Mozzarella Ham Stromboli

1 tube (11 oz) refrigerated crusty french loaf
2 cups (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 lb thinly sliced deli ham
1 TBSP melted butter
1 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese

On a lightly floured surface, unroll dough at seam. Pat dough into a 14 x 12 in rectangle. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges. Top with single layer of ham. Roll up tightly from a short side; pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down on an un-greased baking sheet. Brush top of loaf with melted butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 2o-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before slicing. (6 servings)

Buttery Orange Muffins

I tried this recipe for a special breakfast this morning. It came from a little recipe book I bought a long time ago, called "Old-Fashioned Muffin Recipes." These muffins turned out so well and I thought they tasted AMAZING!! The kids weren't that impressed, but I think it's because they were expecting something a little less cultured, like chocolate chip or something! These would be great tea party muffins, but were so yummy for breakfast too.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbs. grated orange rind
Butter for tops of muffins

Combine dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Separately mix egg, oil, milk and rind. Pour into dry mixture, stirring until batter is just moistened. (It's thicker than the average muffin batter - more like sticky biscuit dough, but it's OK.) Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Place a small piece of butter (a fleck) on top each batter-filled cup. Then, evenly top each with the following mixture:

1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. grated orange rind
2 tsps. orange juice

Bake in 400 degree oven. 15 - 20 minutes (I did mine for 20)

Sweet Dinner Rolls

These take a little planning ahead, but are WELL worth it!!

Microwave 1/2 cup water with 1/2 cup milk for 1 minute so that the mixture is warm.

Pour into mixer and add 1/2 cup sugar and mix until dissolved.
After well mixed add 1 packet yeast (2 1/2 tsp.) and mix well.
Let sit until foamy (about 10 minutes)
Add 1 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup butter, softened; and 1 egg - mix well.
Add all-purpose flour 1/2 cup at a time for a total of 3 3/4 cups of flour.
Mix well!
Then cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
Then you can form them like you like... crescents, rolls, parkerhouse rolls.
Cover and let rise for an hour.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

SOOOOO GOOOD!!

Great for a cold winter day!!

baked french toast

I hope & pray everyone had an absolutely wonderful Christmas. Once again, I'm stealing recipes. If this is wrong, I hope someone will tell me-I do try to give credit where credit is due. My bff, Dawn posted about what to do with extra bread, because the snow storm the weatherman predicted didn't come & we had all rushed out to get bread & milk. :) I tried this recipe for Christmas morning breakfast & we all loved it. In fact I'm thinking it might become a Christmas morning tradition.

Baked French Toast
(courtesy of Dawn's sister-in-law)

1 lb of bread
8 eggs
3 cups milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with non-stick spray. Rip bread into bite size pieces and put in pan. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in a bowl and pour evenly over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Topping
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup

Melt butter in small sauce pan. Mix the sugar and corn syrup in and simmer until bubbling (stir occasionally). Pour over top of dish French Toast and bake uncovered at 350 for 40 minutes. **We added 1/4 cup of chopped pecans to the topping, which was yummy. Another suggestion was to take an 8 oz. block of cream cheese & put chunks(about 1" cubes)spread through out the bread & make it more like a cheese pastry.

It was very easy to make I measured out my topping ingredients the night before as well so all I had to do was throw in the pan. It serves about 8.

Vetkoek

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Vetkoek (Fet-cook / Fat cake)

1 cup cake flour
3ml salt
5ml Baking powder
1 egg
milk
oil (for deep frying)

Method

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl
Beat the egg lightly in a cup and add to the dry ingredients
Add sufficient milk and beat till a smooth batter
Heat the oil in a pan, and drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil (be careful)
Fry, turning them over now and then, until golden brown
Cut open, butter, and fill


This is a very traditional South African food. Low cost but I think unhealthy because you have to fry the dough.

It is also extremely versatile. You can add sweet or savory fillings or just eat it as it is...especially if you have a bread fetish.

Many of the people who live in the townships by these as part of their breakfast or mid-morning snack with their tea.

"Vetkoek (fet-cook) - "Fat cake" in Afrikaans, vetkoek is a doughnut-sized bread roll made from deep-fried yeast dough. Mainly served with a savoury mince filling, it's artery-clogging and delicious."

Cinnamon Twisties

1 can of either crescent rolls or butter flavor biscuits
1/4 c. butter
3/4 cup cinnamon/ sugar mixture (make to taste)
chopped pecans or flaked coconut opt.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in baking dish of your choice. Remove pan from oven. Individually roll out biscuits or if using crescent rolls just unroll them. Dip one piece at time in melted butter. Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture and twist. Lay side by side in pan. Sprinkle with optional toppings if desired. Bake until golden brown on top for 15 -20 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread

With fall in full swing and everyone making their annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch, it's time to break out the pumpkin recipes! I wanted to share our family favourite. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving (or Christmas!) without this melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin bread. I hope you'll enjoy it!

