Homemade Cinnamon Buns with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Glaze

So, I have a confession to make... Prior to yesterday, cooking with live yeast really intimidated me/freaked me out. It just seemed really difficult or complex or... something, but it turns out it's not! I was determined to at least try, so I picked up some yeast last time I was at the store and opened my trusty-dusty copy of America's Test Kitchen's The New Best Recipe cookbook once I got home. In the "yeast breads" section, I found glazed cinnamon rolls. It being Sunday and me having Monday off, (thank you President's Day!) I decided this was my project. (This way, even if it didn't work out, I'd still have cream cheese glaze, cinnamon and sugar working for me... it couldn't be that bad!)

Based on a couple things, I tweaked the recipe a little. Not the dough part, so much, as the filling and glazing part. The first thing: the ATK recipe did not have butter brushed over the dough before the filling was added. I knew that had to change- when I worked at Mary Mac's I clearly remember the huge table-sized rolls of dough being brushed with butter before sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. The second thing: I was convinced by some fancy marketing (interesting packaging) in the cream cheese section to purchase some white chocolate cream cheese in addition to plain cream cheese. How does a little white chocolate in the glaze not sound good!?!?!

I'm glad I started this project early in the day yesterday- 4 hours of letting the dough rise alone was time consuming but not labor-intensive. 6 hours after I started, I had big, beautiful, cool enough to be frosted and eaten cinnamon rolls. YUM!

Cinnamon Rolls with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Glaze

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen New Best Recipe Cookbook 

Ingredients

Dough

• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
• 1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp.) instant yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, plus 2 large yolks
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4-41/4 cups unbleached AP flour, plus more for dusting the work surface

Icing

• 4 ounces plain cream cheese, softened but still cool
• 4 ounces Philadelphia White Chocolate Indulgence cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted to remove lumps
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

Filling

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

• For the dough, heat milk and butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave until the butter melts. Remove from heat and set aside until the mixture is lukewarm, about 100 degrees.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix water, yeast, sugar, egg, and yolks at a low speed until well mixed. Add salt, warm milk mixture, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on medium until well blended, about a minute. Switch to dough hook, add 2 more cups of flour. Knead at medium, adding 1 Tbsp more flour at a time if needed, until the dough is smooth and freely clears the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes. Remove dough onto lightly floured counter. Shape into a ball and put in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and leave in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size- 1.5-2 hours. 
• For the icing, while the dough is rising, combine all the icing ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. Blend at low until combined, then high for about 2 minutes until smooth and free of lumps. Move to small bowl, cover and refrigerate. 
• Roll it up! After the dough's doubled, press it down and turn out onto very lightly floured work surface. Roll it out until a 16"x12" rectangle is formed, with the long side facing you. In a small bowl, mix the dry filling ingredients. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle evenly with the dry ingredients, leaving a half-inch border along the top edge. Carefully roll up dough, tightening with your fingers as you go. When you reach the end, seal the top seam with water and dust the whole roll with flour. Grease a 13"x9" baking dish. Cut into 12 equal pieces with dental floss. (Slide floss under, then tighten ring. First cut in the middle to form two equal pieces, then cut each of those in half, then cut each remaining piece into 3 pieces). Place the rolls in the dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm, draft-free spot until doubled, 1.5-2 hours.

• Bake it! When the rolls are almost doubled, preheat to 350 with oven rack in middle position. Bake until the rolls are golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the rolls reads 185-188 degrees, about 25-30 minutes. Invert the rolls onto a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. (Do this over parchment or a baking sheet- mine were dripping cinnamon-sugar yumminess all over the counter) Turn them over on a large plate and use a spatula to spread the icing all over them. Serve immediately. 

German Comfort Food: Rindsrouladen and Knödel

Rindsrouladen mit Knödel



So... after an awesome weekend camping in Georgia's Alpine village of Helen, I really wanted some good German food. Now, anybody can make Schnitzel, and I was kinda over chicken and veal seemed a little extravagant for a Tuesday night, so I decided to make Rindsrouladen (which translates to something along the lines of "rolled beef") with Knödel (which translates to "dumplings" but are known affectionately around our house as "gutbombs")

I don't know why this idea sounded less extravagant than Schnitzel, especially since this menu warranted a trip to the farmer's market and it was already 6 o'clock when I came up with it. (On a side note, this is NOT a weeknight meal. or at least not one you start cooking at 7.) In any case, I was determined to have it so I recklessly proceeded and eventually had a wonderful dinner.

