Soft Pretzels Buns and Sugar & Spice Pretzel Bites

It's like the last 9 months up until now was practice for being quarantined. As a freelancer and an introvert, I spent a lot of time at home (where I live alone), so I had a daily routine down, learned how to fill up my time, and how to (more or less) motivate myself to be productive.

Now, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, I get to put all of those skills to good use. Although relatively little has changed in my life compared to other people's lives, quarantine still sucks. There's less work, less freedom, less social time, and as time goes on, a growing feeling of apprehension.

I've found that for me, apart from being active and facetiming with friends and family, one of the best ways of dealing with, well, everything, is baking. So the other night I had a friend over, and we had a baking and bingo night. On the menu: sloppy joes on soft pretzel buns, and sweet and spicy pretzel bites.

The pretzel dough is a relatively quick yeast dough, although it is very hands-on as there are a number of steps involved. Keep in mind that not only are these pretzels delicious, so you'll want to eat all of them as soon as you make them, but you should eat all of them immediately because they taste best fresh!

Using the pretzel roll recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, we split the dough in half. From one half, we shaped six rolls, and from the other half, we made pretzel bites by rolling ropes, cutting them into pieces, and rolling the pieces into little balls.

After boiling, we baked the pretzel rolls per Sally's instructions.

After boiling the pretzel bites, we baked them for 10 minutes, then brushed them with melted butter and rolled them in a half recipe of the sugar mixture before baking for 5 more minutes. Below is the recipe for the sugar & spice topping, and the link for Sally's recipe. Enjoy!

Sugar & Spice Topping

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter, melted

Boil pretzels per Sally's instructions. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven. Brush with melted butter, then roll in sugar & spice mixture. Bake for another 5 minutes.

*Note: This mixture is enough for the full pretzel recipe from Sally. If making half of the dough into rolls and half into pretzel bites, only use half of the sugar & spice topping.

Sally's Pretzel Rolls
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-pretzel-rolls/#tasty-recipes-67648

Almond Poppyseed Bread

How has your summer been? Hot? Sunny? Full of trips to the lake or pool? Lots of eating ice cream out of the tub while no one's looking?
I hope so!

I've had a great summer. Super-duper-uber busy (which is why I haven't blogged in awhile...) and full of successes and fails, but great all the same.

Successes include learning how to say "go to the fingerprinting window" in Chinese, biking an hour to work in Taiwan's intense heat a few times, and surviving my trip to Japan (which was my first trip abroad in which only my sister--no grown ups--accompanied me, and which we planned ourselves).

Fails include making frosting with cornstarch instead of powdered sugar (sooo not tasty), milk not curdling during an attempt at homemade ricotta, going waaay past our bus stop resulting in a taxi ride, aaaand not writing any blogs.

All in all, it could have been worse.

But what's always a success is this poppyseed bread. It's a family recipe--we've been making it for years. Last summer I made it for dessert when some guests came over, and they were just amazed that 1) we served bread for dessert and 2) that it tasted so freaking fantastic!

I think what makes this poppyseed bread stand out is the combination of the almond extract in the bread and the orange juice in the glaze. It makes for such a surprising but tasty combo!

So, without further ado, here is the recipe for what is definitely one of the best poppyseed-filled foods I have ever eaten.

Almond Poppyseed Bread
Makes: 2 loaves

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup + 2 Tbs. canola oil
1 1/2 Tbs. poppy seeds

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp. melted butter

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and beat with an electric mixer on medium for 2 minutes, or until combined.
Pour into 2 greased small loaf pans.
Bake 1 hour at 350ºF.
Cool for 10 minutes in pans while making glaze.
Remove loaves to wire rack and pour glaze over loaves while still warm.

Fluffy Trilogy Cinnamon Rolls

"Fluffy" does not even begin to convey how giant, pillowy soft, light, and airy these cinnamon rolls are.

For starters, the dough rose above and beyond expectations. Literally. It began as one of the softest, most pliable, most delightful-to-knead doughs I have ever handled, and then had a growth spurt worthy of being recorded in the book of Guinness World Records.

Upon punching down the dough and assembling the rolls, I put them in the pan...and a few minutes later they had expanded again before my eyes.

Taking our first bites of the rolls the next morning, my family exploded with comments about how fluffy they were. "And that would be the whopping two tablespoons of yeast at work" was my reply. More yeast than I've ever seen in a cinnamon roll recipe, but it definitely works.

These rolls are the closest I've ever come to my ideal cinnamon roll: easy to make but sweet and beyond soft. I'd rather eat no cinnamon roll than a dense one with a hard crust on top. The best cinnamon roll I ever ate was while we were camping a few years ago. From a Mennonite shop, they were ginormous, pillowy soft, and so sweet. They were perfect in every way except that, upon looking at the package, I saw that they were made of a potato dough, which does not meet the "easy to make" criteria. So, now the search is over; I cannot imagine finding a better recipe than this one.

