Cookie Dough Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls

If I'm being honest, I'm on the Internet way too much. However, I don't watch much television these days and I do discover some really interesting finds. So that makes it totally okay. -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I don't even know what I was Googling when I came across the site of a vegan bakeshop in Berkley, California specializing in gourmet cinnamon rolls called Cinnaholic. While I've never personally tasted Cinnaholic's creations their shop concept of customized cinnamon rolls is genius. Customers can choose both the topping and frosting for the cinnamon roll from a variety of flavor combinations. They also offer specialty cinnamon rolls; one of them being a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cinnamon Roll. How great does that sound? AMAZING!

While I admire their vegan mission and use of quality ingredients, I was in a dilemma. I live in Ohio, they are in California so visiting the shop wasn't an option and my wallet was empty so ordering them online wasn't a possibility either.  Not to mention I needed these in my belly pronto therefore whipping up a batch from scratch was out of the question . Solution you ask? Why, send Charlie to the store for a can of Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Dough and a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. The results were just as good as I imagined, but probably not as fabulous or as animal friendly as the original.

Ingredients
Refrigerated Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll Dough with Icing
Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough -- you'll have extra so be prepared to have cookies sometime in the near future.

Directions

• Separate the dough according to package instructions.
• Using the swirly indentation in the dough as a guide; gently tear the dough into a strip and flatten with the cinnamon side as the edge.
• Place approximately 1 Tablespoon of cookie dough on each strip of cinnamon roll dough. I put in on in little balls, but you could probably spread it on too.
• Carefully re-roll the dough and place the roll, cinnamon side up, on a lightly sprayed baking sheet.  If you're using paper dessert cups like I did, put the roll in the cup then place on a baking sheet.  
• Bake in a 375 degree oven for 17 to 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven and sparingly use the enclosed frosting. Using too much of the frosting will mask the chocolate chip cookie taste. 
• For best results serve warm.

 

 

Serves

8

A Broken Oven Tip
These turned out so well I may try some different fillings, using different types of cookie dough such as peanut butter, chocolate or chocolate chip with nuts!

Dear Cinnaholic, If by chance you come across this post first let me give you a special Broken Oven shout out "Hi Cinnaholic!".  Secondly, I apologize for bastardizing your creation, but I was inspired and it just sounded too good not to give it a try. I promise if I end up in San Francisco this Summer for vacation, which is a real possibility, I promise to visit your shop and try one....or five for myself.  I also encourage all my 30 regular readers if they are in the area to do the same.

Stone Fruit Compote with Sweetened Ricotta

Both my sister and sister-in-law make fabulous jams and jellies --"Hi Annette and Kristin." I've forever been envious of this little talent of theirs, so I decided to try a batch of my own and failed miserably. Too sweet, too runny, too seedy -- the list goes on and on. But what I did learn from my experiment is I'm one heck of a fruit cooker. The compote part of this concoction is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, while the sweetened ricotta stems from my love of all things cheese and sugar. This is absolutely delicious and can be served for a variety of courses whether it's an appetizer at a brunch, dessert for a luncheon or a special breakfast treat, this recipe is sure to woo and impress your table guests. 

Ingredients

Compote

3 cups of stone fruit such as peaches, nectarines, cherries or plums

Pinch of coarse salt

1 wide strip of lemon zest

1 cinnamon stick

3 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of water

Sweetened Ricotta

2 cups ricotta cheese

2 teaspoons of sugar

Directions

• Cut fruit into bite sized chunks removing all the pits.  It's fine to leave the skins on the fruit.
• Place fruit cinnamon stick and lemon peel in a small sauce pan and add honey, water and salt.
• Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until soft approximately 10 to15 minutes
• Transfer to a storage container and let cool.
• Store compote in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
• To make the sweetened ricotta mix sugar with cheese and stir.
• Spread ricotta on toasted crusty bread and top with compote.

Servings

Makes approximately 2 cups of compote and 2 cups of sweetened ricotta

2 cups of sweetened ricotta

A Broken Oven Tip

Other suggestions are to serve over waffles, French toast or pancakes.  Ice cream would be pretty awesome too!

