Thursday, December 17, 2009

GET R DONE FRIDAY - Warm your BUNS!

Welcome to the GET R DONE FRIDAY party - Everyone is welcome to join in at the end of each week to post about what YOU have gotten accomplished - craft projects, decorating, barn raisings, bread baking - you name it, we'd love to hear about it! Go HERE to read the rules, and at the end of my post, sign in on Mr. Linky with a perma-link so we can all click on your name and find your GET R DONE for the week!!!
Today's featured project is Cinnamon Buns! I have been wanting to try making some goodies with yeast...and this week, the Good Lord knows I've tried! I bought Quick Rise yeast. Went through 3 packages, wasted a 5 lb bag of flour and various other ingredients. This was a costly learning experience, let me tell you!

Mr. Wonderful was so comforting. His words? "That's what they make the dough in the little round tubes for! Buy it, pop it open, stick it in the oven, and there you go!" Hmmm. Sounds good, but there's something about making them yourself....the pop and bake kind are okay, but not really the same when you want that true home baked goodness. And so, after my many failures, I consulted: THE PROFESSIONAL!
Mom has always loved to bake tasty breads and rolls. I have fond memories of my brother and I cutting a hole in the bottom of her freshly baked bread and scooping out the soft yummy centers! We'd replace the bread on the cooling rack, and when dad would go to cut himself a slice, BOOM! All that was there was the CRUST!!! We had succeeded in hollowing out the bread and getting all the tastiness for ourselves!!! Yep - we were little scamps!!! (and made a great team!)

My dough never did rise, despite my following the recipe to a T. It was a hard heavy ball and never budged an inch upwards, until I put it in the garbage...and the next morning, it smelled yeasty and had raised up about 1 centimeter. SO - she read the recipe. And we talked. Seems that the recipe called for 4 cups of flour. I added it all at once, like you might do with making a box cake mix. CINNAMON BUN FAIL!!!

We started from the beginning, testing the liquid with our wrist, pouring in the yeast packet, and following the rest of the recipe, adding 1 1/2 cups of flour to get a dough ball, and then adding scant amounts as the dough was kneaded. We did NOT use the entire amount of flour called for!
And just look at the result!!! Loaded with cinnamon and baked to perfection!!! I took them home, tucked in a few cranberries, frosted with cream cheese frosting, and Mr. Wonderful was amazed that it only cost him $50 for 12 cinnamon buns! HE was "frosted"!!! Imagine THAT! But, NEXT time, the cost will be much much less - guaranteed!Now its time for your stories - link into my party with Mr. Linky below! I'll look forward to hearing about your projects and life experiences!

7 comments:

Chatty Crone said...

Well I know for a fact you tried and tried to make those rolls. You stayed with it and they look to die for. All it takes is one tiny little thing amiss when it comes to yeast rolls. And your mentor looks like a sweetie. I am glad you have her!

Love,
Sandie

Troy @ I Refuse to Recede said...

My mom makes the worlds best cinnamon rolls. She started teaching me when I was twelve years old, now roughly twenty years later, (ok, 33 years to be precise)I can make cinnamon rolls, but they are never as good as hers.

Yours look pretty good too! I never thought of using cranberries, I'll have to try that next time.

My Git R Done project was supposed to be a one weekend project way back when I started it. It took me about 3 weeks, but I finally "Got R Done". I posted all my details, thanks for your patience.

Troy

Marjorie (Molly) Smith said...

Hummm, those look so good, I also have trouble making Cinnamon rolls, can make sour dough bread, no problems, but not cinnamon rolls...
Go figure..
Molly

Barbara Jean said...

Thanks for hosting Monica.

Have a great Friday!!

blessings

barbara jean

Angela said...

Hey Monica!

I've never tried to make cinnamon rolls before. I've always done what Mr. Wonderful suggested with the ones in the can! lol Yours look really good! Makes me want one. I buy my yeast in bulk at Sams. I put it in a container and keep it in the refrigerator. It keeps a long time!

Get R Done Friday!
Angela

Jayme Goffin, The Coop Keeper said...

What a fun post!!! I love that picture of your mom!

I answered you in my comments on the blog, but don't know if you had a chance to check back, about the coffee beans. I posted a post about roasting coffee beans a week or so ago, if you go to my blog, and click on 'in the kitchen with the coop keeper' under my labels, you should find it.

Merry Christmas!

Debba said...

Oh boy do those cinnamon buns look wonderful and yummy! I'm afraid I'd probably never try and make them myself. Me and yeast don't get along. Just ask the Breadman I nearly destroyed one year. It's a sad thing, really. But kudos to you for doing it the old-fashioned way. You should be proud!