Dinner Rolls and Scotcharoos (not together though)

Rich and Tender American Dinner Rolls, from p. 455 of the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. This is an oldie, I made them at Thanksgiving. I will never go back to Pilsbury rolls, ever. I can't believe how simple they are to make. I wish I had known sooner.

This was my daughter's birthday scotcharoo "cake." I made mushrooms and a cat from marizpan.

Scotcharoos:

Ingredients:

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. light corn syrup
• 1 generous c. peanut butter
• 6 c. Rice Krispies cereal
• 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 c. butterscotch chips

Directions:

1. Melt sugar and corn syrup in a pan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved--it should not be grainy and should be just about boiling.
2. Add above mixture and peanut butter to cereal in a big bowl, mix well
3. Press into a 9 x 13 pan
4. Allow to cool
5. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together on stove top or in microwave, mixing well
6. Spread over cooled mixture, allow time for frosting to set

You can decorate it any way you like.

St. Lucy's Braids

I did not have any little candles for these or candied fruits, so I used M&M's. The recipe was delicious and came from here. I used toothpicks to hold each layer together. It was absolutely delicious, I can't wait to make it again next year.

Apple Crisp

I used this recipe. However, I did not layer any of the crumb mixture on the bottom, I put it all on top. I also halved it, so that we would not be eating it all week. Additionally, I used 4 Cortland apples, I thought they were a little soggy but otherwise they were fine.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

The dough was the recipe that you find for chocolate chip cookies on the back of the chocolate chip bag. I added 2-3 tbsp of cocoa powder (I should have added 5, will do next time) and instead of chocolate chips, I used Reeces Pieces candies. These were so good, nice soft and moist.

Buttermilk Sandwich Bread

This is another recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I had some extra buttermilk that I wanted to use before it went bad. I didn't have any honey so I proofed the yeast before adding it with the same amount of sugar as the recipe called for honey. The recipe also said to add all of the dry ingredients, including yeast, at once, which I sort of did out of order.

The only dumb thing I did, was actually follow the recipe in one place, it did not say to oil the baking pan, so my bread stuck. Hence there is no picture of it out of it's loaf pan. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't pretty or easy to get the thing out of the pan. The result was a nice fluffy loaf with just the right crust, perfect for sandwiches.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

I got this recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Its the Basic Sweet Dough Recipe on pg. 470 and the Cinnamon Roll Recipe on pg. 474. The dough has to rise twice, once when you make it and once after it is rolled out. I put mine in the fridge at let it do it's magic overnight. I put it in the oven right away in the morning and made the icing, which was super easy, while they baked.

PS The cookbook is definately worth having, it's very well-done in my opinion and actually contains at lot of good information about cooking, in general.

Buttermilk Biscuits

These are buttermilk biscuits from 100 Cakes and Bakes, a book that I cannot find right now. I cut them out with leaf and acorn-shaped cookie cutters, for a more festive look.

Amish White Bread

This is such a great sweet tasting bread. It is the first time I have ever baked bread without a bread machine. I got rid of the bread machine,the bread never tasted good. This is almost gone as I type this. I used extra-virgin olive oil and I only made one loaf because bread baking is usually a disaster, well not today. I plan on making this again and again.

Here is the link: Amish White Bread