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Food Recipes
Cinnamon rolls
Ingredients for roll mass:
- 1-1/2 packages (about 3-1/4 teaspoons) dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (about 37 degrees Celsius)
- 1/2 cup melted butter (don't let it boil)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 4 to 5 cups sifted flour
Ingredients for roll's filling:
- melted butter
- brown sugar
- cinnamon
- raisins (optional)
Ingredients for Vanilla Frosting:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- milk or cream (2 to 4 tablespoons)
Protocol:
- Add the warm water to the yeast and soak 10 minutes, slowly mixing it with a fork.
- In a bowl, mix yeasty water and milk. Then add the sugar and salt, and the beaten egg.
- Add 1 cup of flour and mix very well with a fork.
- Add the melted butter and mix well.
- Add the remaining cups of flour adding one at a time, beating well after each addition. By the third or fourth cup, dough is dry enough and fluffy, to be mixed by hand.
- Let dough sit for 1 hour in a warm place.
- Work the dough into a ball, removing excess bubbles.
- Sprinkle flour on a large wooden surface and flatten the dough as thinly as possible, into roughly a rectangular shape. Use a flour-sprinkled wooden roll (or a wine bottle!) to roll it out thin.
- Melt about 12 to 16 tablespoons of butter at the microwave in a cup (slice it small first, and carefully don't let it boil), and mix it well with 500 g of brown sugar.
- Spread the sugar and butter mix over the thinly spread layer of dough with the help of a spoon and lots of patience. Sprinkle cinnamon, as much as you want, and add raisins (optional).
- Roll the dough from the longer side and seal it with the hands, so it becomes a cylinder.
- With a large blade knife, cut small rolls, of about an inch thick, and place them into lightly buttered non-heated oven trays. Make sure the rolls nearly but not quite touch each other, so they have room to grow more.
- Let the rolls sit in a warm place 1 h. At the last 15 min, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Bake the rolls for 15 to 20 minutes. DO NOT overcook the rolls a single minute. They are done when they look a bit brown on the surface. If they get brown before 12 to 15 minutes have passed, next time use an aluminum foil on top.
- Let the rolls sit for at least 10 minutes (if you can wait!) or you'll burn yourself with the sugar.
For the Frosting (for enhanced decadence):
- Place sugar, butter and vanilla in a bowl, and then stir in enough milk or cream to reach a thick, hardly-able to stir consistency.
- Spread the frosting over warm rolls as soon as they are placed on a plate to let the frosting melt and run into the rolls.
Thanks to Kevin & Claire and Arnim for sharing their wonderful kitchen. It's a pleasure to cook with and for you!
Pancakes for 2 people
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda (up to 3.5 if desired)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of white sugar
- 1.75 cups of milk
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons of melted butter
- A bit more butter for cooking
Protocol:
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl, using a fork.
- Warm up a non-sticky pan or pans to about medium fire.
- For each pancake to make, put a tiny (tiny!) bit of butter on the pan, and then a large scoop of mix. Gently move the pan in a circular motion to spread the mass. It should make a flat disc that doesn't reach the walls of the pan. Cook until the mass has bubbled a bit and can be lifted with a spatula or fork (the underneath is solid), then flip and cook the other side -warning: the other side will cook faster. Cooking time is about a minute for each pancake.
The tiny bit of butter will prevent the pancake from sticking to the pan, and also give a nice brownish coloration.
Keep the pancakes under a bowl to preserve temperature until eating.
Serve with butter, marmalade, honey, maple syrup and/or chocolate on the side.
Improvised Chocolate Brioche
Ingredients:
- 1 dose of yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 cups of milk
- 3 tablespoons of white sugar
- 5 cups of flour
- 3 tablespoons of melted butter
- 1 bar of fine dark chocolate
- Some more butter
Protocol:
- Warm up the milk to about 37 degrees, and dissolve the yeast in it.
- Beat the 2 eggs in a bowl.
- Pour both the milk and the eggs into a big bowl, mix with a fork, and then add a single cup of flour. Mix well.
- Add the three melted tablespoons of butter (melt them by warming them up in the microwave, carefully not letting it boil), and add the 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix well.
- Add one cup of flour at a time, mixing very well before adding the next. Do the mixing with a fork, for the mass is initially very wet.
- Let the mass sit in a warm place for 40 to 60 minutes.
- Mix the mass again, this time with the hands, removing excess bubbles. Whiten your hands with flour first to prevent the mass from sticking to your fingers and palm.
- Take a non-heated oven tray, preferably glass, and paint it all with a chunk of butter.
- Spread a bit of flour on a flat surface, such as a wooden table. Take a handful of mass, make a ball with it and flatten it out a bit into an ellipse. Put a small chunk of butter (like half a teaspoon) on it, and some pieces of broken black chocolate. Roll the ellipse to make an elongated shape, which you must seal by pressing the long sides together strongly and smartly, creating a crest, so that it does not have any holes from which butter or chocolate may scape once melted. These are your brioche.
- Put the brioche on the buttered tray, careful to leave a bit of space between them. They will grow to touch each other, leaving nice, moistly sides once baked.
- Let the unbaked brioche sit in a warm place (a bit over room temperature) for 30 to 60 minutes.
- Spread a bit of sugar powder on top. Help yourself with a spoon and the fingers.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 380 degrees in a pre-heated oven.
Last updated: 2008-05-16 19:46 Los Angeles time. Copyright Albert Cardona 2007,2008.