Itty Bitty Cinnamon Rolls

My kids are not breakfast eaters first thing in the morning but I've found that if I make bite-sized versions of some breakfast treats, they will eat them. As a result, these itty bitty cinnamon rolls were born.

I took a short cut and used frozen bread dough so it really didn't take long at all to be able to serve hot, fresh cinnamon rolls instead of another cold breakfast. I'll be honest and tell you that I made these rolls on a weekend morning --I did not get up before the birds on a school day to roll out bread dough. I know that there are plenty of you out there who do get up in the wee morning hours to prepare breakfasts every morning and I commend you for doing so but that's not me. I'm NOT a morning person, no matter how hard I try to be. Had I been making these for a school morning, I would've prepared the rolls ahead of time the night before, stopping right before cutting them into pieces, and then I would've wrapped the long roll up tightly in plastic wrap and stuck it in the refrigerator. Then all that would have to been done the next morning would be to cut and bake the little rolls. Even the glaze could be made ahead of time but it really doesn't take much effort to whip it up while the rolls are baking.

The rolls are best if eaten hot, right out of the oven. I had just a few left over from the batch that I made and even after storing them in a tightly sealed container, they turned sort of rubbery and hard.

So there you have it...a simple yet very satisfying breakfast treat for days when you think that you don't have time to eat anything.

Itty Bitty Cinnamon Rolls

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. butter, room temperature

The directions are pretty simple: 

Thaw frozen bread.

Preheat oven to 350*. Lightly coat a mini muffin pan with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

Roll out bread dough until flat and as close to a rectangle as possible - doesn't have to be perfect.

Spread butter over the entire area of the dough.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and then sprinkle all of it over the buttered dough.

Starting on the long end, roll up the log, tucking in the short end edges as you go along.

To cut:

Slice the long log in half. Slice each half in half, giving you four mini logs. You should be able to cut 6-8 mini rolls from each of the 4 mini logs.

Lay each cinnamon roll into a mini muffin hole in the pan.

Bake for approx. 15 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown.

Remove the hot rolls to a cooling rack. Drizzle with glaze (recipe below), if desired. Aren't they just the cutest little things?!?

Glaze for Itty Bitty Cinnamon Rolls

1 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Stir all ingredients together until smooth. Generously drizzle the glaze over the warm cinnamon rolls.

Cookie Carnival - Raspberry Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars

For my second Cookie Carnival submission this month, I choose another cake mix cookie recipe but this time, instead of a round cookie, I made bar cookies - Raspberry Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars. The original recipe is from Betty Crocker. Their recipe calls for strawberry preserves but since I already had raspberry preserves in the frig, I opted to use it instead. I loved the pairing of the slightly sweet raspberry preserves with the slightly sour lemon margarita filling.

Raspberry Filled Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
adapted from Betty Crocker.com

Bar Cookie Base:
1 box lemon cake mix
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c.p finely chopped almonds
1 c. low sugar raspberry preserves

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1  egg
1/4 c.bottled margarita mix
1/4 c. lemon juice

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch pan and set aside.

Place cake mix in large bowl. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until crumbly. Add almonds; mix well. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of pan.

Stir preserves until smooth; carefully spread over base.

In same bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt and egg with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add margarita mix and lemon juice; beat at low speed until blended. Carefully pour filling over base.

Sprinkle reserved base mixture over filling.

Bake 35 - 40 minutes or until edges begin to brown and center is set.

Cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.

My first Cookie Carnival cake mix cookie submission this month was: Chunky Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies! 

Want to join in on the Cookie Carnival fun? It's easy! Click here to find out more info.

Cookie Carnival - Chunky Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies

One of the recipes for September's Cookie Carnival was cake mix cookies - any recipe of your choice as long as it was a new recipe that you were trying. We were allowed to submit 3 cookies recipes of this type.

My family loves cake mix cookies so I knew that this would be any easy choice for me. What I didn't realize until I started searching for new ideas was there there are hundreds of recipes out there for cake mix cookies and not just your ordinary round cookie either...there's bars, biscotti, squares, balls...so many to choose from.

The great thing about cake mix cookies is that you can clean out the leftover bits of this and that from your cupboards by dumping the stuff into your cookie recipe. Sounds like some sort of mad scientist experiment, huh?

I had several boxes of chocolate cake mix in my cupboard so it was a no brainer that my recipe was going to be a chocolate cookie. In the back of the cupboard, I found a bag with about a cup of chocolate chunks and on the same shelf, there was an almost empty jar of peanut butter. Who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter mixed together?

I started with a basic cake mix cookie recipe...one with water, oil, and eggs but then I made a few adjustments to the recipe. The results were delicious! You could taste just a slight hint of peanut butter through all of the chocolate. My husband is not a peanut butter cookie fan so this was just enough for him. The gooey chocolate chunks were awesome and added to the fun of eating these cookies while they were still warm.

Chunky Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Mix Cookies

1 (18.25 oz) devils food cake mix
1/3 c. water
1 egg
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350*

Using a large bowl and a wooden spoon, mix together cake mix, water, egg and peanut butter until all ingredients are combined. Stir in chocolate chunks. (I used my hands to mix the chips into the cookie dough.)

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls. Place the cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet in 4 rows of 3 cookies, leaving plenty of room for the cookies to spread out. Using a fork, flatten the cookies in a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 10 -12 minutes. The cookies will still be slightly soft in the middle. Watch carefully and do not overbake.

