Cinnamon Buns or Sticky Buns

CINNAMON BUNS

1 and 1/2 pounds of Bread Dough or Sweet Dough

2-3 TB melted Butter

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

2 tsp to 1 TB Cinnamon.. it's hard to judge.. to your liking.

Roll out dough thinly in a rectangle.

Spread the melted butter even over the dough, leaving 1 inch uncovered along the long sides.

Sprinkle Brown Sugar over the butter layer and rub all over dough to cover evenly.

Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over the sugar layer.

Roll into a log and slice into 1" thick slices. Place in a well greased 9' X 9" baking dish. I prefer glass, but you can use anything.

Let rolls raise until doubled in bulk, at least one hour. Bake in 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. Top will be dark brown.

Turn rolls onto a jelly roll pan or large plate then flip onto a oil sprayed piece of aluminum foil to cool. In other words you want the browned side up. Let cool a few minutes before drizzling a good amount of glaze on top, so they look well iced.

GLAZE

1 Cup 10 X sugar

2 TB Milk or 1/2 and 1/2

1 tsp Vanilla optional.

Stir well and drizzle on rolls before serving.


STICKY BUNS

For Sticky Buns use the same recipe except you distribute these ingredients on the bottom of the baking dish:

1/3 Cup brown sugar,

4 TB melted butter/margarine and

2 TB water.

Then lay the sliced rolls on top. Allow to rise and bake the same way, at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, except flip the buns into a well greased piece of tin foil so the sticky side stays up. Use the foil to wrap the buns up in. OMIT THE ICING GLAZE.

Grandma H's Bread Recipe As Given to Me in 1974 (1/2 Recipe)

5 and 1/2 Cups Water

1 Large Cake Yeast or 3 Pkgs Dry Yeast

Small Cup Sugar (About a rounded half cup)

2 and 1/2 Tb Salt (I use 1 and 1/2 Tb salt)

2 Lg Heaping Tb Crisco (or 3 Tb Canola or olive oil.)

5 Pound Bag Bread Flour

Mashed Potatoes (Optional, about 2 cups)

When I add mashed potatoes I get one more loaf of bread out of this recipe. I also cool down the potato water to lukewarm and use it in the recipe.

Proof yeast in 1 Cup Lukewarm Water/potato water with a tsp sugar added. After about 5 minutes it should be bubbled up nice.

In a large bowl add the Crisco, salt, sugar and remaining water and mashed potatoes. Now pour in the yeast water and mix well, then add the flour a cup or 2 at a time until it pulls way from the bowl and forms a ball. I usually don't use a mixer since the dough is so heavy, I do this all with my hands. Now you can knead it on the table or counter until smooth. (About 200 turns).

Place the dough in a large greased or oil sprayed bowl. Spray the dough also and cover with a clean cloth or plastic wrap and let raise until doubled in bulk. Meanwhile grease the bread pans and set aside.

Turn the raised dough ball onto a floured counter or table and divide into 5-6 equal balls. I usually use a food scale to make sure they weigh the same, about 1 and 1/2 pounds each. Now at this point you can make some cinnamon buns with one of the balls.

Knead the bubbles out of each ball and form into a loaf and place in the greased bread tins. Take a dinner fork and poke the dough all over about 1/2 inch apart to pop any big bubbles in the dough. Now grease or oil spray the top of the loaves and let them raise until 1 inch above the top of the pans.

Bake in a preheated 350-375 degree oven for 35 minutes at least. Until dark brown on top and medium brown on bottom. Loaf should sound hollow when tapped with finger. I bake at 375 degrees by the way. cool on a baking rack for 2-3 hours before wrapping up.

Grandma H's Original Homemade Bread Recipe

2 and 1/2 Quarts lukewarm Water

1 Large Cup Sugar

1 and 1/2 Tb Crisco

2 Tb Salt

1 Yeast Cake

10 lb. Flour

Mix until real stiff. Round up nice and grease with Crisco. let raise 1 hour. Put in tins and grease tops again. Let raise 1 hour in tins. Make 45 minutes at 350 to 375 degrees.

NOTE: Grandma had 4 sons and one daughter. I imagine the boys especially ate a lot of bread. Can you imagine 10 cups of water in that recipe? I suppose this was also her mother's bread recipe.
I will also give you her revised recipe she gave me when I was 15 years old and just learning how to make bread.

