Easy 40 minute hamburger buns

I need to update this at least once a month. It's not that I'm not cooking, it's that I'm not taking the time to photograph or record the recipes. And I've posted this one before, but as part of a different recipe by a more obscure title, so I thought I'd give it a go again, especially since summer and burgers just seem to go together. We ate ours dagwood style tonight, stacking burgers with onions, guacamole, and the first tomato from our garden.

Forty Minute Hamburger Buns

Yield: 10-12 buns
Prep Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 10 min.
Inactive Prep Time: 10 min.
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
  ● 2 tbsp. active dry yeast
  ● 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water , (110° to 115°)
  ● 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  ● 1/4 cup sugar
  ● 1 egg
  ● 1 tsp. salt
  ● 3-3.5 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl (I don't even use my stand mixer for this one), dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water; let stand for 5 minutes. Add oil, egg, salt and mix, then and enough flour to form a soft dough.
Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes, adding flour as needed. Do not let rise. Divide into 8 pieces, shape into balls. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover, and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Press each ball down gently before putting in oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks for cooling.

Note: I have made this recipe without the egg on occasion (once by accident, and once because there were no eggs in the house) and it turns out fine as long as you don't add too much flour.

Good ol' cinnamon rolls

I have a new mixer. A new mixer needs to be tried out. I had flour and eggs, but little else. I had cream cheese, though. Hmmm....

I've never made cinnamon rolls, and it's a good thing these were easy and they turned out, because with twelve of them coming out of the oven we invited the grandparents over to share. They were a hit. The rolls were pretty good, too.

Also, best. mixer. ever. Thanks Curtis and Joules.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls
Origin: Better Homes and Gardens
Yield: 12
Prep Time: 25 minutes            

Ingredients for rolls:
  ● 4  to 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  ● 1  package fast-rising active dry yeast
  ● 2/3  cup milk
  ● 2/3  cup water
  ● 1/2  cup sugar
  ● 1/2  cup cooking oil
  ● 1/2  tsp. salt
  ● 2  egg yolks
  ● 1/4  cup butter or margarine, softened
  ● 1/3  cup sugar
  ● 4  tsp. ground cinnamon

Ingredients for frosting:
  ● 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
  ● 3 tbsps butter, softened
  ● 3/4  tsp vanilla
  ● 1 tbsp milk
  ● 1-1/2  cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. In stand mixer bowl, combine 2 cups flour and yeast. In small saucepan, combine milk, water, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, and salt. Stir frequently over medium heat till just warm (~120 degree F).

2. Add milk mixture and egg yolks to dry mixture. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium for 3 minutes. Slowly add remaining flour, but don't dough to pull entirely away from sides.

3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until you have a moderately soft dough that's smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes), adding flour as necessary. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

4. Roll out dough to form a 14x12-inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with a mixture of 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon.

5. Roll up, jelly-roll style, starting from long side. Seal seam. Slice into 12 pieces. Place in greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Cover; let rise in warm place till nearly doubled (20 minutes).

6. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly; remove from pan. Frost warm rolls with Cream Cheese Icing. Serve rolls warm or cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 rolls.

For Cream Cheese Icing: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter or margarine, vanilla with hand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in milk. Gradually sift in powdered sugar and beat until icing is spreading consistency. Spread over warm rolls.

Nutrition Facts
    * Servings Per Recipe 12
    * Calories 427,
    * Total Fat (g) 20,
    * Cholesterol (mg) 62,
    * Sodium (mg) 188,
    * Carbohydrate (g) 58,
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Gingerbread cupcakes

Yum. We made these for a homeschool gathering, and made more to take to the recital on Sunday.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Origin: Healthy Cooking
Yield: 21 cupcakes
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: cooling

Ingredients:
  ● 2/3 cup sugar
  ● 1/2 cup canola oil
  ● 2 egg whites
  ● 1 egg
  ● 2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  ● 1 cup molasses
  ● 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  ● 1 cup whole wheat flour
  ● 2 1/2 tsp baking soda
  ● 1 tsp ground ginger
  ● 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  ● 1 tsp ground allspice
  ● 1/2 tsp salt
Frosting
  ● 8 oz. cream cheese
  ● 1 stick butter, softened
  ● 1 tsp vanilla
  ● 16 oz. powdered sugar

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, egg whites and egg until well blended. Add applesauce and molasses; mix well. In a small bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt; gradually beat into applesauce mixture until blended.

2. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

3. For frosting, combine all ingredients and mix until creamy. Frost cupcakes when cool.

Creme brulee

This was surprisingly easy to make. And incredibly fun to create and eat. The only thing I'd change next time is the torching of the sugar—I held the torch too closely I think and darkened the sugar too much. Next time I will try torching from farther away and melting it more slowly.

Still, incredibly yummy.

Creme Brulee

Origin: various websites
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Inactive prep time: at least 3 hours
Servings: 8-12 depending on dish size

Ingredients
• 1 qt heavy whipping cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1-1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 6 large egg yolks

Directions
1. Slit open the vanilla bean, and scrape pulp. Combine pulp and bean with cream in a pot. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently, then remove from heat and let sit for fifteen minutes. Remove bean shell.

2. In a mixing bowl combine 1/2 cup sugar with egg yolks and whisk gently until combined.

3. Add hot cream to egg mixture very slowly, stirring continuously in order to keep egg from cooking.

4. Pour mixture into 8-12 small (4-6 oz) ramekins. Place ramekins in baking dishes and add hot water until lower half of ramekins are under submerged. Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes, or until firm but still slightly trembling.

5. Remove from baking dishes immediately and put in refrigerator to chill for at least 3 hours.

6. Remove from fridge and allow to warm for 30 minutes to an hour. Sprinkle tops with remaining sugar and use a torch to caramelize or brown the sugar.

Pecan and cranberry crusted rockfish

I was after sole at the store today, but the rockfish fillets were on sale so I decided to give that a try instead. When I make sole I wrap it around bacon and asparagus and poach it in white wine, but rockfish is really different. So I worked with what I had, and this is what we got. We liked it. Rockfish apparentely doesn't have much flavor and I think this might work better with whitefish, but we did enjoy it quite a bit.

Pecan and cranberry crusted rockfish

Origin: me
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Servings: 3-4

Ingredients
• 1 lb rockfish fillets
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp milk
• salt and pepper
• flour
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 cup pecans
• olive oil
• butter

Directions
1. Combine egg and oil in a shallow bowl. Beat lightly.
2. Combine pecans and cranberries in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
3. Mix flour, salt, and pepper to a third shallow bowl.
4. Dredge fish in flour, then egg, then cranberry and nut mixture until well coated.
5. Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium high heat. Fry fish 4 minutes to a side until browned on the outside and opaque on the inside.

I served it with lightly steamed asparagus over wild rice, a lemon wedge, and pomegranate seeds. It makes a pretty Christmas meal.