Christmas Coffee Cake

Since I can remember my dad would make this Coffee Cake every Christmas Eve for us to enjoy Christmas morning. Since I no longer live close to my parents I now make it for my family. The recipe makes 4 sticks and between my family and my sisters we can easily devour them all.

You can choose to do a simple filling like apple or cheery pie but what I really like is my dad's thick creamy pudding and some raspberry. Take a look at the yumminess!

I only make this at Christmas to keep it a tradition, keep our waistline, and avoid overkilling it for everyone else. (I'm not sure if you could ever eat too much of it but I never want to know.)
But in case you are looking for something unique and VERY YUMMY feel free to try it for yourself!

Candy Cane coffee cake (Mom Hacking Betty Crocker Cook Book)

2 Cups dairy sour cream

2 packages active dry yeast (1 package =2 ¼ tsp)

½ Cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)

¼ cup Softened margarine or butter

1/3 Cup Sugar

2 tsp. Salt

2 eggs

About 6 Cups of Flour

Heat sour Cream over low heat just until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sour cream, ¼ Cup Butter, the sugar, salt eggs, and 2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto well floured surface; knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1 hour.

Heat Oven to 375 degrees. Punch down dough; divide into 3 equal parts. Roll each part into a rectangle, 15x6 inches; place in greased baking sheet. With scissors, make 2 inch cuts at ½ inch intervals on long sides of rectangles.

Fill with desired filling (apple pie filling, pudding and rasp)

Crisscross strips over filling stretch dough to 22 inches.

Bake 15 to 20 Minutes or until golden brown. While warm, brush with butter and drizzle canes with thin icing. Makes 4 sticks.

Rich Vanilla Pudding (I 1 and 1/2 or double the pudding since I like A LOT!)

(Modification by David Hacking)

3/4 Cup sugar

2 Tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1cup milk

1 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs (well beaten)

2 Tablespoon butter (a little more if you want)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Microwave: in quart casserole blend sugar, cornstarch & salt. stir in milk, mixing well. Micro on high 5 to 7 minutes stirring every 3 until thickened.

Stir small amount of hot pudding into eggs then pour eggs into mix stirring well. Micro 1 to 3 minutes until smooth & thick. add butter & vanilla.

Or you can do it on the stove top. Just cook in the order it calls for and keep stirring so it doesn't stick to bottom of pan.

Old Fashioned Overnight Cinnamon rolls

The only Cinnamon rolls I have ever made were special allergy free ones. I have since always wanted to try making some so when I came across the recipe I decided now was the time. What I love about this recipe is you can do the work and the mess at night and have it cleaned up and so in the morning you get a huge reward of a clean kitchen and Yummy Cinnamon rolls! (You can make them in the morning and let them rise all morning-afternoon and cook them in the evening as well.)

I was lucky enough to have the sun rising when they came out of the oven! What a great day it was! (if only blogs had smells!)
This recipe also tells you how to do an orange roll which I will try in the near future! You can make them with cream cheese frosting too!

OLD FASHIONED OVERNIGHT CINNAMON ROLLS Makes 24

Ingredients:	2 1/2 Tbsp yeast 1 c warm water 2 3/4 c flour 1 c non-fat powdered milk powder 1 c instant mashed potato flakes 1 c sugar 2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1/2 c butter, melted 2 1/2 c water 5 - 7 1/2 c flour Cinnamon Filling: 3 Tbsp melted butter 1/4 c. brown sugar 1/4 c white sugar 1 Tbsp cinnamon Orange Filling: 1 stick softened butter 3/4 c. white sugar grated rind of one orange Icing: 1 1/2 c powdered sugar 2 Tbsp softened butter 1/4 tsp vanilla 2-4 Tbsp milk
Directions:	Dissolve yeast in 1 c. warm water. Set aside. Combine the next set of ingredients (2 3/4 c flour to the salt). Mix on medium speed for 10 seconds and then add the next set of ingredients (2 eggs to 2 1/2 c water). MIx on medium speed for 10 seconds then add the yeast mixture and 5 - 7 1/2 c. flour. When it is done mixing and kneading (6 minutes of kneading), let it rise until double (about 2 hours). Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll the first into a rectangle 18 x 15 inches. Spread filling of choice evenly over the dough. Roll the dough. Cut into 1 1/4 inch wide slices. Place on pan leaving plenty of room to expand. Repeat with the second portion of dough. The night before you wish to bake the rolls, place on greased pan leaving plenty of room between the rolls for expansion. Cover with cloth. Put pan in cool location to rise over night. IN the morning, bake at 350º for 15 - 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Frost.

