Category: Sweet Rolls and Coffee Cakes

Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under Breakfasts, Sweet rolls and Coffee cakes

An easy yummy-sounding recipe showed up in my email Inbox on Tuesday. It was from my cousin-in-law, Sharon. Is cousin-in-law a proper term? I don’t know, it sounds strange. Anyway, she’s married to my cousin. Not like you need to know that or anything. Thanks for the recipe, Sharon. They were easy and fast and delicious. And I had fun playing around with them too… bonus pictures at the end.

It only takes 4 ingredients. I like recipes like that because there’s more of a chance that I’ll have everything on hand! Although, yesterday, I wanted to make potato salad (way more than 4 ingredients) and I had everything except milk! Really, who runs out of milk?! I did have chocolate milk, but I didn’t think that would work too good. Anyway, that has gotta be one of my biggest cooking pet peeves… going to make something and not having all the stuff. That’s why I need to live nextdoor to the grocery store.

So, here’s our easy 4-ingredient recipe.

Cherry Cheese Danish

1 tube (8 oz) refrigerated crescent rolls
4 Tbsp. cream cheese, softened
1 cup cherry pie filling (or your choice) I used strawberry.
1/2 cup vanilla frosting

Separate crescent dough into four rectangles. Place on an ungreased baking sheet; seal perforations.

Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese onto each rectangle.

Top each with 1/4 c. pie filling.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes. Place frosting in a microwave-safe bowl; heat on high for 15-20 seconds. Drizzle over warm pastries. I didn’t have frosting, so I mixed 2 Tbsp butter, about 2 Tbsp. milk, about 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, and a bit of vanilla. That made about exactly 1/2 cup!

Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers (if there are any ). Yield: 4 servings.
I think I should’ve let them cool a bit more before glazing. It all ran together and you can’t see the striping anymore.

Here’s a note that Sharon wrote at the end: I don’t usually have vanilla frosting on hand, so I make my own powdered sugar glaze. I add almond extract for cherry pie filling, a little cinnamon for apple, lemon for blueberry, nutmeg for peach, etc. Don’t you just love that sentence? She’s such a good creative cook! Wish I’d think of stuff like that! They’re quick and perfect for a special Sunday morning breakfast, or for company, or for just anyhow with coffee. And they’re even good made light, which I usually do (reduced fat crescent rolls and cream cheese).

Bonus:
I decided to play with them a bit…

We have a regular flat one, a pinwheel, a turnover, and a spiral. The spiral turned out to have way too much filling in it and made a mess when I rolled it up (like a little jelly roll). The turnover and spiral should’ve been baked a few minutes longer.

The pinwheel was my favorite (not for taste… they all tasted the same). It was easy to do and looked a bit fancier. Next time, I think I could make them neater, too. It was Tiffany’s favorite too. She said, “I want dat one” about 10 times while I was taking the pictures and her little pointer finger kept coming into view in my camera window whenever she’d say it.

These pastries are so good! Perfect with a cup of coffee! I just made them for the girls and I, and since the girls eat about as much as a chickadee does, there was actually some left over. The next morning, I ate another one and instead of warming it up, I ate it refrigerator cold and it was really good that way too!

Try them! Try them! Try them!

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Posted on February 21, 2008
Filed Under Breakfasts, Sweet rolls and Coffee cakes

I have started making breakfasts on Saturday mornings! I know, most of you probably already do that, plus do it Monday mornings and Tues mornings and Wed mornings…   Anyway, I do try to steer clear of recipes that require me to get up early though! Here’s one we had recently on a Saturday morning…

Peach Coffee Cake… which actually ended up being Apple Coffee Cake. Recipe taken from the 2006 Quick Cooking Annual Cookbook

1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 can (21 oz) peach pie filling (I used homemade apple pie filling that Mom gave me, or was it Grandma? I am blessed!)

ICING:
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
3 to 4 tsp. milk

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder; add to the creamed mixture and beat until just combined. Spread 3 3/4 cups of batter into a greased 15″ x 10″ x 1″ baking pan. (I didn’t measure out 3 3/4 cups!)

Carefully spoon the pie filling to within 1″ of edges.

Spoon remaining batter over filling.
Ok, THIS is harder than it looks! At times like this, I’m glad I’m not a perfectionist. At this point in the recipe, I had decided I might not feature this after all. Thankfully, it came out of the oven looking much better with the ‘islands’ more connected and not so choppy and oddly shaped!)
Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 min or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if edges brown too quickly).

Cool on a wire rack. In a small bowl, combine the icing ingredients. Drizzle over coffee cake. Yield: 16 – 20 servings.

 Mmmmmmm! Just delicious! I came back to them later for a late-morning snack and I thought it actually tasted even better at room temp than when it was warm from the oven… just my opinion. I’ll bet this would be good with about any fruit. I do want to try it with peach sometime… I didn’t have any peach filling on hand when I went to make these.

Thanks to those of you who tried the biscuits and then mentioned it. It’s always fun to hear feedback from you if you try recipes on here! Also, a big thanks to heidirhodes for taking time to post your recipe! I’m planning to try that one next time I make them.