German Potato Pancakes

Last summer, the girls and I attended the incredibly awesome Duck Tape Festival.  It was a great day spending time with my daughters, seeing all the Duck Tape creations, playing games, visiting the vendor booths and of course eating fair food! While I would normally choose to have a Gyro with my funnel cake and sugary lemonade, I instead opted for the potato pancakes one food truck was offering.  I hadn't eaten a good potato pancake in years. Most have been either pan fried mashed potatoes or tasted more like a hash brown patty, but this one tasted just like the potato pancakes my grandma used to make.  Lila tasted the pancake at the fair too and like it a LOT. Last week while we were planning dinners, and thinking about warmer summer days, Lila requested the potato pancakes like the ones we ate at the festival. I did some Googling, combined a few recipes and techniques, and came up with, what I believe is an amazing German potato pancake. Like many of my recipes these are super easy to make and just happen to be extremely easy on the wallet too.

Ingredients

4-5 medium russet potatoes, washed and unpeeled
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
1 egg
2 tablespoons of flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for cooking

Condiments

Applesauce
Sour cream

Directions

• Wash and cut the potatoes into cubes and place in a blender, along with the diced onion, flour, egg and salt and pepper to taste.
• Pulsate the potato mixture until it is the consistency of cooked oatmeal, checking frequently to scrape down the sides.  Be sure not to create a "potato smoothie" or your pancakes will be thin and grainy. If the mixture is too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.
• Pour oil into skillet and heat.  Drop a 1/4 cup of the potato mixture into the skillet and flatten slightly with a spatula and cook until the bottom is brown, then flip to cook the other side.
• Serve with a side of sour cream and apple sauce -- or if your kids are like mine, you can serve them with ketchup.

Servings 
12 - 14 pancakes

A Broken Oven Tip
In addition to the sour cream, another serving option is to top the potato pancake with bacon, cheddar cheese and green onions for a deluxe baked potato kind of feel. 

Lila eating her potato pancakes at the festival.

Nut Free Granola

Granola is one of my daughter Lila's favorite snacks. However, she has a peanut and tree nut allergy, which makes us nervous giving her any store bought granola for fear that a "nut free" variety could have been cross contaminated during processing. She's been asking for granola a lot lately and since I've been looking for new lunch ideas I decided to take a stab at making homemade granola.

This is one of those recipes that when I was finished making it I wondered why I didn't tackle it sooner.  It was extremely simple to make and took no time at all.  Lila totally loves the granola and has packed it in her lunch to eat with fruit and yogurt. She also eats it plain and will nibble on it while doing her homework. The big kids like it too, so I definitely would label this recipe a success!

Ingredients
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups old fashioned oats
4 cups quick oats
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small saucepan combine the brown sugar, canola oil, honey and vanilla to make a light syrup. Bring to a boil, stir and remove from heat.
• In a large bowl mix together the oats, coconut, cinnamon and the warm syrup mixture.
• Stir until oats are well coated and everything is combined.
• Spread onto two 9×13 non-stick pans -- or you can cover them with parchment paper.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, lightly stir the granola with a spatula, turn off your oven -- don't break it up too much because you want to have those nice chunks when it's finished.
• Put the granola back into the oven for 3-4 hrs. The remaining heat in the oven will finish slow cooking the granola to a golden crunchy consistency.
• Remove from oven after 3-4 hours. Let cool and store in an air tight container.

Servings
6 - 8 Cups

A Broken Oven Tip
The recipe is very basic, but you could easily add your favorite dried fruit, seeds, and even nuts if you're not allergic. When mentioned the recipe to my neighbor she suggested adding dried cherries and dark chocolate shavings to the mixture while it's still warm to add a little extra yum to the batch.

Baked French Toast Casserole

Between the two of us, my sister really is the better baker and cook -- "Hi Annette!". I've been inspired for years by her entertaining skills and eagerness to try new recipes. Of course Annette, being Annette the recipes always turn out great and me being me, am always more than willing to eat what she makes.  She's made this Paula Deen French Toast Casserole on several occasions, sans nuts of course, and I finally decided to give it a try this Fall when I had an abundance of stale bread and pecans to get rid of. This is the perfect make ahead dish for breakfast or brunch. Just prepare it the night before, pop it in the oven in the morning, bake and enjoy.

Ingredients

French Toast
1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt

Praline Topping 
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

• Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. 
• Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. 
• In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. 
• Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. 
• Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Prepare Praline Topping and spread evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Servings
6 to 8 servings as a main dish

A Broken Oven Tip
Make this casserole without the praline topping and serve with a strawberry or blueberry fruit topping instead.

Puffy Pancake Popovers

Breakfast for dinner?  We do it at least two or three times a month at our house.  Charlie is the Master of All Things Breakfast, but I am the Princess of Petite Puffy Pancake Popovers. Ha! How do you like that for alliteration? These light and airy delights are easy to make and fun to watch bake. Try different fruit toppings, peanut butter and jelly, caramel sauce or whipped cream. Mmmm delicious.