Not only is the dough practically perfect, but so is the frosting (in my opinion). It is not your average cinnamon roll frosting--what with all the almond extract, nuts, and cream--but it is absolutely divine.

That said, my brother and dad said that the only thing that could make these rolls better was a plain buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Sigh. But as long as I do the baking, I get to control the flavoring, amiright?

You may be wondering about the "Trilogy" part of the title. I was too, at first. These are the cinnamon rolls that are served on the Trilogy cruise ships. They have posted their original recipe on their website, but the recipe I used from Crazy for Crust is a bit easier, but is based closely off Trilogy's recipe.

By the way, apologies for the pictures. They do not do justice to these rolls! I had to use my iPhone because of camera problems.

I am dying to try my own versions of these rolls. Think of all the filling options: chocolate, lemon, strawberry, blueberry and cinnamon, mocha, maple, apple pie... Can't wait to start!

Fluffy Trilogy Cinnamon Rolls

Makes: about 24-27 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water (~100-110ºF)

2 Tbs. active dry yeast

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

5 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

6 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup brown sugar

2-4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Icing:

1/2 cup finely chopped Macadamia nuts (or your favorite nut)

6 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp. lemon extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. heavy whipping cream

Make the dough:

1. In the large bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, put warm water and sprinkle yeast, sugar, and salt over it. Give it a quick mix with a wooden spoon, then let sit for 5 minutes until frothy.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and oil. Add egg mixture and 1 cup of flour to the yeast mixture. Stir with dough hook while slowly adding the remaining 4 cups of flour.

3. Mix with dough hook for 5-10 more minutes until dough is elastic. It will be soft and a bit sticky. Remove to a lightly floured surface, and knead a few times until dough is no longer sticky. Place dough in an oiled bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap, and let rest in a warm place until doubled in size.

4. Grease three 9"x9" pans or two 9"x13" pans.

5. Punch down dough and split into two balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 12"x15" rectangle.
6. Spread each rectangle with melted butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. Alternatively, mix sugar and cinnamon into melted butter and spread on with a spoon.
7. Roll dough lengthwise, as tightly as possible. Pinch edges to seal.
8. Cut rolls into 1-inch pieces and place in pan so that they are just touching.
9. Either: Let rise for 20-30 minutes, until doubled in size, then bake. OR Cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight. Let come to room temperature before baking.
10. Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes.

Make the icing:
1. In a small bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter and powdered sugar until combined. Add extracts, salt, and whipping cream, beating until smooth.
2. Sprinkle nuts on baked cinnamon rolls, then spread on icing. Serve.
3. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Unbaked, unfrosted rolls can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Recipe from: http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2016/06/famous-trilogy-cinnamon-rolls/

Original Trilogy recipe: http://www.www.sailtrilogy.com/pages/recipes.php

Basic Banana Bread

Basic Banana Bread

Why are there stretches of days when you’re really productive, then all of a sudden you don’t want to do a thing?

Like for example, I just arrived at my grandparents’ earlier this week; since arriving, I've gotten up in the mornings and ran, I baked this banana bread, I played my flute and piano, I sorted my college stuff...and the list goes on. That lasted all of 3 days before today came and I just felt like doing nothing. Maybe it's the sudden overcast weather? Yeah, let's blame it on that. After all, who wants to run in the rain?

Well, now it's 5:30 (pm!) and I've finally gotten myself motivated enough to write about banana bread instead of just eating it. <-- Not that that’s a bad thing, because it’s pretty tasty.

This is a really good basic banana bread. It’s fairly plain in terms of extra flavors added, which means it’s easy to dress up. Add a little cinnamon, some chocolate chips, some nuts…go for it, experiment!

However, this bread does already have one little secret. A very simple change that is subtle, but definitely makes a difference. A sugared pan. You know how you usually grease and flour a pan to prevent sticking? Well, same idea, except use sugar instead of flour. This gives the edges a delicate sweetness that makes them oh-so-good. No more avoiding the edges! However, you must use butter or Crisco when greasing the pan and not cooking spray. If you want to spray the pans, fine. But just don’t use sugar. It won’t work.

Now to try to salvage the rest of my day!

Basic Banana Bread

Notes:
I made 1 1/2 recipes of this bread, hence the extra, smaller loaf in the picture. If you make the recipe as above, you should only get one loaf.
You can also make this bread into 18-24 muffins, two 8x4" loaves, or three mini loaves; baking times will be affected.

Recipe from: http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2014/02/moms-banana-bread/

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Sooo last week we had all these bananas on the counter that needed to be eaten up – or, actually, made into mocha chocolate chip banana muffins, as was the case. So with the brown bananas gone, my mom bought some nice yellow ones. Unfortunately these new bananas browned freakishly fast and we were again stuck with a whole bunch of brown bananas. Luckily for us, we had just finished the muffins so it was time to make another banana-baked-good.

