Orange Cranberry Caramel Rolls Quick & Easy!

 

What to do when the man of the house is craving cinnamon rolls and you don't want the thick gooey frosting? Compromise and create a yummy caramel roll infused with orange, and slathered with cranberry sauce in the center. 

 

 We bought a bag of oranges that are hit and miss. Some are flavorful and juicy, others are rather dry. Thus the reason I usually don't by bagged anything in the way of fruit. All is not a loss though, because I juiced a couple of the oranges and grated the peel on one to make the most amazingly flavorful rolls, if I do say so myself, and I just did!

These rolls are soft, with a nice caramel topping, buttery and sweet, with a touch of sunshine and Autumn all rolled into one. Yes, I know it's officially winter, but I had leftover cranberry sauce that was crying to be used, and I associate cranberries with Autumn mostly. The plus side is that these are relatively quick and easy. Enough of this chatter though, lets get cooking!


ORANGE CRANBERRY CARAMEL ROLLS

TOPPING

1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted in a 9" x 12" baking pan
2 T honey
1 T. grated orange rind

ROLLS

3-3 1/2 c.  flour
1/4 c. oats
2 T. flaxseed meal
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. yeast
1 t. salt
1/2 c. each orange juice, and water
1 T. each butter and oil
1 egg
1 T. grated orange rind

FILLING

2 T.  cinnamon sugar + 1/4 cup brown sugar
 brush rolled out dough with some of the melted butter in the baking pan
1/4 - 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
1 T. grated orange rind

Grease 13 x 9 inch pan. melt one cube of butter in the pan by placing in the oven heated to 250. Check after five minutes. Combine all dry ingredients listed under ROLLS, except for 1 1/2 c. flour in your mixer bowl. Heat to very warm the orange juice and water. Add the liquid, orange rind and egg to the dry ingredients and mix on low using the dough hook,  until combined, turn up to medium and continue to mix about 3 minutes, then gradually add 1- 2 cups of additional flour until a nice soft dough forms and pulls away from the side of the bowl.

On a  clean, floured, dishcloth roll out the dough to a 15x7 inch rectangle  Brush the dough with some of the melted butter in the baking pan. Using a wide spatula spread a very thin layer of the cranberry sauce on the buttered dough. Sprinkle the combined sugar over the cranberry sauce, the orange rind, and then roll the dough up starting on a long side.

Add the orange rind, 1/2 cup brown sugar and two tablespoons of honey to the baking pan and mix with the melted butter. Cut the dough into twelve slices. Place them in the baking pan and cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a dishtowel. Let rise until doubled in size, in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes.

Taking off the plastic wrap or towel, place the rolls in the oven on an upper rack, and turn the oven on to 375 degrees. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Remove from the oven and let sit for 1 minute, then turn out onto tinfoil. Whaalaa! Pure heaven for breakfast! Enjoy!

Gingersnaps for a Tasty Tuesday

Years ago, when I was a wee one, Mom would make all sorts of cookies. One of my favorites were what the C&H Sugar Co. called gingersnaps. I suppose they would snap if you cooked them long enough, but regardless, these are chewy, spicy, yumilicious. I did a little experiment with the recipe because well, I just wanted to. So I traded flaxseed meal for the egg, and added 3 T. water. The texture was wonderful, and Nature Guy says they are "too" good, probably because we are both trying to shed a few pounds and cookies are not a diet food. That's okay, we just need to not inhale the whole batch in one sitting right? So I will give  you two versions of the recipe and you can decide which you like better. The mixing and baking is the same for both recipes.

Gingersnaps    Bake at 350 degrees   Yield 4 dozen

1#  Original Recipe
3/4 c. shortening       1 c. sugar        1/4 c. molasses        1 egg          2 t. ginger      1 t. cinnamon           1/4 t. salt        2 t. baking soda      2 c. flour  

#2  My Recipe
1/4 c. coconut oil       1/2 c. butter       1 c. sugar         1/3 c. molasses       1 T. flaxseed meal+ 3 T. water     1 T. ginger        2 t. cinnamon       1/4 t. ground cloves       1/4 t. salt        2 t. baking soda
1/2 c. whole wheat flour        1 1/2 + 1/3 c. flour    

 In a medium size bowl cream fats, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Add egg or substitute (flaxseed meal and water) and blend well. Sift together dry ingredients and stir in until well mixed. Chill for one hour. In a flat bowl add about 1/2 sugar. Pinch off part of dough to make a quarter size ball and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Enjoy!                                                                

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars - Best In the West!

My grand daughters made a special request to make cookies together, sooooo we looked around the house to see what was available. Hmmm, time to run to the store for supplies! I was making chicken enchiladas anyway so we needed supplies for that as well. Off Mommy and I go to Walmart, which is different in every community I've visited so far. It took us a bit longer than expected to gather what we needed, so when we got home I plopped two cubes of butter in a bowl and tackled the enchiladas. We didn't get to eat until after 6:30 and grandma was running out of steam here, thus a bit of a compromise. Instead of cookies we made bars. I doubled a peanut butter cookie recipe from one of my daughters cookbooks and threw in some chocolate chips,  so we could have enough to keep everyone happy. I warn you that right out of the pan, these are so good you might not be able to stop eating them!