Cool the cookies on the pan for 1-2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

These cookies will freeze well, too.

Want to bake with us in the Cookie Carnival? Here's what you need to know!

Secret Recipe Club: Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Rolls

This might not be a million dollar photo of pizza rolls but I wanted to show you what it looks like to accomplish a project that I have had a fear of trying for a long time - making homemade dough for breads and pizzas. I did it. Here they are in the raw without any pretty plates or fancy tablescapes.

Delicious! (and I made the dough!)

I was very fortunate to receive Babara Bakes for my SRC blog this month. Barbara has a beautiful blog. The pictures jump right out at you, almost demanding you to try each and every recipe. Her step-by-step instructions are easy to follow - which made my challenge of trying something new so much easier. I can handle the bread machine method, but I'm overcome with panic at the thought of trying to make homemade bread by hand. When I found Barbara's recipe for Whole Wheat Pizza Dough & Homemade Pizza Sauce, I bookmarked it and hid it for a few days before making it my final choice. I read through the instructions again and again, making sure I had everything that I needed to make this dough turn out right. The day came to make the pizza dough.... I followed her instructions step by step. Guess what? It wasn't that hard after all. The dough was easy to work with and baked tasted great.

I decided to make pizza rolls from this recipe instead of regular pizza. I added ground sausage, pepperoni, peppers & onion to her homemade pizza sauce. The sauce was fantastic. My whole family overwhelmingly loved the pizza rolls. This recipe is definitely a keeper! These will go over big for Sunday football games and school lunches!

Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Rolls
adapted from tamiskitchentabletalk: pizza roll ups

1 recipe for whole wheat pizza dough (below)
1 recipe for homemade pizza sauce (below)
3 c. shredded mixed mozzarella and cheddar cheese -
divided into (2) 1 1/2 c. servings
1 cup finely chopped turkey pepperoni - divided into (2) 1/2 c. servings

**Any changes that I've made to the original recipes below from Barbara Bakes, will appear in bold lettering.**

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
from Barbara Bakes

1 cup warm water (between 95º and 115º)
2 Tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 US package) instant yeast
2 teaspoons vital wheat gluten
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk together the honey, warm water, and oil in a small bowl. The water should be about 95 to 115°. It should feel very warm, but not hot.

Mix 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, yeast, wheat gluten, and salt in mixing bowl, using the paddle attachment, mix on low for about 30 seconds.

With the motor running on low, pour in the liquids. Continue mixing until a shaggy dough begins to form. Clean off paddle and switch to dough hook. Mix in the remaining cup of bread flour a little at a time, to make a moderately stiff dough. Adding more or less flour as needed.

Knead for eight minutes. The dough should completely clear the sides. If it is too sticky, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing in thoroughly before determining if more flour is needed. If the dough seems too dry, spritz with water from a spray bottle a couple of times, mixing in thoroughly before determining if more water is needed. You’ll find the dough wraps itself around the hook, so every 2 minutes, stop the machine, scrape the dough off the hook, and then continue kneading.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times by hand to be sure it’s tight and elastic. Form the dough into a tight ball.

Wash and dry your mixing bowl then mist it with oil. Place the dough, seam-side down, in the bowl and lightly mist top of dough with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size — 45 minutes to an hour.

Heat the oven to 375*. 

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into two equal portions. Set one aside and cover with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

Lightly flour the table. Using a rolling pin, roll the other portion of dough into a large, thin rectangle. Cover the entire area with sauce (recipe below), leaving a 1/4 in. border all the way around the edges. 

Top with 1/2 c. of turkey pepperoni and sprinkle on 1 1/2 c. of the cheeses. 

Roll up tightly, jelly roll style, starting with one of the short ends. Slice into 12 equal portions.

Lightly spray non-stick cooking spray on a baking sheet. Lay the 12 pizza rolls onto the baking pan in 4 rows of 3 rolls. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Immediately remove the rolls from the baking sheet once they have finished baking to prevent them from sticking to the sheet. 

Repeat with the remaining dough and leftover ingredients

Leftovers can be frozen.

Homemade Pizza Sauce
adapted from Barbara Bakes 

1/2 c. onion, diced very small
1/2 c. green pepper, diced very small
1 c. cooked, crumbled Italian sausage
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 (28 ounce) can crused tomatoes in rich puree
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

In a small saucepan, sauté onion and green pepper until tender. Add garlic and continue cooking until the garlic is tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until sauce reaches desired thickness. Sauce may be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

August '11 Cookie Carnival Round Up!

 
Welcome to our Cookie Carnival Round Up for August!


The cookie choices for this month were:

Spiced Hermits & Sweet Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

Here's what our Cookie Carnival bakers had to say:

Jackie @ foodwanderlust said " Decadent sandwiches of savory and sweet."

Christine @ Whimsical Bakery loves Anna Olsen's website and her cookies.

Katrina @ Baking and Boys! baked the peanut butter cookies but switched things up a bit when it came to the filling.

Stephanie @ Confessions of a City Eater said "You can't even taste the rum in the filling and once you eat the whole cookie sandwich, all you taste is the deliciousness of that banana-peanut butter combination."

Donna, one of our Cookie Carnival email bakers said "I made the hermit cookies today and loved them! They reminded me of the old Archway cookies I had in my lunch as a child.

Take a few minutes to check out all of their scrumptious cookies!

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I threw a twist into the recipes this month!
To find out what I did, sign up to bake with us!