Chunky Cinnamon Bites with Cream Cheese Icing

I don't recall where I got the recipe I made in 2011, but it was easy and a keeper. I've been working towards making the stuff I love vegan. I've renamed this because, like the first time, it doesn't really hold together well, so you don't need to pull it apart. The bites pull apart, though. 

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
16 oz refrigerated biscuits 
1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted and divided

4 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1/2 - 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp almond milk

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350.
2. Separate biscuit dough into individual biscuits and cut each one into quarters.
3. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a gallon zipper bag. Shake dough quarters in the cinnamon sugar by batches, until coated.
4. Place half the biscuits in a greased 12-cup Bundt pan.
5. Drizzle with half the melted butter (1/4 cup).
6. Top with remaining biscuit quarters, and the remaining melted butter.
7. Top off the unbaked biscuit pile with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture.
8. Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden.
9. While letting the cinnamon bites sit for 5 minutes in the bundt pan, make the icing.
10. Icing: Beat softened cream cheese and powdered sugar until well blended. For a more tangy icing, use closer to 1/2 cup powdered sugar. For a sweeter icing, use 3/4 cup or more powdered sugar. 
11. Add 1-2 Tbsp milk as necessary, beating until desired consistency is reached.
12. Invert the bundt pan with cinnamon bites onto a plate. 
13. Drizzle the icing over the warm loaf.

Notes:

• I used Immaculate biscuits, as seen in the photo. 

Vegan Preston Rolls

As I stated last year, Preston Rolls are a tradition at my house. I love Preston Rolls. However, I became vegan this year, so the standing family recipe would not be suitable. I have been learning vegan baking, and made just a couple edits. Because Preston Rolls are so finicky anyway, I think these turned out just about the same as previously - at least within the variation that one can expect out of Preston Rolls.

Ingredients:

1+ cake yeast
1⁄2 cup lukewarm water


2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
6 tablespoons water


2 1⁄2 cups (unsweetened) almond milk
 1⁄2 cup vegetable shortening  
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sugar
8 1⁄4 cups flour


For rolling out:
1 stick vegan butter, melted
cinnamon
brown sugar
flour to coat counter and rolling pin
walnuts 


For icing:
1 cup powdered sugar 
1 tablespoon almond milk  

Directions:

1. Soak yeast in lukewarm water. (I have a hard time with the “lukewarm.” Basically, lukewarm is room temperature, so I take my cup of water at a medium temperature out of the tap, and let sit for awhile on the counter. Then I add the yeast and stir just a tiny bit, lightly.) When dissolved, add 1⁄2 cup flour. Beat well and set aside to rise. It should about double in volume. See photo below for end result.
2. Make your flax eggs by beating your ground flax seeds with the water. Set aside in fridge for 15-60 minutes. 
3. Heat milk and shortening together, stirring to dissolve shortening. Cool to lukewarm. 
4. Add sugar, salt, and beaten flax eggs to milk mixture. (Do this in stand mixer using the low setting with beater attachment.)
5. Gradually add yeast mixture and flour. After 1st two cups of flour, switch to dough hook. Knead well. (Let dough hook continue for 10-15 minutes.)
6. Dough should not be stiff. Allow to rise (takes a few hours). Punch down, rise, punch down, rise, punch down.
7. Set in rolls:  Pat out, brush melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts as desired. Roll up, cut up, and put in greased (with shortening, vegan butter, spray, or your favorite method) pans. (The rolls should be crafted within about 12 hours of first starting to raise the dough. Any later and they get a little iffy.)
8. Allow to rise. (Can leave overnight if it's late.)
9. Bake 350º for 30 minutes. Serve warm out of the oven with icing. You can serve straight out of the oven, or microwave individual rolls for about 20 seconds each.
10. Just before serving make icing.

For icing:

1. In a small bowl, stir milk into the sugar until smooth. Should be fairly thick. Add more sugar to thicken, add more milk to hin. Spoon over individual rolls. Icing will harden after a short time. Store in fridge. Stir to continue uese once hardened. Add milk to thin if necessary. 

Notes:

• Makes 1 batch, ~ 4 dozen rolls. Double by adding another yeast cake.

• Where to find cake yeast: Fleishmann's makes cake yeast, which I found in Seattle in the dairy section (next to the Toll House Cookie dough tubs) at a local grocery store (one that is actually a part of a national chain.) When I lived near my mother, she'd procure cake yeast from a local bakery and deliver some to me. Cake yeast is called cake yeast because it is active live yeast in the form of a cake, rather than active dry yeast in the form of granules. Do not substitute other forms of yeast - they will not be Preston Rolls.

This is the end result of step 1 - bubbly mixture about twice the initial volume of the yeast + water + flour.

Dessert: Lemon Creme Lemon Cupcakes

These were one of my Longaberger recipes from when I was a Longaberger Collector. You can use cupcake/muffin tins, the Longaberger dessert bowls, or another ramekin to make these in. They are a lot of work, but a great spring dessert and have been very popular every time I've made them. 

Ingredients:

Cakes
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 yellow cake mix (18.25 ounce box)
3 large eggs
1 cup of water, room temperature
Zest of 2 large lemons

Cream
3 large egg yolks
1 large egg
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Icing
1 ½ cups confectioner's sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
Food coloring, as desired

Handles
4 ounces prepared white fondant
Food coloring
1 empty paper towel tube

Toppings
Jelly beans or pastel candies

Directions:

Cakes

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly mist 12 dessert cups with non-stick cooking spray or line 12 large-cup (3 1/2” diameter) muffin tin with paper liners. 
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a flat paddle, cream the butter for 2 minutes or until light and smooth. Add remaining cake ingredients and mix on slow for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix for 2 more minutes. 
3. Spoon batter evenly into cups and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
4. Cool 5 minutes, run a small knife around the edge of cake, invert & release. Cool completely. If using muffin tins, cool cakes and remove paper liners.

Cream

1. Place egg yolks and egg in a bowl and quickly whisk in sugar. Add lemon juice and zest. Place all in a small non-reactive sauce pan and add butter. 
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring the entire time until mixture is very thick and looks like custard, about 5 to 7 minutes. 
3. Pour mixture into a bowl, place plastic wrap directly onto the cream and refrigerate until cold (at least 1 hour).

Icing

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix until smooth. Add food coloring as desired. Place plastic wrap directly onto icing and set aside.

Handles

1. Work food coloring into the fondant by twisting, distributing color evenly. Roll fondant between two layers of parchment or wax paper until it measures 7” x 4”. From this, cut a 5 ½” x 3” rectangle and twelve ¼” strips. Place the paper towel tube on a lined sheet pan, and drape strips over tube to form handles. Make sure a ½” section on each end of the handle rests flat on the tray. 
2. Allow to dry 10 hours or overnight.

Assembling

1. With a small paring knife, cut a small cone from the top of each cake. Set aside. 
2. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of cake form the center of each cake. 
3. Spoon the lemon cream into the cavity. 
4. Using the paring knife, cut away the point of the cone cap and place over the lemon cream to seal. 
5. Ice the tops of the cakes with a pastel-colored icing. Reserve extra icing. 
6. Decorate center of each cake with jelly beans or pastel candies. Place cakes on a tray, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. 
7. Remove cakes from the refrigerator ½ hour before serving. 
8. Using the reserved icing, place a small dot of icing on the underside of the handles. Attach to the cakes and serve.

Other Details

• Nutrition per cupcake. 

Bread: Preston Rolls

A Christmas tradition at my house is Preston Rolls. The lineage of these rolls, as I understand it, is that a person who helped my grandmother made these rolls. The recipe passed to her girls, who shared it with my mother. My mother said she tweaked the original recipe just a bit. The recipe given here is these. I find these difficult to make. They do not always turn out. Because of this, and because I can't direct you to an original recipe or another link, I've photographed the directions step by step.

These are an excellent cinnamon roll that took me 24 hours to make this year, but they certainly take all day at the least. Enjoy!

Yeast in lukewarm water with a half cup flour starting to rise.

