Orange Cinnamon Rolls

I tried this recipe last night and it is so good. I picked it up from : http://www.recipezaar.com/Orange-Cinnamon-Rolls-112339, and apparently it is an early Better Crocker Recipe. The only change I made to it, was I doubled the icing recipe, because one batch didn't add enough icing to the rolls. Everyone has loved these so far.

3 hours, 20 Minutes prep time
15 Servings

Ingredients

* 1 package active dry yeast
* 1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
* 1/2 cup orange juice
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
* 3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened

Optional Icing

* 2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 tablespoon orange juice
* 2 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
* 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Dissolve yeast in warm water in lg mixer bowl.

Add orange peel, orange juice, sugar, salt, egg, butter and 1 1/2 c of the flour.

Beat 30 seconds on low, scraping bowl constantly; increase speed to medium, beat 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough easy to handle.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead 5 minutes and dough is smooth and elastic.

Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours (dough is ready if an indentation remains when dough is touched).

Punch dough down and, on a lightly floured surface, roll into a rectangle 15x9".

Spread w/ 1 T butter and sprinkle w/ combined 2 T sugar and 1 t cinnamon.

Roll up, beginning at one of the long sides; pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well; stretch to make roll even.

Cut roll into 15 slices about 1" wide.

Place slices slightly apart in a greased oblong baking pan, 13x9x2", or in greased muffin cups.

Cover and let rise until double, about 30 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree preheated oven until rolls are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.

If desired, mix together confectioner's sugar, orange juice, orange peel, and vanilla; frost while warm.

The recipe is easily doubled.

Rotee

I discovered something wonderful, delicious, and probably unhealthy in Thailand that I am finally going to blog about. It is called a Rotee. With the craziness of leaving Korea this past month, and now moving, it's been hard to find the time or energy to blog.

A Rotee is a thin, fried dough. The most basic is just the dough, similar to pizza dough and rolled very thin (like a skin), folded into a kind of envelope, and fried on both sides with either oil or clarified butter. It is then cut into bite-size pieces and can be eaten plain, but is most often drizzled with condensed milk.

The Rotees I ate were filled with banana and some other filling. One of them was banana and egg and topped with condensed milk, the other was banana and honey and topped with condensed milk, and the third was normal banana and topped with chocolate and condensed milk.

They are really delicious, and I am hoping to reproduce them someday soon.

Korea Tortillas

I realized how much I miss tortillas, because I used to use them all the time and for everything. Here's a recipe I found, they aren't as great as tortillas made from Masa flour or with a tortilla press, but these suffice for when you have no other alternatives. They're a little thick, but still pretty delicious when you haven't had a real tortilla in eight months.

Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe

* 2 cups of white flour
* 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 1 tsp. salt
* 2 tsp. vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup warm water

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.

Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.

The dough will be sticky.

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough.

Knead the dough for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add a dusting of flour when the dough gets sticky.

If the dough sticks to the cutting board while kneading, scrape up the dough and dust the board with a little flour and continue kneading.

Knead until you have a nice smooth dough.

Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.

Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.

Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.

Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat

Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

It's difficult to roll out a perfectly round tortilla so if that is important to you, you can always trim the tortilla with a knife.

Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds.

Don't over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.

Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

Sour Chicken

So, I haven't made this recipe in awhile because of our tiny kitchen and budget requirements, but from the first time I made it, Cody has loved it. It can be baked, grilled, or fried up in it's juices in a pan. I don't have any specific measurements, but it's almost impossible to mess up, but it can get too salty, and if you don't like sour it can get too sour. If you decide it's too sour for you, orange juice may be able to add a little bit of sweetness to it.

4 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless)
Soy sauce (Maybe a cup-cup in a half, low sodium if your watching calories and such)
2-3 limes
2 large lemons (but you can use 4 lemons if you don't have limes, or are in Korea. You can use lemon and lime juice, but it's not quite as good)
1 small garlic clove (and or powder, depending on how you like garlic)

You don't have to, but about two hours before cooking, roll the limes and lemons on a cutting board, using pressure to loosen the juices inside. Quarter the limes and quarter or eighth the lemons (depending on size). Squeeze all the juice over the chicken and put the pieces of the fruit into the bowl. Pour in the soy sauce and about 8 garlic cloves (powder if your using it). If you are unsure as to how sour you like it, mix everything sans chicken and adjust to taste, more soy sauce or less lemon. Let chicken marinate for up to overnight, but you can just cook it immediately.

When you are ready, either bake with the sauce, grill, or cook with the sauce in a pan according to your favorite "cooking chicken" directions. It's best if cooked in some of the marinade because the cooked marinade is a good sauce. I usually eat the chicken with some of the marinade that has been cooked with the chicken drizzled over rice or steamed veggies. It gives you a nice tart wake-up. Cody loves it, it's great and he doesn't even usually like sour or tart things.

