Yum Peaceful Cooking: Of Toast and Rolls...

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Of Toast and Rolls...



We got to play with 2 different kinds of dough this time for our HBin5 bread braid assignment. The first one I played with was a familiar one since we messed around with it back in February...Whole Wheat Chocolate Espresso. If you want to see what I did the first time around, click --->HERE<---(muffins and biscotti)

This time the Whole Wheat Chocolate Espresso dough became cinnamon rolls....sorta. Rolls in the shape of crescents. And for once, I did (this time) exactly as I was told and didn't mess with the recipe....too much. I mean, I'm still struggling with the whole....."whole wheat" flavor thing. So maybe I should call my breads "half wheat" since I cut the whole wheat flour in half and replace it with more all purpose flour.

Anyway...the dough contains not only cocoa powder and strong coffee, but nice chunks of bittersweet chocolate....mmmm...a girls best friend.

Soo...you roll the dough out into a rectangle, divide the dough in half length wise then into quarters, width wise....then you have 8 little rectangles. Divide each of those little guys in half, diagonally so that you end up with 16 triangles....just like the ones you get from the Pillsbury people.

I sprinkled half of the triangles with cinnamon sugar and then spread the other half with Nutella and proceeded to roll them up (it got kinda messy)


(I apologize for the weird colors....lighting is really getting on my nerves lately)


After letting them rise and bake, they were glazed with a mixture of cream cheese, vanilla and honey



And the best part about this? You don't have to wait until the bread cools off before eating!



Lovely flavors without being overly sweet...perfect with your morning java or for that something sweet that you crave after dinner.

And now...after all that yummy-ness, would you believe me if I told that I liked loved this next one even more?

It's true! We made Milk & Honey Raisin Bread!!

When I was a young girl, mom was pretty strict about what we ate. But I remember, as a treat, once in a while she'd buy Cinnamon Raisin bread. I can't remember the brand.....but it made good toast. So when I saw this dough, I knew I had to visit my childhood memories and turn this into Milk & Honey Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

I rolled the dough out flat (making the width the same as the bread pan)....then I brushed the surface with melted butter and sprinkled cinnamon sugar over it. Then, instead of just rolling it up like a log, I rolled both ends to the center


Placing the dough into the bread pan was a little bit of a challenge.....but it made it in, in once piece. After it did it's "rise thing", I brushed the top with butter and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on it before  making a slit down the center (this was an attempt to avoid my ever present "faults" that I end up with in my loaf breads....but it didnt really work)...baked as directed although I noticed the top getting a bit dark so I covered it with a tent of foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking


Nothing says lovin' like the smell of cinnamon in the oven...oooooh eeeeem geeeeee.


I was kinda hoping for more of a dome. But thats cosmetic. This was a wonderful recipe with wonderful results. And it made awesome toast that tasted just like I remembered from my childhood.

Of course I can't eat this whole loaf just as toast....

It's French Toast tiiiiiiiiime..

And another blast from the past (let's do the time warp agaaaaaain). Instead of maple syrup, mom would heat up some apple sauce with a little butter and honey and we'd pour that over our pancakes. Well...with Cinnamon Raisin Bread....Apple Sauce is kind of a natural addition, don't you think?



There really isn't a recipe per say.....we just sorta mixed it by taste but for the sake of a starting point, I thought I'd do my best to gauge the amounts:

1 1/2 cups apple sauce
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons honey (if sweet isn't your thing, start with 1 tablespoon of honey)

Heat all ingredients on medium low in a small sauce pan, stirring occasionally until butter is melted and mixture begins to bubble. Garnish with cinnamon sugar if desired.

Pour over your favorite pancakes, waffles or french toast


If you'd like more info on how HBin5 works, click on the picture below


And while you're at it, go visit Michelle's web at Big Black Dog to see what some of the other members have done with this assignment.


Just so you know...you don't have to have a blog to participate. You don't have to take pictures and talk about it...you can just join the group (its a google group thingy) and learn from / with the rest of us :) Besides, this thing will be going on for many many more months with 2 assignments per month. You don't have to do all the assignments....you just participate when you want and when you can. No pressure, just a lot of fun. 

Just sayin

19 comments:

  1. Danielle, Your breads turned out beautifully. I loved the Milk and Honey bread. I added cinnamon to my dough as well. This is my favorite so far and I also wanted to make French Toast. Unfortunately, it got eaten before I could make any. I have to make another loaf.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job.............looks so yummy!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow this group is so great. Never would have consider apple on the bread but looks and reads so nice. I have looked at most of the braid blogs and wonderful photos everywhere but your toast one really gets my taste buds working.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Everything looks fantastic!! I don't know which I like more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am in heaven with these breads! First of all, I adored the milk and honey. It definitely reminded me of cinnamon raisin bread,which is one of my favorites (which brand WAS it?? It came in a purple package...). And those chocolate crescents? How could you go wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  6. All your breads look wonderful. I love french toast and I have never had it with applesauce. I can applesauce every fall I think I need to try that soon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. OH YUM! Love the idea of apple sauce, butter and honey on French Toast! And this bread made the best French Toast.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your rolls and bread are beautiful. Love the applesauce on the toast idea--with honey and cinnamon it must have been amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow Dani!! Those all look fabulous!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. love everything about this! And agree about too much whole wheat taste...

    And the french toast idea is heaven

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have me drooling, all of your creations look so tasty! I also love the idea of applesauce on the french toast. After baking up vast amounts of whole wheat bread hubby tells me he doesn't like it at all. Sigh. Now I have a freezer full of bread that I guess I will be eating myself, but you have given me an idea, maybe I could sneak it by him by using it to make french toast. Hmmmmmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those are gorgeous, Danielle! I was salivating while looking at your chocolate crescents!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I could really use one of those crescent rolls right now, with my coffee... :) Deliciousness!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my goodness! Your chocolate crescent rolls and your honey and raisin bread look so good and that French toast is to die for. Love the idea of using apple sauce, cinnamon and butter. Delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  15. They look difficult but really worthwhile :-}}

    ReplyDelete
  16. That French toast looks fabulous! Come make me some...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your bread turned out so well! I loved the double roll idea- it looked so pretty sliced. I'm not a big fan of syrup so I'm very intrigued with the applesauce idea. thanks for sharing that one. :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. good heavens, that's some beautiful bread. seriously. it's posts like this that make me question how anyone could ever go on a carb-free diet. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Your crescents are beautiful. That first photo with the yummy forkful looks heavenly!

    ReplyDelete

I apologize for having to use the word verification but you know how spammers are. All comments with links will be treated as spam. Thank you for visiting. I will do my best to return the visit.
Cheers!