Golden Cinnamon Buns (Secret Recipe Club)

As members of the Secret Recipe Club, we are assigned someone's food blog each month and we choose one of their recipes and make it our own. When we were assigned We Heart Vegan this month, we were a little nervous. Many of the vegan recipes on this beautiful blog, written by Brittany and Julie, include ingredients that frankly, we just aren't familiar with. However, when we spotted this recipe for quick, delicious, golden cinnamon rolls that could be made in about an hour, we were intrigued.

Many club members may think we are crazy for cutting it so close, but we made them just this morning, as we have today off from school for Presidents' Day. The aroma of cinnamon is still lingering in the house, and the couple of rolls that we have not yet eaten are calling out to us: "I'm so yummy! Come back and devour me!"

Sticky, gooey, warm and scrumptious, we truly enjoyed making and eating these sweet cinnamon buns. They were much better than anything we could buy in a popping can or at the mall, and it was satisfying to be able to control the ingredients and make a homemade breakfast bun so quickly and easily. What a perfect treat for a chilly winter's morning! Thank you, Brittany and Julie, for the recipe. 

Note: We decided to give the recipe a try using ingredients we had on hand, which means that they aren't vegan, and we are truly hoping that Brittany and Julie won't be offended by our use of dairy products. Also, we prefer Roasted Saigon Cinnamon for its powerful punch.

Golden Cinnamon Buns

minimally adapted from this recipe from We Heart Vegan

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup lowfat milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided

Preheat oven to 425. Line a round baking pan with parchment paper and spray it with baking spray. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until completely combined and slightly aerated.  In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; slowly pour the wet ingredients in to the well and stir with a wooden spoon until tacky, yet combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for a few turns to smooth the dough.  Add flour if needed when sticking occurs; the dough will be very soft. Using flour covered hands, gently press the dough into a large rectangle. Spread remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter over dough's surface. Continue by making the filling (below).

For the filling:

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

pinch salt

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Spread the filling evenly over the buttered dough. Press firmly into dough to set. Roll the dough making sure to roll tight and straight so the ends are even.  Be sure to have a scraper close by to ease the rolling/sticking process. Once rolled, cut into the desired thickness.  Carefully place the rolls into a prepared baking dish.  Nuzzle them close together for a soft, rustic bun.  This will also help keep the buns standing on their own.  Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. Meanwhile, prepare the golden syrup for drizzling (below).

For the golden syrup:

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

4 tablespoons lowfat milk

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine the golden syrup ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved and syrup is thin and smooth. Drizzle syrup over hot cinnamon buns and enjoy fresh out of the oven. 

Happy New Year! Happy Bloggaversary! We're celebrating with Brie-Stuffed French Toast!

Happy New Year! And it's our 5th Bloggaversary! Yes, we started this blog on New Year's Day 2008. Wow - tempus fugit indeed. We are winding down the season of gluttony and desperately trying to ignore that pinch around our waistlines where our pants are feeling a tad snug (thanks a lot, cookies, candy and deliciously evil homemade Chex mix!). We suppose we can ignore it for another day, since for one last indulgent hurrah before we go back to school and into the real world of 2013, we came up with a doozie of a breakfast - Brie-Stuffed French Toast. We used good Italian bread, a square log of Trader Joe's "slicing brie," and some wonderfully sweet-tart homemade jam from one of Chris's coworkers (thanks, M!). Adding to the luscious flavor was a zippy Roasted Saigon Cinnamon we spotted on the clearance shelf at our market. Cheers to decadence and may you all have a happy and healthy New Year!

 

Brie-Stuffed French Toast

(makes 4 "sandwiches")

Ingredients:

4 extra-thick slices fresh Italian bread

4 slices brie, rind removed
2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup berry jam

Preheat oven to 350. Cut a slit halfway between the slices of Italian bread and place a slice of brie inside it. "Squish" the bread down a little to close it up. Prepare the French toast mixture by whisking together the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Melt the butter on a griddle over medium-high heat. Soak the "sandwiches" in the French toast mixture then place them on the griddle. Cook until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Place the griddle with the "sandwiches" on it in the oven and cook for about 10 minutes, to ensure the brie melts. Serve with berry jam.