Banana (zucchini) Bread

I have been making this egg free-dairy free banana bread for at least the last two years. I came across it when my newborn had severe food intolerance issues that required immediate diet restrictions for me. The restrictions were difficult for the first month or so but once I found resources it wasn't really that bad. This recipe is one that I have continued to make even thought the restrictions are gone.

I will warn you that this is not your cut a slice smear butter on banana bread. I would say it is more like banana cake and butter isn't needed.

I do feel terrible because I cannot remember or find where I found the original recipe. I'm pretty sure it was on a blog that a mom with a food allergy child wrote but I can no longer find it.

You can make this and freeze it for a month or two. It makes for a perfect snack since it is whole wheat, low fat, and has vegetables in it!

I will give the original recipe and write my changes in brackets or italics.

Egg free Dairy free Banana Bread
1/2 C. Shortening (I use 1/2 cup no sugar added applesauce)
3/4 Cup Organic Can Sugar (I use 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, not a mistype I use less than called for.)
1 1/2 C Wheat Flour -can use all purpose or do a mix (I always do all wheat)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (I make this heaping I LOVE cinnamon and on occasion I throw in some nutmeg)
4 small ripe bananas- can substitute 1/4 C. of Sugar for one banana (I generally use 3 large bananas and finely grate one 1/2 of a zucchini or an entire zucchini if it is small, you do not have to put in the zucchini. If you have 3 to 4 large ripe bananas you will be fine.)
1 tsp Vanilla - optional (I always put this in)

Preheat Oven to 325 Degrees F (300 degrees F if doing mini Muffins)
Lightly grease pan (s)
Cream shortening (or applesauce) and sugar. Slowly sift (I have sifted it before but I have skipped this step many times for lack of time and it still turn out) in flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Mash Bananas in a separate bowl (you can have some chunks but try to make them small otherwise you will have this problem):See that hunk of banana in the bottom and a hollow mini muffin? (I love this because those are the ones I get to eat right away wink wink.)
Add bananas into the mixture and add vanilla. (do not over mix just until everything is moist)
You can add nuts, choc chips, raisins or other dried fruit (I have never added any of these things.)
Pour batter into greased pan(s) or spoon it into muffin tins. Bake 60 minutes for a large loaf, 30 to 40 minutes for mini loaf, and 25 min for mini muffins (remember these are only at 300 degrees). Until a toothpick comes out clean.

And you are done!

You can enjoy these hot just watch out for the scorching banana chunks if you are too eager beaver. Or you can enjoy them cold if it is just too hot to want to eat anything warm.

Blackberry Upside Down Cake

We had the pleasure of having my amazing brother and sister-in-law visit us. The Black Berries are in full swing here and since the two of them have just relocated far away from some of their very good friends I decided to make them a treat. (Well I actually made my SIL help me so I wouldn't ruin it like my luck sometimes does.)
I found this recipe for Blackberry Upside Down cake on their friends Website (Blue Jean Gourmet) and decided that I could probably make it.
Don't be shy it ended up being really easy (even when I tried to make things harder than need be hahaha!) And the guests of honor gave it their smile of approval. (Or maybe they just didn't want to lose their place to sleep at night!)
I think it was perfect combination of berries and cake! The cake stayed moister than other homemade cakes I have tried I'm guessing do to the berries. I highly recommend you try it out!
Oh and we decided if we were going to make a delicious cake we may as well make TWO!
Forgive my miserable pictures I always forget to take any until it is late at night.

Bacon in almost everything....

Ok I just saw that Denny's is now sporting a Maple Bacon Sundae is this wrong?
Bacon in Chocolate and now on ice cream? I'm not judging. I'm big into never judging a food unless you tried it NO MATTER what. And to be honest as long as there are no chewy fat pieces I could kind of see how it might work but really?

Tell me do you want to or have you tried this? I would love to hear!

And if you are like me and are curious on what this baby runs in the nutrition department here you go:

Serving Size - 12 oz
Calories - 810
Fat - 40
Trans Fat - 0
Saturated Fat - 21

Cholesterol - 150
Sodium - 460
Carbohydrates - 97
Fiber - 0
Protein - 16
Sugar - 85

Hey No trans fat at least hahaha!