Posts Tagged ‘citrus’

There are a few frequently asked questions that I frequently . . . get asked . . .

Can I share my favorite with you? Can I just get this off my chest? Okay.

Q: Oh LaChelle, how come you’re not 500 lbs, with all these treats and goodies you eat all day long?

A: *facepalm*

I love this question. See, people come to this blog and assume that my family and I subsist on cake and cinnamon rolls. I think that’s pretty hilarious.

Honestly, I eat very little of the goodies I make. They’re usually for an event, or to give away to someone. And when I do make something just for fun, I send 98% of it away with my husband to work. He puts it in the break room for all of his office buddies to consume. And good grief, they do.

Now, take a moment and read over that last paragraph. Got it?

Good. See, that’s actually the answer I would have given you, if you had asked before I made these sweet rolls.

I made a whole bunch of these rolls for that Return of the Jedi party I mentioned earlier. Did I send the leftovers with my husband to work? Good heavens, no. I kept them home and had inhaled at least four of them by 10:00 a.m. Yeah, not one of my finer moments. But ooooohh, they were good.

I’ll be honest, if I were forced to choose only one baked treat for the rest of my life, there would be none of that wishy-washy “oh-I-could-never-choose-just-one” bunk. The winner would easily be fluffy, sticky, chewy, yeasted sweet rolls. Heaven. Just, heaven.

I’m not sure what else I can say to convince you to go make these. Just . . . go make them.

Promise me you will.

Orange Cranberry Sweet Rolls

recipe for dough adapted from Lion House Bakery

2 cups warm water

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tablespoons Instant yeast* (such as SAF)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs

5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour

filling:

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon orange zest

1/3 cup melted butter

Dried cranberries

glaze:

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons orange juice

Directions:

Prepare the filling first by creaming together the sugar and cinnamon with the orange zest. Set aside.

Next make the dough. In a large bowl, combine the water, dry milk, yeast, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix just until smooth. Add two more cups of flour, and mix until incorporated (I do this by hand with a wooden spoon). Then mix in just enough of the remaining flour to make a very soft dough. Don’t go by the exact amount in the recipe — go by the feel of the dough. The dough shouldn’t be so sticky that you can’t knead it, but just barely manageable. The less flour you add, the softer the rolls will be, generally. Knead for about 6-8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangular shape, roughly 20″ x 12″. Brush dough with the 1/3 cup of melted butter, and sprinkle evenly with the sugar/orange zest mixture. Sprinkle with dried cranberries. Carefully roll the rectangle up lengthwise and cut into 1-inch slices using thread or floss. Place rolls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. Halfway through rising, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown. While the rolls are baking, prepare the glaze by mixing together the butter and powdered sugar, and stirring in enough orange juice to make it “drizzling” consistency. Stir briskly until smooth. As soon as the rolls are removed from the oven, drizzle or brush the glaze over the hot rolls.

*Note: If you want to use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, I can’t make any promises, but you should make these adjustments:

• Dissolve 2 tablespoons active dry yeast with the warm water and sugar for about 5 minutes before you add it to the other ingredients to make the dough.
• Once you are done kneading the dough, place it in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise until doubled. After it’s risen, punch it down and roll it into a rectangle, resuming the recipe as written.

Last week my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.

We now have an entire four years of wedded bliss to our credit.

Have I ever introduced my husband to you? He’s quite the guy. This is the man I was crazy about in college, but never dreamed I’d actually end up with. Life can be good like that.

Back in our dating days, I had a coconut-lime body spray that I wore a lot. Every once in a while I get a whiff of something coconut-lime, and suddenly I’m in college again, and we’re taking a slow walk around the stadium on a warm summer night, and going out for ice cream, and the feel of his hand in mine is still novel and exciting. That’s what coconut-lime does to me.

Whew. Mushiness aside. Let’s talk scones.

These are everything you could ask for in a scone. Fluffy, moist, rich, flavorful, all of the above. . . The secret? Cream, my friends. Heavy cream. Don’t fight it. And don’t work the dough any more than you absolutely must, once you add the liquids to the dry ingredients. I also threw these in the freezer for about 15 minutes before baking them. It helped them keep their shape and rise better. If you go that route, increase the baking time a bit so they won’t be underdone.

You won’t be knocked over the head by the lime flavor, but there’s a definite citrus presence here, which plays well with the coconut. I think I struck a pretty good balance, but if you prefer one flavor over the other, go ahead and play around with it.

Happy anniversary, Love. Here’s to many, many more.

Coconut Lime Scones

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

3/4 cup flaked coconut

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 egg

zest from 3 limes

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add the cold butter and rub it in until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Stir in the flaked coconut.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add to the dry ingredients, and stir just until the dough comes together. Knead gently a couple of times, and shape into an 8″ circle. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cut into 10 wedges, and separate the wedges slightly.

Bake for about 15-16 minutes, or until they are golden brown. These are best if eaten within a couple of hours after removing from the oven.

***This is me just being a little nit-picky. You can probably tell the formatting is wonky in this post. That’s because I imported it from Blogger, and the Blogger Fairies did something weird to the fonts that I haven’t been able to fix. Okay, I’m done.***

This is the third time today I’ve tried to sit down and write this post. I don’t know, friends. The muse just isn’t with me. Just consider all subsequent words optional, okay?

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

***This is me just being a little nit-picky. You can probably tell the formatting is wonky in this post. That’s because I imported it from Blogger, and the Blogger Fairies did something weird to the fonts that I haven’t been able to fix. Okay, I’m done.***

Let’s talk about Lemon.

I might very well be abnormal, but here’s the thing: I’m a little paranoid when making foods whose flavors can be associated with non-foods.

I’ll explain. Lemon is one of those tricky suckers, because if I don’t do it right, I end up with a big pan of something that smacks of, well, dish detergent. Or Lysol. You think I’m weird? Yes. And then I picture myself taking a big bite out of some sort of Palmolive Meringue Pie, and that’s a little disconcerting. It’s kind of like when you’re eating a mint brownie, and you start to wonder if somebody secretly substituted Colgate for the mint icing. Am I the only one who knows what I’m talking about?

That’s not to say I’m not a huge fan of lemon. There’s just a little paranoia there.

My husband loves lemon bars. I love my husband. So yesterday I made him lemon bars. He didn’t say a word about Palmolive, so I’ll count that as a success.

Lemon Graham Squares

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

6-8 drops yellow food coloring

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the milk, lemon juice, and food coloring; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in melted butter until crumbly.

Press half of the crumb mixture into a greased 9-inch square baking dish. Pour lemon mixture over the crust; sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack and cut into squares.