Chocolate Chip Almond Scones

This were pretty good, not quite as thick or flaky as I would have liked, but they were pretty delicious. I would suggest with the chocolate and almonds that you watch carefully how much you put in because the measurements I have are not quite right, so there is not a "right" amount of chocolate and nuts to add in. You just don't want to let the consistency of the dough be too thick or you will have chocolate-almond bricks.

Anyway, these are delicious, just play around with the additional ingredients.

Chocolate Chip Almond Scones

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped almonds
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened. Fold in almonds and chocolate chips.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. You may need to add more flour because the dough may be too sticky. Roll dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 15 small wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Cody's Ugly Duckling Cake

I made this for Cody for his birthday this year. Admittedly, this is not a 100% original recipe. I cobbled it together from two different cake recipes, and a ganache recipe, and then I altered it to fit my needs and improve my results. I'm not sure if that constitutes cheating, or what, but I think recipes are made to be altered and made your own.

This cake was very delicious, but is not the best cake to make in a humid or hot environment because the chocolate and peanut butter become very soft very fast, even the molded ducks. The nice thing about this cake is that is is very good when the chocolate and peanut butter becomes a little soft.

The cake is very moist and delicious, but you might want to have a glass of milk on hand when you eat this delicious monster. And it's definitely not for you calorie counters out there.

Peanut Double Chocolate Chip Cake
Ugly Duckling Cake

Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature (3/4 cup)
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 1/2 ounces semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate, melted and cooled (1/3 cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups cold water

Peanut Butter Butter Cream:

• 1 (18-ounce) jar chunky peanut butter, at room temperature
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 cup)
• 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Ganache:

• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (1 c)
• 1 cup heavy cream

Chocolate Ducks:

• Silicone ice cube molds in the shape of ducks
• 1 ½ 7 oz large sized candy bars (Makes about 19 ducks) – chopped or shredded into small pieces

Directions:

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes to incorporate. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 3 minutes. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with the cold water. Beat for 1 minute after each addition to incorporate the ingredients. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Coat 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Cut 2 circles of parchment paper to fit the pan bottoms and place them inside the pans; then spray the paper for added non-stick insurance. Pour batter into the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a spatula; the pans should be 2/3 full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes *.

Leave to cool for 40 minutes. Prepare the butter cream and the Ganache.

Make the butter cream: With an electric mixer beat the peanut butter and butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and beat until spreadable.

Make the Ganache:

Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the rum if desired.

Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over the cake**

Turn the cakes out of the pans and remove the paper. With a metal spatula, spread 1/2 cup butter cream on top 1 of the layers. Start in the center and work your way out. Carefully place the second layer on top. Smooth the sides with butter cream, and then spread the rest over the top so that the cake is completely covered. Refrigerate or place in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up the butter cream.

Pour the ganache on the cake, starting at the center of the cake and work outward. Be careful of the platter you have the cake on and watch the ganache, it is prone to overflowing out of your platter.

Refrigerate or freeze for 5 minutes before decorating. Pipe any leftover butter cream onto the cake in any style you desire and decorate with your chocolate ducks.

How to make Ducks:

Bring 1 ½ inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan or the bottom half of a double boiler. Do not let the water come to a boil, that will mess with the tempering of the chocolate, and the moisture from the steam may get into your chocolate, causing it to ‘seize.’

Place your chocolate into the top of the double boiler or into a stainless steel bowl (Use a towel or oven mitt to hold the bowl in place), and place on top of the simmering water. Make sure the water level is low enough that the bowl does not touch the water. The bowl should not go down very far into the pan. As soon as you have the chocolate in place, start stirring constantly until the chocolate is smooth. Take off the heat as soon as it is entirely melted, and remove the bowl away from the pan to allow the chocolate to cool slightly.

Now spoon the chocolate into the clean molds, filling to the top (no greasing or anything is necessary with silicone molds). It may be easier (it was for me) to fill a piping bag prepared with the small decorating tip. This way you can avoid too much of a mess and you can fill in the details in the mold better (I have read a zip lock bag with the very tip cut off works, but I find piping bags so much easier).

Once the mold is filled, tap the tray on the counter a few times to release any big air bubbles that will make your candy look misshapen, and you may need to add more chocolate if the level goes too low.

Now, place your mold into the freezer for 10-15 minutes. When the chocolate is solidified, tug on the edges around the silicone to loosen them from the candies, and then tap the mold upside down onto wax paper. The ducks should fall out relatively easy. If the day is very warm or humid, you may need to stop halfway through and freeze all the sucks again, as they may start to soften quickly.

Freeze the chocolates until you are ready to use.

*Cook's note. The cake is cooked when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back when touched

**For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, and then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.