Rindsrouladen is beef (usually a tougher cut- since it's getting braised the slow-and-low makes it nice and tender) that's stuffed with bacon, onions, pickles and mustard. What's not to love?! All that gets rolled up and then braised in wine and broth for a couple hours. The result is a savory, tender dish and some flavorful jus that, with a little bit of flour, becomes gravy. (Who doesn't love gravy!)

Gravy always deserves something to be poured on, and Spätzle (German egg noodles) is a common accompaniment to Rindsrouladen, but I wanted to try my hand at making Knödel instead. You can buy easy Knödel in the ethnic section of some grocery stores and they're pretty good. But they're really simple to make and it's pretty rewarding to end up with some made with love.

Rindsrouladen

Ingredients:
2 pounds beef top round (cut 1/2" thick if you can find it) cut into 4 even pieces
2 Tbsp German mustard (if you don't have German mustard, use anything but yellow)
3 red onions, chopped up
a few slices bacon, cut up (I used peppered seasoning bacon that comes in big chunks from the f.m.)
1/3 c pickles, diced (I used German cornichons, but any dill'l do.)
1Tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper
2 c. beef stock
2 c. red wine (2 Buck Chuck, my cooking hero)

Directions:

• Cook the bacon in a dutch oven until crispy. Remove the bacon to a medium-sized bowl and leave the fat in the pan. Add the onions and cook about 5-7 minutes until softened, fragrant, and slightly browned.

• Mix onions with bacon. Add pickles and mustard, stir until mixed.
• Place your meat on a plastic wrap-covered cutting board. Cover the top of the meat with plastic wrap as well. This is the fun part!

 

 

• Completely pulverize the meat until it's thin enough to roll up, about 1/4" thick. Be careful not to hit it too hard and get holes in it. This is a great time to work out aggression or frustration, but it can be annoying if you have people living below you, so be mindful! (BTW, what's up with the Germans and pounding their meat? Schnitzel calls for use of the meat mallet, too- and if you don't have a meat mallet, the rolling pin works great as well) 
• Once your pieces are pounded out, season the beef with salt and pepper on both sides, then scoop 1/4 of the bacon-onion-pickle mixture onto them. Spread it out kinda evenly and then roll it up. Some of your filling will fall out. Don't stress it.

• Using kitchen twine, tie each roll up so it's secure. You can use toothpicks, too, but I usually don't because inevitably I end up forgetting one and then somebody gets a bite of wood.
• Add oil to your dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown all sides of the rolls. (Really brown them. Let them sit there a couple minutes each side so they get a nice dark color) You might want to do this in a couple batches so each one has room to cook.
• After everything's browned, put them in the dutch oven. (You can toss any of the filling that fell out during the rolling process into the pot, too) Add the beef stock and wine, cover, and cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until beef is very tender.
• Remove the rolls to a cutting board and let rest. Add either cornstarch or flour mixed with water to the juice in the pot and thicken until desired gravy consistency is reached. Slice the rolls and serve with Knödel and top everything with gravy. Braised cabbage would also go really well on this plate.    

Knödel

Ingredients:
6 cups stale bread, cubed (I used homemade croutons, works just as well)
1 cup milk, warm
5 eggs
2 Tbsp parsley
1 red onion, diced
1/2 Tbsp butter

Directions:

• Put bread cubes in a bowl, pour the warm milk over them.

• Heat butter in skillet, add onion and parsley and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add to bread mixture.
• Gently whisk the eggs and add to mixture. Stir until everything is well coated. Cover with saran wrap for about 20 minutes.
• You may need to add flour to mixture to make it stick together better. Form into dumplings. (You can either do logs or balls. Logs are probably easier)
• Roll the dumplings up in tin foil, like candy, so they are well sealed. You could spray the inside of the foil with oil to keep them from sticking, but I found if you peel them carefully, they do okay without.

• Add them to a pot of salted boiling water. Let cook about 20 minutes. (Pull one out and slice it open. The inside of the dumpling will be dry when it's done cooking)
• Peel the foil off (be careful- it just came out of boiling water and will be hot!) and serve (slice if you do logs, just leave balls whole)

• Serve with Rindsrouladen, top with gravy, and enjoy!