Leftovers are now Pasta Salad

What do you do with leftovers? I usually eat them as separate parts of a whole meal- as an entree and a side-dish, but lately I've been making pasta salad. Here's what I did today: I took Sunday's leftover chicken salad and added yesterday's grilled veggies which I chopped, and today's angel hair pasta. Then I added a heaping Tb mayonnaise, 1 TB Italian salad dressing, one tsp sugar, some salt and pepper to taste and now I have two servings of delicious pasta salad.

Turkey Burgers/Turkey Loaf -IBS

1 & 1/2 Pounds Ground Turkey

1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Original

5 large cloves of Garlic minced

3 egg whites

Small Onion finely chopped

1/2 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs


Mix all the ingredients and form into burgers on a oil sprayed jelly roll pan. The meat mixture is so soft I have to do it that way and then freeze them before I Freezer bag them.

NOTE: Although I'm pretty laid back when it comes to the rest of my life, but I like to measure things when I cook and bake. I have an 11 Pound food scale I use for weighing ingredients for my handmade soaps and I like to use it to make sure all my burgers weigh 4-5 ounces.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza***

Using my pizza dough recipe* make the dough as directed. Here is the topping recipe:

BUFFALO CHICKEN PIZZA TOPPING

2 large Boneless Chicken Breasts cut lengthwise

1 to 1 and 1/4 Cups Hot Sauce

1 Pound Shredded Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese.


Season chicken breast strips and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. I prefer to tenderize the chicken with my Nail type tenderizer and pouring some Italian dressing on top first. Let chicken cool before cutting in thin slices like a loaf of bread. Then let the chicken soak in the hot sauce until you make up the pie. NOTE: If you use Crystal Hot Sauce you may want to thicken it over medium heat with 1 TB cornstarch before adding the chicken pieces.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Place rolled out dough on oil sprayed and corn meal sprinkled pizza pan. Then also spray the pie before adding the toppings.

Sprinkle half the cheese on the pie. Next distribute the Chicken pieces and sauce before sprinkling on the remaining 8 oz of cheese. Let bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Let pie cool 8-10 minutes before cutting.

Sponge Starter for Pizza and the Dough Recipe

PIZZA DOUGH SPONGE STARTER

Makes one 16" pie. Start this the morning you are making the pizza.

Pizza Dough Starter

1 TB Honey

1 tsp dry yeast

1 Cup Warm Water

1 & 1/2 Cups Bread or Unbleached Flour.

In a large bowl mix yeast and honey in warm water before stirring in the flour until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and forget about it until you are ready to make the dough 2 hours or so before placing the pie in the oven.

PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

I tsp salt dissolved in a TB warm water

2 TB Olive or Canola Oil

Flour enough to make a kneadable dough.

Dissolve the salt in the water TB of water and add to the sponge along with the oil.
Mix well before adding the flour a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well until the dough forms a ball and leaves the sides of the bowl.

Remove dough from bowl and start kneading at least 100 turns adding more flour as kneaded. This should be a slightly sticky soft dough. Now oil a bowl and place the dough inside, make sure the surface of the dough has oil on it. Let it rise at least and hour before rolling out.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Oil spray and sprinkle the perforated pizza pan with corn meal. Now roll the dough into a 18" circle before transferring to the pizza pan. It will shrink after that so stretch to fit pan. Spray dough with olive oil.

I always place the pound of whole milk Mozzarella on first then add a Cup and 1/4 of Pizza sauce in a circular motion. (Like the Grotto does)Then I add my favorite toppings before baking for 20 minutes until cheese turns a nice light golden brown.


BUFFALO CHICKEN PIZZA ****

Make the dough as directed, but at least an hour before you bake the pizza cut two boneless skinless chicken breasts in half lengthwise and bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Let cool before slicing thinly in bite sized peaces. Let the chicken soak in 1 Cup Hot sauce, add 1/4 cup more of you like a wet pie. If the sauce is runny like Crystal's thicken for a minute over medium heat with a TB cornstarch in a small pot before adding the chicken pieces.

After placing the dough on the pizza pan, and spraying with oil, add 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese. Now carefully distribute the chicken pieces making sure to scrape all the sauce out of the bowl and dripping on pie. Now add the other 8 OZ of cheese before baking at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. This is a family favorite!

NOTE: I wonder how it would taste if I dipped each bite into blue cheese dressing?