Cake Mix Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

Cake Mix Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

1 hr, 30 Prep Time

20 minCook Time

1 hr, 50 Total Time

Ingredients

For the rolls:
• 1 (16.5 oz.) box spice cake mix
• 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 1/2 cups flour
For the filling:
• 1/2 cup butter, very soft
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the frosting:
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, stir yeast into warm water; set aside. In a large bowl combine cake mix, salt and 4 cups of the flour. Stir in the yeast and water. Gradually add the last 1/2 cup flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and a soft but slightly sticky dough forms.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until dough is doubled in size, about 60 minutes.
3. Turn dough onto a large, floured surface and knead once or twice. Roll dough into a rectangle about 12 inches wide, 28 inches long and 1/4 inch thick.
4. Spread soft butter evenly over dough. Combine brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon and sprinkle over butter.
5. Once you have spread the butter and spice mixture over the dough, cut the large rectangle in half to form two smaller rectangles. Starting with a long end, roll each rectangle into a log. Slice the dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces.
6. Place the rolls into 2 greased 9x13 pans (or a 9x13 and a 9x9, depending on how many rolls you have). Cover the rolls and let rise until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. While rolls cook, beat the cream cheese and butter for the frosting with an electric mixer until creamy. Mix in the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk.
9. Gradually add the powdered sugar and salt, mixing until smooth. Add more milk, if needed, until frosting reaches desired consistency. Spread frosting over hot rolls.

Black Bottom Banana Bars

I added chocolate chips to the banana layer - yum!

Black-Bottom Banana Bars Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup baking cocoa

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the bananas. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. 

2. Divide batter in half. Add cocoa to half; spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Spoon remaining batter on top and swirl with a knife. 

3. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until the a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. 

Yield: 2-1/2 to 3 dozen.  

Read more: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/black-bottom-banana-bars#ixzz3YcZR81N3

My Baking Bucket List

I realized that I have been subconsciously amassing a list of things that I'd like to bake. Not ordinary things like brownies and pizza, but things one usually buys at the store or orders at a restaurant. Over the past few years I've been ticking recipes off the list and adding some more on.

Here is my Baking Bucket List (with status):

✓ Sandwich Bread (done and perfected!)
✓ Artisan Bread (done and perfected!)
✓ Focaccia Bread (done and perfected!)
✓ Pretzels - soft (done and perfected!)
✓ Crackers (done and perfected!)
✓ Dinner Rolls (done and perfected!)
✓ Tortillas - flour (done and perfected!)
✓ Granola (done and perfected!)
✓ English Muffins (done, but still tweaking)
✓ Bagels (done, but still tweaking)

✓ Pita bread (done, but still tweaking)

✓ Graham crackers (done - made a great whole wheat version!)
✓ 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (done and perfected!)
Tortillas - corn
Chocolate soufflé
Pretzels - crunchy
Crème brûlée
Scones
Goldfish crackers

How bout you, sistas? What's on your bucket list?

Favorite Banana Bread

Flour is one of Boston's best bakeries known for their Throwdown winning sticky buns and other delicious treats. I've happily been making my through their new cookbook which contains excellent step by step directions and grown up spins on junk food classics: homemade pop tarts or oreos anyone? Bananas are one of the few fruits (maybe the only one?) I don't like to eat straight out of the peel, but I love them in shakes, cakes and bread. In fact, I love banana bread with a scary passion. For years, I had an excellent recipe I swore by but I'm sucker for a new recipe so when I saw this one I had to try it. Yum! I've made it with whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat half all-purpose ratio) with great results. There are few things I've tweaked about it (4 instead of 3 1/2 bananas and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon instead of 1/4 - see cook's notes) but otherwise I stick to Joanne Chang's cookbook recipe.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use 1/2 teaspoon because I LOVE cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 4 bananas, very ripe, mashed
• 2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)

Directions

Set oven to 325 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Using a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment (or a handheld mixer) beat sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy - 5 minutes (if you use a handheld mixer this step takes 8 minutes). On low speed drizzle in oil - don't pour it in all at once. Adding should take about 1 minute. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche, and vanilla and continue mixing on low speed until just combined. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts just until combined. Pour into a lined loaf pan, place on middle oven rack and bake for about 1 hour - 1 1/4 hours or until golden brown and springs back on top.

