Monday, January 25, 2010

Breadmaker Bliss

This is the real thing, people--tried and true recipes from my breadmaker that get rave reviews in our house. I present for your enjoyment three beautiful breads: Homemade pizza dough, (now there's no excuse not to make pizza at home, this is so easy!), my Cinnamon Roll recipe which I have tweaked to perfection after years of John saying "hmm, not quite like Cinnabon," and Golden Honey Pan Rolls, known as "Honey Rolls" in our family. We often eat them with vegetable beef soup for lunch when I'm tired of stirfry (about once every 10 days or so). My house helper has honed her skills on all of these and they turn out great every time now! Enjoy!

Pizza Perfection
3 cups bread flour
1 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp yeast

[Feel free to add some dried basil or oregano, or substitute garlic salt for the regular salt to jazz things up!]

Load the bread pan, using the dough cycle. When it finishes, remove the dough. Let rest 5 minutes on a floured surface. Divide dough into two pieces. (I have found this amount makes enough for my one big and one small pizza pan if we want thin crust, or enough for just the big one if we want a thicker crust.) Roll it out on a lightly floured surface, then place in greased pizza pans, forming the crust around the edges. Prick each pizza with a fork and prebake the crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. (I have found the prebaking to be the key to the yummiest pizza! Before I started doing this I always had trouble getting my dough to the crispy/chewy stage, it always turned out too soft. But if you like a much softer crust, skip this step.)

Spread with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and your favorite pizza toppings. Bake for another 10 minutes or so until cheese is melted and beginning to brown around the edges. Enjoy!

BONUS: Here's the recipe I use for pizza sauce: in 1 Tbsp olive oil, saute 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 tsp dried basil and 1/2 tsp oregano, just until fragrant. Add one 6 oz can tomato paste and 1/2 cup water. Heat until simmering and salt to taste.

Our Favorite Cinnamon Rolls (with the bread machine, these are very do-able for breakfast!)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 egg plus water to equal 1/4 cup
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Filling:
4-5 Tbsp brown sugar plus about 2 tsp cinnamon, stirred together
4 Tbsp melted butter

Load the bread pan, using the dough cycle. When finished, remove the dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest in the frig for 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle--roll the dough as thin as you can manage. This will ensure that the filling-to-dough ratio is right. Too much filling makes the dough difficult to roll up, so you want to roll the dough very thin so that the filling spreads out as well.

After you've rolled it very thinly, spread on the melted butter. (You could use a pastry brush, but why? I just use my fingers, not wanting to waste any of that beautiful butter soaking into the pastry brush bristles.) Sprinkle with the brown sugar/cinnamon combo. Roll the dough up into a long, thin log, pinching the seam to seal. Slice the log into 12 pieces carefully with a serrarated knife. Place the rolls in a greased 9x13 pan, not touching. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 360 degrees and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden.

For a simple icing, combine 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp milk, and a dash of vanilla and pour over the top. For a lovely, decadent, creamy frosting, make this delicious cream cheese concoction:

8 Tbsp softened butter
3-4 oz softened cream cheese

Beat these two together. Then add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/8 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Beat until fluffy. This recipe makes enough for several batches of cinnamon rolls and keeps great in the frig!

Finally, last but not least, everyone's favorite Honey Rolls! They're like a dinner roll except so sweet and soft and tender that they melt in your mouth...Yum!

1 cup milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast

For the glaze:
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp honey
1 egg white (the other half from that yolk you needed for the bread part)

Load the bread machine, using the dough cycle. When finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down; cover and rest for 10 minutes. Divide into 24 pieces, shape each into a ball. Place 12 balls each in two greased 8 inch square baking pans. [I usually just use one 9x13, but I do find that they have to bake just a tad longer that way, otherwise the center ones don't get done.] Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Combine the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy warm with a bowl of soup, and if you have any left over, they're delicious with a slice of ham stuck in the middle!

Happy breadmaker baking, everyone!

10 comments:

Kristie said...

Thank you so much for posting these recipes! I am excited to try them all out.

Erica Webel said...

yum yum!! Thanks for the recipes... I haven't ever done pizza crust in my breadmaker - I guess I should!!
I also always bake the crust first - it does make such a huge difference!!

Oh and try a little coffee (like 1/4 cup) in your cinnamon roll icing... I tried it not so long ago (thanks PW) and it was fabulous! And the non-coffee lovers (like John) probably won't even notice (unless he reads this).
:)

Kellie said...

Yummy - I'm excited about the new bread recipes - thanks for sharing!I think I'll try some tomorrow. Another thing you can try if you have it is almond flavoring instead of vanilla - gives it a slightly nutty - yummy flavor! YUM!!!!

