Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

It's fall in New England, and pumpkins are all over the place, so I was inspired to make something pumpkin-y. And since I love cinnamon rolls so much, I decided to make a nice batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

And, since I am not much of a baker, I searched the Internet for recipes, and this is what I came up with:

The Dough:
¼ ounce package yeast
½ cup warm water
½ cup scalded milk
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground clove
1 egg
4 – 5 cups all-purpose flour

The Filling:
½ cup softened butter, plus more for pan
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for pan
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

The Frosting:
4 ounces of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt

For the dough:
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water and set aside.

      

In your stand mixer bowl, combine milk, sugar, melted butter, pumpkin puree, spices, salt, and egg with a spoon.

      

      

      

      

Attach the bowl to the mixer with the dough hook attached. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Then add the yeast mixture.

      

      

Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead with dough hook for about 5 minutes (or by hand on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes.) 

Place in well-greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

      

      

When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. (note: I rolled mine too big, which I do not recommend.)

      

      

      

      

Next, spread the softened butter all over the dough.
In a small bowl, mix together the sugars, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Then sprinkle over buttered dough.

      

      

      

Next, beginning with the shortest side of the dough, tightly roll it up, then pinch the finished edge together to seal it all up. Then cut the roll into 1 1/2 to 2 inch thick slices.

      

      

Coat the bottom of 13 x 9 baking pan with butter then place the cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350*.

      

Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

     

Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, and vanilla until smooth. For a thicker icing, add more powdered sugar. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.

      

Last step: Enjoy!
And enjoy you will, these things were sooooo good!!!!

Oh, and for extra fun I sprinkled even more cinnamon on top.

You're welcome.
:)

bangers and mash

If you don't know what the title of this post is, then I am very sorry for you. Because you should.
But for those of you who don't know what bangers and mash are, I will be nice and explain them to you.
Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a dish consisting of sausages on top of mashed potatoes. This is as far as my description goes. If you want to know more, Google it.

Anyways, back to my post.
I made bangers and mash.

You see, I have been wanting to make my own sausages for some now. But since I was so unfamiliar with this process, I figured I would start with something easy and cheap, like chicken. And I though, chicken sausages with apple, onion and fennel would be so good. So that is what I decided to make.

So Sunday morning I woke up, headed to the market, got what I needed, came home, and let the fun begin!

Step one- prep the casings.
Before you read any further I should warn you... if you do not know what hog casings are, and are uncomfortable seeing or reading about them, you may not want to finish this.
But if you can handle it, then all you need to know is that they came out really good.

Ok, to prep the casings, first I rinsed them in cold water a few times, then soaked them, then ran warm water through them to get them ready for stuffing.

While they were soaking though, I prepped my sausage mixture.
Now, in all my research, all the websites I read had a recurring theme- add plenty of fat, plenty of flavor, and plenty of liquid to your meat. So I did.
Chicken thighs (skinless, but not trimmed of their fat), apple, onion, fennel (root and some greens), chicken broth, and apple juice. I would have used beer, but I didn't have any on hand.
Now, normally I would have run all this through my meat grinder, but I think I had too much for it to handle, so I just pulsed it all in my food processor.

Once it was all nicely combined, I got ready to make the sausages!!!  And I used my new favorite toy for this one!

Ok, here goes... insert the meat mixture into the tray on top of the food grinder attachment, put the casings onto the extruder thing, and get to stuffing! Oh, and here's another warning for you all... this is not a pretty process either. And I don't have a lot of pictures of this step because my hands were dirty and busy, but you get the gist...
Oh, and I twisted them as they came out, but a friend of mine told me that doing it this way is wrong. You should make one long link, then twist it when its done. That will help the links be nice and tight and not full of air. Makes total sense.
Anyways, the stuffing...

When they were done, I laid them on a rack then popped them in the oven to cook and crisp up.

After about a half hour I pulled them out. Then I got started on dinner.

Mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, apples and spinach.
I'm pretty sure we all know by now how to make these things.
For the apples, all I did was cuta couple up, boil them for a couple minutes (you can also pop them in the microwave for like 2-3 mins), then I sauteed them in a pan with some onions and the sausages. And as they browned, I added a little apple juice to the pan.

Once the sausages and apples were browed up real nice, it was time to eat.

YUMMM!!!

See you soon!