Enter: Joy the Baker's Brown Butter Banana Bread.

Did I ever tell you that I really like Joy the Baker? All the recipes I've tried from her (like Pistachio, Orange, and Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls and Brown Butter Baked Doughnuts) have turned out good. Plus her photos are amazing. And she has a cat – a definite win.

This bread was just as successful as her other recipes. It turned out nice and soft and used a lot of our bananas up (3!). Even my dad, who apparently does not like banana bread (criminal, in my opinion), complimented the nice crusty top and the flavors from the spices.

This bread made our kitchen smell amazing – and when I cut the banana bread open when it was still hot, it just got better!

I mean, can't you just see the delicious scent steaming off? No? Well, I guess it was just 'hot', not 'steaming hot', but I promise the smell was there.

A word of warning: make sure you tap out all the extra flour from your pan...I had a little too much and the edges of my bread ended up looking a little yellow.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Makes 1 9×5-inch loaf

Recipe from: http://joythebaker.com/2014/03/brown-butter-banana-bread/

Bread Bowls

Panera Bread has delicious bread bowls...or so I've heard, I haven't been there often enough to know. It's yet another restaurant that I miss. But these bread bowls almost make up for that. They're not Panera's sourdough bread bowls, but that doesn't mean they don't taste amazing with soup! Or, if yours are a little flat like some of ours, they make great sandwiches! Aaaand...you can put jam or honey on the left over tops of the bread bowls.

All of ours were a little bit too flat for comfort after the second rising, so we re-kneaded half of them and added some more flour, and they turned out much more bowl-ish than the ones we didn't knead again.

Bread Bowls

Makes 8

Recipe from: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/savory-bread/homemade-bread-bowls.html?cpage=1#comments

Olive Garden Breadsticks

These breadsticks are delicious. One time Mom and Dad were on a trip, and we had three in the freezer to eat with dinner. Damon went and ate all three as a snack. Elena and I were not happy! Today he helped make them...but he only got his fair share tonight.

When I was small, I didn't really get what all the fuss about Olive Garden was. Then one day at Olive Garden, I suddenly was in love! The fettucine alfredo, zupa toscana, and—of course—the breadsticks, are my favorites. And all of them I can make at home!

Considering there's no Olive Garden in Russia, I'll be deprived for two years—so it's a very good thing I don't have to fly 9 hours to get their food. These breadsticks are slightly more dense than the originals, but every bit as good and garlicky.

I only make these breadsticks occasionally, as they go with Italian food in my mind. Tonight is Christmas Eve, and we had an Olive Garden-themed meal: zupa toscana and breadsticks. It hit the spot.

Olive Garden Breadsticks

Total time: 2 hours

Makes 10-15

Ingredients:

Breadsticks:

1 1/2 cups warm water (between 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit)

1 package or 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

2 Tbs. sugar

1 Tbs. salt

Topping:

4 Tbs. unsalted butter

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.

2. In separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

3. Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined.

4. Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not overknead!

5. Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips.

6. Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.

7. Preheat your oven to 400ºF and once heated, pop in the bread sticks for 6-7 minutes. Combine topping ingredients in a microwave. Brush breadsticks with half the mixture. Bake for 10-15 more minutes then spread on the rest of the topping.

Recipe adapted from: http://fullbellies.blogspot.ru/2011/05/HOMEMADE-OLIVE-GARDEN-BREAD-STICKS.HTML

Crazy Bread

I love crazy bread from Little Caesar's, it's so yummy! Of course, in Russia there's no Little Caesar's to get crazy bread from, so we have to make it ourselves (which actually isn't hard). This copy cat recipe doesn't taste exactly like Little Caesar's crazy bread, but it does taste good. We always use homemade pizza dough, and estimate the amounts, so feel free to change the recipe to taste!

Copy Cat Little Caesar's Crazy Bread

Ingredients:

one ten-ounce tube Pillsbury pizza dough (or use any other pizza dough)

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

1 teaspoon garlic salt (if unavailable, combine garlic powder and salt)

grated parmesan cheese for topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425ºF (if using homemade pizza dough, the temperature you would cook your pizza at).

Unroll dough onto cutting board (roll homemade pizza dough about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick). Cut dough into desired sized pieces.

Being careful not to stretch the dough, place the crazy bread on a lightly greased baking sheet, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until your dough is completely cooked but still soft, and the tops are golden brown.

While the bread is baking, melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove. Then add garlic salt and stir until it dissolves.

Remove the browned crazy bread from the oven and brush the butter mixture on the tops using a pastry brush or spoon.

Sprinkle a generous amout of parmesan cheese over each.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/little-caesars-crazy-bread-recipe.html