Brigitte said...

Wow, Rachel, how sweet of you to post some new recipes! Look forward to trying these. Thanks for sharing!

Rachel said...

Thanks friends, hope you all enjoy! Erica, I will try the coffee in my cinnamon roll icing! Maybe it's time for cinnamon rolls this weekend again!

Have fun baking, everybody!

Rachel said...

Kellie,
I'm out of almond flavoring, unfortunately, and haven't seen it in BJ the last few times we've been there. Hopefully Oliver's in HK will come through for me! We have a favorite salad that has almond extract in the dressing and carmelized almond bits in the salad, tossed with lettuce, celery, and green onions; it's tasty!

Jennifer said...

I made the honey rolls tonight and they have been christened "ugly honey" rolls in our house. :) I miscalculated how long the dough cycle was on my bread machine so I only had time to throw them in my muffin tin to rise before I left for church tonight. They rose quite a bit but since the dough had been super sticky, I didn't roll them into nice balls.

Overall, we liked them. I thought the bread tasted a little flat and am not sure why. The main thing I did different (other than the final rising) was bloom my yeast in about 1/3 cup of warm water before adding it to the dough. Since my bread making experience is very limited, do you have any idea why the bread might have tasted flat? The honey topping was excellent though and we even added more honey to the roll as we ate it for dessert tonight.

Rachel said...

Hi Jennifer,
Sorry the honey rolls didn't turn out as well as you hoped, but I'm glad you still enjoyed them. I forgot to mention in the directions that you should always follow the directions of your individual bread machine--if they say add the water first, then dry ingredients, yeast last (like mine) you have to be sure to do that. Some bread machines need the liquid slightly warmed, to activate the yeast, some do not, they warm the liquid in the initial mixing and that is sufficient to make the yeast rise. Your dough may have been overly sticky because of the way you bloomed the yeast, so try it without that next time and see what happens! (unless, of course, your bread maker manual tells you to do that!)

Also, if the dough is too sticky to handle, feel free to work in some flour, just sprinkle a bit over the dough until you can work it without a bunch of goo on your hands.

This is a soft dough, though, which makes the rolls so tender and yummy. Give it another try, you'll get the feel for it!

When you said they tasted "flat" do you mean no flavor? Or actually they were flat in terms of not rising well? I'm not sure what could have caused that, unless you forgot the salt. Anyway, the first time I made these (back in America, I made them for company) they did NOT turn out; I didn't bake them nearly long enough and the center was a gooey, uncooked mess. So don't despair! they may become a family favorite yet!

Rachel

Rachel said...

Hi Jennifer,
Sorry the honey rolls didn't turn out as well as you hoped, but I'm glad you still enjoyed them. I forgot to mention in the directions that you should always follow the directions of your individual bread machine--if they say add the water first, then dry ingredients, yeast last (like mine) you have to be sure to do that. Some bread machines need the liquid slightly warmed, to activate the yeast, some do not, they warm the liquid in the initial mixing and that is sufficient to make the yeast rise. Your dough may have been overly sticky because of the way you bloomed the yeast, so try it without that next time and see what happens! (unless, of course, your bread maker manual tells you to do that!)

Also, if the dough is too sticky to handle, feel free to work in some flour, just sprinkle a bit over the dough until you can work it without a bunch of goo on your hands.

This is a soft dough, though, which makes the rolls so tender and yummy. Give it another try, you'll get the feel for it!

When you said they tasted "flat" do you mean no flavor? Or actually they were flat in terms of not rising well? I'm not sure what could have caused that, unless you forgot the salt. Anyway, the first time I made these (back in America, I made them for company) they did NOT turn out; I didn't bake them nearly long enough and the center was a gooey, uncooked mess. So don't despair! they may become a family favorite yet!

Rachel

Jennifer said...

Thanks for the tips Rachel.

Today, I made your cinnamon roll recipe and they came out PERFECT! Just like you said they would. Even Charlotte was able to get in on the rolling, buttering, and sprinkling. :) These will definitely be a family favorite and were super easy to make!

My bread machine came from a yard sale so no directions to go by. I was just guessing about the blooming part. I didn't bloom the yeast today on the cinnamon rolls and it was just fine so I think I may have literally watered down the honey roll dough when I tried to bloom it. Once I buy more flour I'll try again.

Any luck with freezing any of these recipes? Oh, and I remember a delicious bbq pork bun you made when I was there. Care to share that recipe?

I really do want to start making more of my own breads and such because I know it has to be cheaper and healthier. Thanks for the inspiration. It is always easier to tackle these new kitchen tasks when a real live human being we know shows us the way.