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I always run across scone recipes in my cookbooks and wanted to try them sometime, but didn’t know how or when to serve them. The recipes didn’t give any tips except ‘serve warm’. I guess you’re just supposed to automatically know!   Anyway, after a little research and asking questions, I got a few tips. So here’s the ones I made, although in my research I found out that chocolate chip scones are too American. I want to try some that are more authentic sometime. They’re kinda like fancy biscuits.

Chocolate Chip Scones   …recipe from an Easy to Bake, Easy to Make recipe card.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a baking sheet. Combine flour, sugar, b. powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form. Stir in cream until a dough forms. Stir in chocolate chips.  Knead dough gently on lightly floured surface 8-10 times. Pat dough into an 8″ round, about 1/2″ thick.

Cut round into 8 wedges with a sharp knife. Place on prepared baking sheet. I put the chunk of dough on the baking sheet, THEN shaped it into an 8″ round.
  At the bottom of the card it said “Helpful Hints: If you prefer soft scones, arrange the wedges on the baking sheet so they are touching each other. For scones with crispy edges, place the wedges about 1 1/2″ apart on the baking sheet.” I thought soft would be better, Shannon thought crispy would be better. So, that’s why they’re arranged like they are, that way we’d have some of each.

Bake scones until golden brown, 20-25 min.

Serve warm. Tips I got were to split them apart and spread butter and/or jam in them and to put whipped cream on top. I did the butter and whipped cream… didn’t know if jam would go with choc chips.
  I know, I should have a cup of tea sitting beside the plate. These were really good! Easy to make too. Another note on the recipe card was “For biscuitlike scones, do not knead dough. Drop dough into 8 mounds on prepared baking sheet. Bake about 20 minutes.” So, I guess they’re not necessarily all wedges. 

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Note: On the post before, I forgot to say where the recipes came from. The Broccoli Casserole and the Pudding Pumpkin Pie both came out of the 2006 Quick Cooking annual cookbook.

Ham/sausage/bacon & egg & cheese muffins
Raspberry Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
Fruit and dip

We had a brunch for Lexi’s 4th birthday party, then she opened her gifts and we had the cake and ice cream closer to noon then. I tried a new recipe for the brunch. It was a hit!!! I was replenishing the fruit tray and the eggs and was going to eat after everyone else was done… until… people started coming out for seconds and saying “these rolls are awesome” type of comments. So, I got a plate and got a roll before they got all. They were soooo good! My mom copied the recipe down and my mom-in-law confirmed that I would put it on this site and said she’d get it then. So, this is something I will DEFINITELY make again and it wasn’t just the taste I liked… they were so easy to make too. By the way, if you remember back around Thanksgiving, I was planning to make these T-giving morning, well, it didn’t happen then, so here they are finally!

The recipe comes from my friend Shannon.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

1 Tablespoon yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix.
Then add

7 to 8 cups donut mix

Mix dough and let rise till doubled. Reserve 1/4 of dough. Roll out the 3/4 and spread with melted butter (I used a little over a half stick) and brown sugar ( I had it maybe about an 1/8″ deep) and cinnamon. Roll it up, cut into 12 pieces, and lay in a 9×13 pan.
  Tips for cutting rolls: I use a string… slide it under the rolls, bring the ends up over, cross them and pull, and it makes a nice cut without smashing… ok, maybe everyone cuts rolls like that… I learned it from my mom. Also, to get them an even 12 pieces, cut in the middle first, then each section in half, then thirds from there (if you count my pieces, there are 14 because I cut the ends off first).

Swirl raspberry filling and cream cheese filling on top of rolls.  I piped it on, then tried to swirl them together with a knife, but as you can see, it didn’t get too good. I stopped after doing 3 and just left them like that.

Edit: If you don’t have access to the cream cheese filling, try this:
8 oz softened cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Beat till smooth. Put it in a plastic storage bag (or a decorating bag), cut the corner off, and pipe it onto the rolls.

Roll out the rest of the dough. Spread with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and cut into small pieces. Lay on top of filling. Let rise about an hour.

Bake 25-30 min at 350. Drizzle with glaze (1 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 2 Tablespoons milk).
  They sorta billowed out of the pan… maybe because I used the 2 ends after all. I drizzled the glaze on right away and it kind of melted and pooled. Next time, I’ll let them cool for a few minutes first. Madisonsmom2, I don’t know if this looks like yours did. ????? 

Edited January 2012 to add: I often put about 3 rolls in a different small pan so the 9×13 doesn’t billow over. Also, I often make them the evening before, put them in the fridge overnight (unbaked), pull them out of the fridge and put em in the oven, then turn the oven on. I don’t preheat the oven if I’m pulling them out of the fridge because I’m afraid the cold pan would crack on the hot oven rack.

Anyway, they were just scrumptious and another great thing about them is that the dough was not at all sticky! I didn’t get my hands or the rolling pin messy. I could just roll on top of it without it sticking to the rolling pin or the counter!!!

Here is the rest of our meal…
  Ham is in the closest crockpot, eggs are in the farthest crockpot… we just used those to keep them warm. I should’ve made a sandwich and taken a picture of it… didn’t think of it.

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