Warmed milk with shortening dissolved.

The remaining 7 3/4 cups flour, beaten eggs and sugar to go into the milk and shortening.

Mixing in the milk with shortening, eggs, and sugar.

The black mark shows how far the yeast had risen after an hour or so.

You know the yeast is doing it's job when the mixture is bubbling.

The yeast and the 1st two cups of flour.

Switching to the dough hook after the first two cups of flour.

Adding the remaining 5 3/4 cups of flour.

This is the mixing.

After a few cups, the dough starts to form.

Letting the dough hook knead for 10-15 minutes.

Putting the dough in a bowl to rise. 

My method of raising is to put it in a warm place (and block it off from dogs.)

This is the dough after the first rise, which took about 3 hours.

And this is how it looks after I punched it down the first time.

This is the dough after the third and final rise.

Take a handful of dough, put it on a floured surface, flour it up a bit, and roll it out. 

Brush melted butter across dough, sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts.

Roll them up.

Cut into lengths appropriate for your baking dish.

Place the rolls into the dish with about an inch of personal space around each.

Here, all my rolls are placed in baking dishes. Yes, I used random dishes. It's probably better to use all the same type of good pan.

Now the rolls need to rise. Again, this takes several hours. I left mine overnight because it was close to midnight this year.

The risen rolls.

A pan of raised rolls.

After baking for 30 minutes at 350º.

Make some icing.

Serve warm on a plate with some icing. 

1 batch (can double with extra cake of yeast)

Ingredients:

1+ cake yeast
1⁄2 cup lukewarm water

2 1⁄2 cups milk
 1⁄2 cup shortening  
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
8 1⁄4 cups flour

For rolling out:

1 stick butter, melted
cinnamon
brown sugar
flour to coat counter; rolling pin walnuts 

For icing:
1 cup powdered sugar 
1 tablespoon milk 

Directions:

1. Soak yeast in lukewarm water. (I have a hard time with the “lukewarm.” Basically, lukewarm is room temperature, so I take my cup of water at a medium temperature out of the tap, and let sit for awhile on the counter. Then I add the yeast and stir just a tiny bit, lightly.) When dissolved, add 1⁄2 cup flour. Beat well and set aside to rise.
2. Scald milk. While milk is hot, add shortening. Cool to lukewarm. (This step probably hearkens from the days of needing to heat milk, but it remains to dissolve the shortening.)
3. Add sugar, salt, and beaten eggs to milk mixture. (Do this in mix master using the low setting with beater attachment.)
4. Gradually add yeast mixture and flour. After 1st two cups of flour, switch to dough hook. Knead well. (Let dough hook continue for 10-15 minutes.)
5. Dough should not be stiff. Allow to rise (takes a few hours). Punch down, rise, punch down, rise, punch down.
6. Set in rolls:  Pat out, brush melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts as desired. Roll up, cut up, and put in buttered pans. (The rolls should be crafted within about 12 hours of first starting to raise the dough. Any later and they get a little iffy.)
7. Allow to rise. (Can leave overnight if it's late.)
8. Bake 350 – 375º for 30 minutes. Serve warm out of the oven with icing. You can serve straight out of the oven, reheat an entire pan at 350 for 30 minutes, or microwave individual rolls for about 20 seconds each.
9. Just before serving make icing.

For icing:

1. In a small bowl, stir milk into the sugar until smooth. Should be fairly thick. Add more sugar to thicken, add more milk to hin. Spoon over individual rolls. Icing will harden after a short time. Store in fridge. Stir to continue uese once hardened. Add milk to thin if necessary. 

Other Details:

• Makes ~4 dozen rolls.
• Finding cake yeast: Fleishmann's makes cake yeast, which I found in Seattle in the dairy section (next to the Toll House Cookie dough tubs) at a local grocery store (that is actually a part of a national chain.) When I lived near my mother, she'd procure cake yeast from a local bakery and deliver some to me. Cake yeast is called cake yeast because it is active live yeast in the form of a cake, rather than active dry yeast in the form of granules.