Rainbow Bread

My youngest son and daughter in law went skiing and my son, Mike, and I watched Harper and Hayden for a few days after our frigid shutdown in Texas.  It was a busy time of tea parties, baking, cookie dipping, slushies from  the neighborhood Ice Cream Truck, and gnome making out of socks.  My son made them an Olaf snowman and drew pictures of Olaf for them to paint.  Harper had kindergarten upstairs with three other little girls and a wonderful teacher.  Hayden was a busy ballerina and tap dancer. 

 

These were our candy dipped Oreo cookies that we had for a tea party. You can purchase molds at Michael's or JoAnn's for making these quick and easy treats. 

 

 

 This was our rainbow bread dough.  I made this several years ago and you can see some of my other grandchildren here.

I love looking back on the grands' younger pictures of fun times in my kitchen.

Yield: 2 loaves

Author: Kitty

Rainbow Bread

This is a fun activity for young ones and the recipe was given to me from my friend, Mary, who had been a preschool teacher.

Ingredients

• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1 T granulated sugar
• 1 c warm water [100° to 115° F, approximately]
• 1/3 c olive oil (or vegetable oil)
• 3/4 c hot water
• 2 t salt
• 5 1/2 to 6 c AP flour (start with 5 cups)
• cornmeal or semolina flour

Instructions

1. Stir the yeast, sugar and warm water together in the bowl of a stand mixer; let sit until yeast dissolves and starts to proof.
2. In the meantime, add the olive oil to the hot water and let cool to lukewarm. Add the salt, and combine with the yeast mixture. Stirring vigorously with the dough hook attachment, add the flour 1 c at a time, until the dough almost comes away from the sides of the bowl. [The dough will seem rather soft and sticky at this point.] Continue kneading the dough with the dough hook, adding a couple tablespoons of flour as you go along. Alternatively, you could turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead with your hands. Continue kneading until the dough has absorbed enough flour that it is easy to handle, about 2 to 4 minutes.
3. When the dough is soft and smooth, let rest for 5 or 6 minutes and then divide into two. (At this point, you add your food coloring to dough that has been separated into as many colors as you would like. You can have the child then put them together and stack and twist them). Without food coloring, you roll each half into a rectangle about 12″ x 8″. Starting from the wide end, roll the rectangle up quite tightly, pinching the seams as you roll. Let the rolled loaves rise on a piece of parchment paper, that has been sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina flour, in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes. Place a baking stone* on the middle rack of the oven and preheat to 425° F while the bread proofs. (At this point, I slashed the of the loaves).
4. After the dough has doubled in bulk, place the loaves on top of the hot stone, parchment and all (I use a rimless cookie sheet to transfer the loaves). Bake 30- 40 minutes (directions said 40, but this was too long for my oven!), or until the loaves are a rich, golden color and make a hollow sound when you tap the crust with your knuckles, top and bottom. Cool on a rack and slice when fresh.
5. *If you have no baking stone, butter one or two baking sheets well and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place the just-rolled loaves on the sheets, and then let them rise until doubled in bulk. Bake the loaves on the sheet[s] on the middle rack, the same as you would with the stone.

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Overnight Sticky Rolls

 

 

As all of you may have heard, we've had a rough time this past week in Texas.  We had record low temperatures, lots of snow, power outages, and damage worse than Hurricane Harvey.  Thankfully, I did not lose power or have any damage that I know of.  My daughter's house lost power off and on, they had a gas leak and two pipes that burst.  However, I'd like to share a story of goodness in the world.  Her husband went to pay the repairman and he said that it would cost $1200.00.  However, the man saw the United States Marines sign in their yard, and asked about Connor. He waived the charge and said to tell Connor "Thank you for his service".  Is that not a heartwarming story??

 

I

Since I have a February birthday, I'm sipping a cup of tea from my Royal Albert Flowers of the Month Violets teacup.  

Here's Harper with Olaf!  

Here's my son pulling little Hayden!   I have another heartwarming story about Hayden.  My son texted me one night and said that he had asked Hayden, "How'd you get so cute...was it from Mama or Daddy?"  Hayden answered,  "It was from Nana".  Oh my goodness, that completely melted my heart.  I asked if she could get any sweeter, and he said, "Well, actually yes she could, because it was 9:30 and she was still up!" 

Yield: 15 delicious buns

Author: Kitty

Overnight Sticky Buns

This recipe came from Betty Crocker and it's wonderful to fix the night before and then bake the next morning. Mine did not rise that much overnight, so I left them to rise covered in my oven with a pan of warm water below.

Ingredients

• Rolls:
• 3 and 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour or Bread flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 packages regular or quick active dry yeast
• 1 cup very warm milk (120°F to 130°F) 
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup (I used light)
• 3/4 cup pecan halves
•  
• Pecan Filling:
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

Instructions

1. In large bowl, mix 2 cups of the flour, the granulated sugar, salt and yeast. Add milk, 1/3 cup butter and the egg. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.
2. On lightly floured surface, gently roll dough in flour to coat. Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased large bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour 30 minutes or until double. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)
3. Grease 13x9-inch pan. In 1-quart saucepan, heat 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter to boiling, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Stir in corn syrup; cool 5 minutes. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with pecan halves.
4. In small bowl, mix all filling ingredients except 2 tablespoons butter until crumbly. Punch down dough. On floured surface, pat or roll into 15x10-inch rectangle. Spread with 2 tablespoons butter; sprinkle with filling. Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal; stretch and shape to make even. Cut into fifteen 1-inch slices. Place slightly apart in pan.
5. Cover unbaked rolls tightly; immediately refrigerate at least 12 hours (to allow for rising) but no longer than 48 hours.  See NOTE.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees.   Uncover and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down onto pan; turn plate and pan over. Let pan remain about 1 minute so caramel can drizzle over rolls.

Notes:

My rolls had not risen very much in the fridge overnight. I put the covered pan of rolls in my oven with a pan of very hot water below to let them rise, and then baked them.

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Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

It is so cold here in Texas...brrrrr!  Come inside and sit by the fire and we can have a yummy muffin and a cup of tea to warm ourselves up.

This darling teacup was given to me from a friend.  Isn't it darling?  I'm having a cup of very berry white tea.  The mug mat and the little tea container was made from a friend.  It's such a cheery cherry pattern!

T

When you break open the warm muffin it oozes with chocolate!

Yield: I got 15 regular muffins + 2 jumbo muffins

Author: Kitty

Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

I saw a recipe for this in my local utility magazine, but changed it up.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 3 ounces cream cheese, cut into chunks
  
• 1 cup chocolate chunks (I used semi sweet, but you can use milk chocolate)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat the muffin tins with a baking spray or line with cupcake/muffin liners.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until blended.  Whisk in melted butter, then add almond extract and milk.
4. Stir in flour mixture until just mixed.  Gently fold in cherries, cream cheese and chocolate chunks.
5. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake the jumbo muffins for 20-24 minutes, and the regular sized muffins for 17-18 minutes, or until they spring back when touched.

Notes:

You can use 1 cup of diced fresh strawberries in place of the dried cherries.

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Cissy had a great day last Friday!  She made freshmen cheerleader for next year.

She also received the Positivity Award at her middle school! 

Thank you for your visit!  xo

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