Best In the West Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
 preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 c. each butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, white sugar 
1 t. each baking soda, salt
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 10 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl cream butter and sugars, add peanut butter and mix in well. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together and with vanilla, mix in well. Stir in chocolate chips.  Spread in large cookie sheet and be sure and spread the dough evenly. Bake for 15 minutes or until just turning golden brown. Let cool slightly as they will fall apart a bit when still warm, but hey, they are soooo yummy you probably won't care. Yield 4 dozen.

Spiced Oatmeal Waffles With Maple Pecan Syrup

Okay, don't laugh! I know I should have taken a photo before half of my breakfast was gone, but I got caught up in the enthusiasm of the meal. Everyone was so excited about homemade waffles they didn't want to wait for a photo shoot....lol. We bought a cheap little waffle iron, because I'm a stickler for food made from scratch. The fun of cooking from scratch is that if I want pumpkin waffles I can do that, or as in this case I used oatmeal flour made from toasted oats. These were such a hit, I don't think I would be tempted to try the "basic" all white flour waffle recipe. I learned some tips as I scoured the internet for recipe ideas. One is, the professional waffle houses make their batter the night before. I didn't realize I could toast oats and then blend them up into flour, yay! Buttermilk is a must, and you don't have to beat egg whites separate if you have a good buttermilk recipe. These waffles were soft on the inside and crisp out. I did make changes to assure that, such as half butter half oil, and a dab more sugar than this recipe called for. Enough gabbing and on to the recipe. Oh, as a credit to the original creator, Alton Brown, this is his recipe for the most part, but I tweaked it and will tell you the difference.

Spiced Oatmeal Waffles - (the night before you want these make up the batter)

5 1/2 ounces oats, toasted in a dry skillet
4 ounces flour
3 T. brown sugar  (Alton uses white) plus one T. white sugar, my addition
3 eggs
2 T. each melted butter and oil   (Alton uses all butter)
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice  (my addition)
1 t. vanilla    (my addition)
Toast your oats in a dry skillet, watching to make sure they don't burn. When cooled whir in a blender or food processor until flour like consistency. In a glass bowl or 4 c. measuring cup combine all dry ingredients. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, fats, vanilla and buttermilk. Gently mix into dry ingredients. Don't beat too vigorously and don't worry about lumps. You want light fluffy waffles and over beating will make them tough. Cover and refrigerate over night, which is not a recommendation from Alton but several others did say that helped make the batter thick and certainly didn't seem to hurt anything. Take out about 30 minutes prior to cooking the waffles. This will make 6 large 4 section waffles. Follow the instructions on your waffle maker. Mine is a small Rival which makes to square waffles at a time and I figured out that a quarter of a cup of batter on each side was enough. Now for the syrup.

Butter Pecan Maple Syrup
2 T. butter
1/3 c. chopped pecans
1 c. maple syrup

In a small saucepan melt the butter and cook the pecans lightly. Add the syrup and heat til very warm. Serve with the waffles or any favorite pancake, or french toast recipe. Enjoy!

Homemade English Toffee a Christmas Tradition

Toasted almonds in a buttery sweet, melt in your mouth toffee, slathered in luscious chocolate with more toasted almond bits. Heavenly treats your family will love. My mother started making toffee when I was 13, and it became a tradition. I started the same tradition when I was raising my own children, so they would have a bit of the grandmother they never knew. Here's our version, easy and delicious. No water, no corn syrup, I like this recipe the best as it is.

English Toffee

1 cup real butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup toasted almond slivers
1/2 cup each semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips

In a heavy duty pot, melt butter and add sugar. Over medium heat, or a little lower depending on your stove, continue to cook, stirring constantly with a back and forth motion over all the pan bottom to keep from scorching. Using a candy thermometer bring toffee to 290 degrees. Before you get to that temperature you might find there is a separation stage, where it looks as if there's a layer of oil that separated from the carmelized sugar. Keep stirring and it will go back in to the toffee mixture. Do not pour it off, you will ruin your toffee.  ( I test by dropping a drizzle into a cup of cold water and tasting it. You want a smooth texture, not grainy. I have learned to eyeball this over the years as there's a point where you get just past the grainy texture, but before it gets too brown. You want a nice golden brown. )  Add nuts, stir in and pour onto cookie sheet. This will make the pan very hot so you want to put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack. You do not need to butter the sheet as some recipes suggest, as it makes the toffee too greasy. After about 5 minutes, sprinkle the chocolate chips on the hot toffee. Let it sit for a few minutes and then using a spatula spread the melted chocolate over the toffee. You can sprinkle it with more toasted almond bits if you like, we do. :-) If you have any questions drop me an email. I hope you get a chance to try this!