My notes: The cooking time is still a work in progress for me. I felt like it got too brown on the sides when it was 325 for 1-1.25 hours. Next time I'm going to experiment with a 350 temp and 45 minute baking time. I might even place a cookie sheet underneath to prevent browning.

Delicious!

Frozen Brownie Sundaes

I LOVE ice cream cake so when this recipe appeared on TV I knew I had to try it. It was wonderful. It may look like a lot of steps but it assembly goes fast. The strawberry sauce at the end adds something to whole dish, don't skip it. I used fresh strawberries instead of frozen and added lemon juice, water, and powdered sugar to taste. YUM!

Frozen Brownie Sundaes

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Prep Time:

25 min

Inactive Prep Time:

6 hr 30 min

Cook Time:

35 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

Brownie layer:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups brownie mix (recommended: Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 (1.4-ounce) milk chocolate-toffee candy bars, coarsely chopped (recommended: Heath or Skor)

IIce cream layer:
1 pint dulche de leche or caramel ice cream (recommended: Haagen-Dazs), softened

Chocolate layer:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips

Sauce:
1 (12-ounce) bag frozen strawberries, thawed
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

Brownie layer: Put an oven rack in the center of the
oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 8-inch glass baking pan with vegetable oil cooking
spray. Line the pan with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches of paper to overhang the sides. Set aside. Spray
the parchment paper with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix together the water, oil and egg. Add the brownie mix and stir until blended. Stir in the
chocolate chips and candy bar pieces. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake until a toothpick
inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and cool the brownie layer completely in the pan, about 1 1/2 hours.

Ice cream layer: Using a spatula, spread the softened ice cream on top of the brownie layer and freeze until
firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

Chocolate layer: In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium-low heat until hot but not boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is

smooth. Using a spatula, spread the chocolate mixture over the ice cream layer. Freeze for at least 1 hour or
until ready to serve.

Sauce: Put the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth.

To serve: Remove the layers from the pan and peel away the parchment paper. Cut the layers into squares and
drizzle with the strawberry sauce.

Notes

For a smoother sauce, strain the sauce through a
sieve and discard the seeds.

Bagels

Yup, I did it! I made bagels. I used my KAF All-Purpose Baking Cookbookfor the recipe and took a lot of photos to document the process. The result? Appearance needs some work and taste was good, but more like a sourdough than Einstein's.


Dough Ingredients
1 tbsp instant yeast
4 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp non-diastatic malt powder
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water



Water Bath Ingredients
2 quarts water
2 tbsp non-diastatic malt powder
1 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions:
Combine all the dough ingredients in a mixing bowl

and knead vigorously on medium-low speed for 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and set it aside to rise until noticeably puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.



Transfer the dough to a work surface


and divide it into eight pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a smooth, round ball. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and let them rest for 30 minutes.

They'll puff up very slightly.

While the dough is resting, prepare the water bath by heating the water, malt powder, and sugar to a very gentle boil in a large, wide-diameter pan. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Poke a hold through the center of each ball then twirl the dough on your finger to stretch the hole until it's about 2 inches in diameter. Place each bagel on a lightly greased or parchment-lined (or Silpat, WooHoo!!!) baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

Transfer the bagels, four at a time if possible, to the simmering water. Increase the heat under the pan to bring the water back up to a gentle simmering boil, if necessary. Cook the bagels for 2 minutes, gently flip them over , and cook 1 minute more.

Using a skimmer or strainer, remove the bagels from the water and place them back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining bagels.

Bake the bagels for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're as deep a brown as you like, turning them over after about 15 minutes, which will help them remain tall and round (which mine didn't...).

Remove the bagels from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.


Final Result: