Cheese puffs

And then there is the reason for me sitting here and trying my hand at blogging... I am an addict of My Easy Cooking and I tried her Cheese Puffs for breakfast one Sunday morning. I can proudly say that I used fresh herbs from my own garden....and these are really the easiest to make. No nned to be the price winning baker in church. Needless to say, it was a hit with the family.

Go get the recipe here

Cinnamon Buns/Circle Buns

I have been meaning to post this ages ago. Please forgive me, but I will still get into the posting more often idea. I suppose now that I am an avid blog follower, I am almost to scared to post anything, because of the standards I am used to see. But then again, how will I ever become a good blogger if I don't try...?

Now here is a thing about me.... I LUV cinnamon buns and when I found a recipe in one of my books, Too Fresh to Flop, by Helie Pienaar.I adjusted it a wee bit to what I thought it should taste like. I have made it 3 times already in the last 3 months. My youngest, Cameron, calls it circle buns.
Ingredients:
750ml cake flour
7ml salt
60ml sugar
10 instant yeast
200ml warm milk
200ml warm water
45 ml cooking oil

Sift flour and salt, add sugar and mix again. Add yeast.

Add milk, water and oil to dry ingredients to form a soft dough. At this stage I found that the dough is too soft and I add more sifted flour - at least another halve a cup. Next time I will reduce the liquid by about a alve a cup and see how that works. Now back to the recipe....

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6-8 mints until smooth and elastic. This part is also very good for flabby arms. Makes you feel a bit less guilty when you can't stop yourself later from having a second bun.

Place in a greased/oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for about 15-20mins or until doubled in size.

Knock down, turn out onto lightly floured surface again and roll out into rectanglular shape of about 35cm x 27cm.

Filling:


60g butter


60ml sugar


15ml ground cinnamon


And this is where I replace the 60ml coarsely chopped pecan nuts with raisins and as you can see I only add the raisins to halve of the mixture, because halve of my family don't like no raisins...

Melt the butter and use halve of it to spread over the open surface. Compbine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkel over rolled out surface and then add either the nuts or the raisins or try both.

Roll up as for a swiss roll and cut into 12 to 15 slices:
Use remaing butter to brush on top and sides, place on a greased baking tray. Cover and leave to rise once again for about 15mins.

Then bake in a preheated oven of 200°C for 15 to 20mins or until brown.




After baking these and having the buns cooled down a bit, I use a bit of glacing - icing sugar mixed with warm water to drizzle over for a extra bit of sweetness.

And then you can sit back and enjoy and fight off the kids.