4 eggs

2 2/3 cup sugar

2 cups pumpkin

1 cup oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 1/3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside. Combine eggs and sugar. Mix well. Add pumpkin, oil and water, blending well. Add dry ingredients and mix till moistened. Fill each loaf pan about half full. Bake for 1 hour. Let cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan. Loosen sides with knife before removing.

Cinnamon Muffins

My family devours these muffins! They are my husband's favourite, so I made these for Father's Day breakfast on Sunday. I hope you'll try them and enjoy them too! Remember, if you try any of the recipes on this blog, be sure to come back and leave a comment. We want to know what you think!

1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1-1/2 cups flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup milk

Topping:

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

In a bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat well. In another bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk and mix well. Fill greased muffin cups half full. (These work well with muffin papers as well.) Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the muffins are baking....

In a small, shallow bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Melt butter. When muffins are done, dip tops in butter, then in cinnamon-sugar. Serve warm.

I usually make a double batch because these are so popular!

Corn Bread Bake

Here is an easy way to make Jiffy Brand Corn Bread taste moist and special.

Ingredients:

2 boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread mix
3 eggs
2/3 Cup milk
1 stick of butter/margarine
1 can cream corn (regular/size maybe 15 oz.)
3 or 4 T sugar ( I like it sweet. I don't measure the sugar. I just pour some in.)

Directions:
Place stick of butter in a 9x13. Place pan in oven while oven is heating to 350 degrees. While oven is heating and butter is melting, mix the corn muffin mix, eggs, milk, corn and 2 T sugar. When butter is melted your pan should be sufficiently greased, pour remaining butter into muffin mix. Stir mix, then pour mix into pan. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar. Bake at 350 for about 30 min.

Mashed-potato Cinnamon Rolls

If you want an awesome cinnamon roll recipe, look no further! It seriously doesn't get any better than this one!

Ingredients for the dough

1/2 pound potatoes
2 packages active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Cups warm water
3/4 Cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 Cup sugar
2/3 Cup nonfat dry milk
1 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
8 Cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Cook potatoes until tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid;set aside. Mash potatoes; set aside 1 cup. Heat reserved potato liquid to 110-115 degrees. In mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and the 2 Tbsp. sugar in potato water; let stand 10 minutes. Add warm water, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, sugar, dry milk, salt, vanilla and 5 cups flour; beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and chill overnight.


Filling:
1/2 Cup butter, melted
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Icing:
4 Cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

Punch dough down; divide into thirds. On a floured surface, roll each portion into a 12" x 8" rectangle; spread with butter. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon (I usually separate these evenly three ways before I combine them. Then I combine each 1/3 portion.); sprinkle over the dough. Roll up from a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut each into 12 slices; place cut side down in three greased 9x13 inch pans. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 22-27 minutes. Combine icing ingredients; drizzle over hot rolls. Makes 3 dozen.

Sweet Potato Crescents

Here is one of our favorite homemade bread recipes.



Ingredients

4 1/2 T (or 2 packages) of active dry yeast
1 Cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
1 can (15 ounces) cut sweet potatoes, drained and mashed
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup shortening
1 egg
1 t salt
5 to 5 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup butter, melted


Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water; let stand for 5 min. Beat in the sweet potatoes, sugar, shortening, egg, salt and 3 cups flour. Add enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 min. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down; divide into thirds. Roll each portion into a 12-in. circle; cut each into 12 wedges. Brush with butter. Roll up from the wide end and place, pointed end down, 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled, about 40 min.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 min. or until golden brown. Take out of oven and rub butter or margarine on top of each roll. Remove from pans to wire racks. Yields: 3 dozen

I hope that you enjoy these! Our family certainly does!!!

Easy Pizza Dough

This is my favorite and easiest pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions
Disolve yeast in warm water in medium bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Beat vigorously until all the flour is mixed in. Let rest for 5 minutes. Spread dough out on a greased pan.

I often double the recipe for a thicker pizza. I cook it on a big cookie sheet. Here is what I do with the dough. I let it sit or rise for about a half hour or so. I bake the dough by its self at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes (until lightly browned). Then I add the sauce and toppings. I cook it for another 10 or so minutes. Pull it out of the oven and we have a wonderful homemade pizza just the way we like it!!

Soft Pretzels

Family Camp

Ingredients
2 TBSP dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups bread flour
3/4 cup brown sugar

Preparation
Dissolve yeast in 1 1/2 cups warm water.
Add sugar, salt, and flour.
Knead until smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes.
Let rise for 15 minutes.
Roll dough in long narrow rolls; shape to form pretzel.
Mix 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 TBSP baking soda.

Dip pretzels into soda mixture.
Place on WELL greased cookie sheet.

Sprinkle with pretzel salt or kosher salt (course).
(Wait until baked to add cinnamon/sugar if wanting sweet pretzels)

Bake in VERY hot oven. (400 - 500 degrees) for 5 - 10 minutes.
Make sure oven is preheated and pans are WELL greased.
Drizzle with melted butter!

Yummy!