Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I want to thank my sistah, Tammy from the Missing Piece. My silly computer deleted all my pictures and she told me how to recover them. Thanks Sis.
Mess in Place. I have the sugar crystals to decorate the top of the loafe.

Dry ingredients in the bowl.

Wet ingredients added to dry ingredients.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl.

I love having my kitchen help kneading my bread. I have to steady her when it gets close.

Time to take the dough out of the KA and knead in the raisins and walnuts.

The first rise the time is on the wrap so that I don't forget.

A new find at Henry's, Crimson Raisins. A little costier than regular raisins but a lot more tasty.

It took a bit to knead in the raisins and the walnuts but worth it.

Second rise. I made two loaves in 9 inch pans instead of 8 inch.

In the oven with a lot of oven spring. Looking yummier. I can't wait.

Melted butter for the top of the loaf.

Cinnamon sugar with the egg wash.

It's out of the oven. Love the look. I don't care that it's warty that means that goodness is awaiting under the surface.

On the cooling racks.

With the sugar crystals, cinnamon sugar on top. Unfortunately, the crystals didn't ahere very well. Ended up on the floor.

A lovely swirl.

A friend told me this bread rivals Dudley Bakery.

The crumb shot with the crimson raisins and the swirl.

Cinnamon Rolls

Finally, cinnamon rolls, I have been looking forward to cooking these since I first paged through the Bread Bakers Apprentice Cookbook. This was a busy week, I was an actor in our vacation bible school, A Week in Rome. I was an early Roman Christian and led our visitors to the Cave. We also had an out of town visitor, Pete (Waldo) Greenwald made it safely back from Afghanistan.

Here is the recipe. The picture of the book looks great.

My ingredients waiting to become something very yummy! I used the last of my lemon extract in this recipe. I will experiment with other extracts. I think maple, rum, butter would also give the rolls a nice flavor.

The ingredients are in the bowl, the kneading starts.

The kneading is complete. Doesn't it look so pretty.

This window pane test, this is the first time that I have actually taken the time to see what this meant. Looks pretty. Hard to photograph being both the photobug and the hand doing the test.

Time for the first rise. Since its busy here at the house, noted the time to finish the rise on the saran wrap.

Since neither Larry nor I drink buttermilk, where is Alden when I really need him? Guess up in Bremerton going to college and enjoy that Lovely Bride, Katherine. I put 1 cup of buttermilk into ziplock bags to go into the freezer and await for another time when I need buttermilk. Great addition to my frozen assets.

The first batch of rolls got over cooked. Not quite burnt, although Larry said that he really like them that way. Mulligan, here are the dry ingredients added to the creamed ingredients.

A bit more adding. I am glad that I decided at the beginning of this challenge that I would let my kitchen help do that task for me.

Time for the buttermilk to be added.

The paddle did it's task so prettily. Dough hook, it's your turn.

The process of kneading the dough. Looking good.

Time for the rise. Note the time in green.

Cinnamon sugar in a bowl. Looks pretty. I wonder if my colored sugars would work here.

The rectangle is rolled out. The pretty cinnamon sugar is spread. Time to roll it up. I found the dough really sticky and a little hard to roll but guess it needs to be sticky to stick into a roll.

The roll look very pretty. Tammy, do you like this picture better. I tried to get closer to the bread.

A little longer view of that lovely roll.

Tammy suggested cutting the dough with thread. I found this very awkward. I did use my rocker knife. It did a great job and it was easy to transport the rolls to the pan.

Don't they look pretty on their pan?

This step is done. Time for them to rest and rise for 90 minutes.

The rise is complete. Time for them to go into the oven. Not the 30 minutes, we will check on them at 20 minutes and then let them go for a bit longer. I am heartsick that I burnt the first batch. I was happy that these were pretty easy.

A close up of the rolls after they rose. Love the look of the cinnamon.

After 20 minutes of baking. They look very pretty.

A close up of one of the pretty babies. It looks like she was ready for her close up.

Here are the cooled rolls. Note the glaze in a ziplock bag to make it very easy to drizzle the glaze.

It's hard to drizzle and snap a picture also. I think I did a good job. Don't they look lovely?

Yummy. There weren't enough of these beauties to make it to work this week. I will definitely make these for a future red hat event. The ladies will love them. I think if I want to make them, it would be easy to find other people to give them to eat. The hard part would be not having enough to give everyone who would want one.

Fun in the Kitchen

My very favorite thing to do in the kitchen besides washing dishes or mopping the floor, is chopping garlic. Okay, Tammy stop laughing.
First step. Separate your garlic cloves from the garlic head. This recipe called for four cloves.

The two choices to mince the garlic are the garlic press or the trusty knife. I choose the knife because it's more fun. Does anyone want a garlic press. Cut the bottoms off the cloves.

Turn your knife on its side, place the clove under the knife, with your fist slam the knife smushing the clove. Take the outer cover off and toss it in the trash.

Then comes the fun. You start chopping and keep going like a jack Russel terrier until the garlic is in tiny little bits. You garlic is already for your recipe. If you had any stress lingering from the turkey who cut you off on the road, that should be done. If you darling hubby is anything like mine, he'll come into the kitchen wondering what you are cooking.

A closer look at the knife relaxing after a great work out.

Garlic is ready awaiting time to make meatballs, bread, or simply to drive your hubby wild thinking about what good is cooking in the kitchen. Now, that's fun.