Tagine of Golden Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans

We purchased a tagine last winter and have done a few experiments with it, making flavorful meals in this earthenware coned dish. Why is it shaped this way? The conical cover rests on the flat base and allows for any condensation that occurs during cooking to return to the base and braise the meat and/or vegetables in it. In this way, any meals made in a tagine are truly one-pot wonders. You can even serve the tagine in the base!

This week's wonder is adapted from the cookbook 150 Best Tagine Recipes by Pat Crocker. The golden color on the chicken comes from the aromatic spices turmeric, saffron, and cinnamon, which also offer plenty of exotically warm flavor. The potatoes and white beans round out the meal to make it a hearty one; we're sure you could use other root vegetables instead of potatoes, or chickpeas instead of white beans (as Crocker does). A slight problem we encountered was that our tagine is on the smaller side and we had a bit of overflow (not to mention a very small, very brief fire...) during cooking. All that did was set us off in search of an even bigger tagine!

Cook onions and potatoes in tagine first

Remove vegetables and brown chicken in spice mixture, meat side down

Turn chicken, add cinnamon stick and broth and bring to a boil

Return vegetables to tagine

Cover and simmer

Add white beans, cover, and continue to cook until done

Tagine of Golden Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans

slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes by Pat Crocker

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted butter

20 strands saffron

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, peeled and quartered

2 medium potatoes, diced

salt to taste

4 chicken thighs

1 cup chicken broth

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 of a 14-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed

parsley for garnishing

In a bowl, combine melted butter, saffron and turmeric; set aside. In the bottom of flameproof tagine, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and potatoes and cook for five minutes, stirring often; remove vegetables from tagine and set aside. Add chicken, meat side down, to tagine and cover with spice mixture. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until chicken is browned on meaty side. Turn chicken over. Add broth and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Return onions and potatoes to tagine, cover with tagine lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring once. Stir in white beans, replace lid and simmer for additional 15 minutes until beans are heated and chicken is cooked through. Discard cinnamon and serve garnished with parsley.

Meatless Monday: Spicy Chickpea and Carrot Tagine

We've had a tagine for a few months now and had yet to use it. Until today. While browsing various vegetarian-themed recipe sites, the word "tagine" kept popping up, and it was a welcome reminder of that cone-shaped earthen-ware vessel atop our cabinets. What a perfect tool for Meatless Monday, especially with some spicy ingredients to give our boring, stressed-out weeknight some pizzazz!

Although only told politely asked to bring some carrots home for our tagine, being the good husband that he is, Chris also bought some fluffy naan and a pair of pretty tongs etched with flowers to go with our Middle-Eastern meal. We cooked everything inside the tagine on the stovetop. It was very easy and quick - even the cleanup! The aromatic spices we chose gave the dish a lot of warmth and layers of flavor, and perfumed our kitchen with an enticing scent. A touch of honey at the very end played up the natural sweetness in the raisins and carrots. It was a deliciously exotic experiment, and we would definitely make it again, perhaps over some couscous or basmati rice.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 star anise pods

2 piece dehydrated galangal* (see note)

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon zataar

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained

1/4 cup raisins

2 carrots, peeled and julienned

2/3 cup water

salt and black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon honey

*note: we used the galangal because we didn't have any ginger...otherwise we would have used a teaspoon of fresh chopped ginger

In your tagine (or if you don't have a tagine, you could just make this in a large saucepan) heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the onions and garlic until they are soft, about 4 minutes. Stir in all the spices and continue to cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes to allow the spices to open up. Add the chickpeas, raisins and carrots, stirring gently to incorporate all the ingredients. Pour in the water and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the honey a couple of minutes before it is ready to be served.

Sauteing the onions, garlic and spices in the base of the tagine

After adding the carrots, raisins, chickpeas and water,

it's ready to be covered and cooked over medium-low heat