goes to comfort food. One of my favorite childhood memories was when my mother used to make Pan de Miel or Honey Bread, literally translated. Recollections of the smells surrounding the kitchen, cutting the bread while it's still warm because you can't wait to try it and the sweet taste of this dense cake are what prompted me to make this tasty reminiscence of my childhood.

Pan de Miel is more like a very dense cake than an actual bread. At least that's what I think since there is no yeast in this recipe, there's also no kneading involved so I say it's a cake, and while it is called Honey Bread it is not too sweet. As the days go by, this loaf of cake gets even better!

I pried the recipe from my mother since I have been dying to make it only to find that she has decided to change some things. What?? Are you sure about this?

I guess I take after my mother, always trying to improve recipes or just adding stuff until they come out like I want!

But how could she change this recipe? Will it taste so utterly different from what I remember that I won't like it? What if she has ruined it for me all together, Oh no!

I had to try anyways, I needed to see if there was still any part of my childhood left in that bread! Um, I mean cake, whatever, I'll call it bread.
You see she's added icing now, I wonder what that will taste like...

Did my mother's new and "improved" (still to be decided) recipe for Pan de Miel deliver???

Yes it did!!!!

It was all that I remembered. Needless to say I ate half a loaf while it was still warm. I blame you mother! Good thing they were mini loaves.

And the icing? Did that work? It did, but I must say I prefer the original recipe, without icing.

To make these honey breads you will need:

1 kg. flour
1 stick butter at room temperature
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon baking soda

The icing is just confectioner's sugar and water.  I don't have the exact measurements because my mom likes to do things as she goes, but you just add water to the sugar until you get a desired consistency. 

With an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add honey and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients until incorporated.

Grease two loaf pans and pour the batter until a little over half full.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack, remove from pan and pour the icing on top, just like the picture.

Enjoy!