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
Dash of salt

Directions

• Preheat oven at 400 degrees.
• Coat muffin tin cups with cooking spray -- you can also use a 9 x 13 baking dish or jelly roll pan.
• Using a blender mix together milk, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt until smooth
• Put an 1/8 cup of batter in each muffin cup.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until light golden brown.
• Allow to cool and remove from muffin tin with a butter knife.
• Top with your favorite topping.  We like strawberries with powdered sugar or plain old butter and maple syrup at our house,

Servings
24 popovers or fills a 9×13 baking dish or jelly roll pan.
Note: Remember only 1/8 cup of batter was used in each muffin cup. Twenty-four may seem like a lot, but these are extremely light and airy. My kids and I easily can eat 3 or 4 popovers along with a side dish for a meal.

A Broken Oven Tip
Omit the sugar and cinnamon to make these savory by adding a dash of your favorite herb and top with  roasted vegetables, cheese -- even try adding shredded beef or chicken.

Baked Doughnuts

I'm not going to lie to you dear friends.  These doughnuts are NOT as good as the fried version Charlie makes for the kids every once in a while. However, I do like this recipe because even with the amount of sugar and butter used, this not so deep fried version is still a tad healthier than the original. While I'm being honest here, let's face it, top anything with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, and  kids are going to love it and it's going to taste pretty darn good.

Ingredients
7.5 ounce can of refrigerated Pillsbury Country Style or Buttermilk biscuit dough
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
Chocolate frosting and sprinkles are optional, but fun!

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Separate dough into 10 biscuits and flatten to a 2 1/2 inch rounds.
• With a 1 inch round biscuit cutter cut a hole in the center -- I used a cap from a bottle, works just as well.
• Dip Biscuits and centers into butter then into sugar.
• Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.
• Let cool then frost and top with sprinkles if desired.

Servings
10 small doughnuts and 10 doughnut holes

A Broken Oven Tip

Get creative with the toppings! Use chopped nuts, make a glaze or top with jelly -- it's ALL good!

Pumpkin Muffins

Lately we've been struggling with keeping Lila in her room after tucking her in at night.  The past few nights she was awake well past Midnight. Charlie and I both were exhausted and just needed to make it through the evening to the next morning when we could call the Pediatrician. I made a deal with Lila that if she stayed in her bed, didn't leave her room and went to sleep at a decent hour I'd make her favorite pumpkin muffins in the morning. I'm happy to report that these muffins are unofficially named *Lila Didn't Get Out of Bed and Screw Around for 3 Hours So Her Parents Could Sleep Pumpkin Muffins*. Enjoy them -- I sure did!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons butter broken into bits
1 heaping cup of pumpkin puree
½ cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spray 12 count, regular size muffin tin with cooking spray.
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, and salt.
• Cut butter into the dry mix and mix until it is fully incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin, milk, egg, and vanilla.
• Pour pumpkin mixture into the dry mixture and fold gently until combined.
• Pour into a greased muffin pan fill each muffin 1/2 to 3/4 full. 
• Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow them to rest for 15 minutes, then remove muffins from tin to cool completely.
• Top with powdered sugar or your favorite cream cheese frosting.
• These store in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer up to 6 months.

Servings
9 large muffins if muffin cups filled 3/4 full
12 muffins if muffin cups filled 1/2 full

A Broken Oven Tip
Want a flavor bonus? Add a 1/2 cup of raisins, nuts or chocolate chips to the batter!

Breakfast in a Biscuit

If it's not a big Sunday breakfast at Grandma's house, our family usually doesn't eat in the morning.  Bad habit I know, but we all seem to be wired the same way. However, I still like the kids to try and eat a little something before school. These easy ham and cheese drop biscuits are an ideal solution for a tummy filling grab and go breakfast that can be eaten in the car on walking to the bus stop.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup chopped fully cooked ham
3 tablespoons of melted butter (2 for the batter and 1 to brush biscuit tops)
Be creative with the fillings. Cooked bacon or sausage, veggies such as peppers and onions, as well as  different cheeses work nicely in this recipe too.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Combine the biscuit mix, milk and 2 tablespoons melted butter.
• Stir in the ham and cheese.
• Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.
• Brush remaining tablespoon of butter on unbaked biscuits with a pastry brush.
• Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Servings
12 large biscuits (pictured above)
20 small biscuits

A Broken Oven Tip
Store the biscuits in the freezer. Pop 1 or 2 in the microwave for 30-45 seconds to reheat and eat.