Homemade Brioche Buns

Brioche Buns

Saturday afternoon,

Italian beef in the slow cooker,
and nothing but sliced white bread!

No rolls...

No crusty French bread...

No buttery buns..

No chance I'm leaving the house
to go to the grocery store!
I've got some time and some yeast,
so...
now I need to find the right recipe.

I found this one at

www.theclevercarrot.com
(I loved the name of the blog, so I was sure it had to be good. 
Check it out yourself for more good recipes like this one!)
and it did not disappoint!

Mixed it up.

Let it rise.
(On top of the warm oven because I didn't want to wait that long.)

Shaped it into rolls.

Rise again.

Next bake and O.M.G.
Opened the oven to such a beautiful sight!

They tasted as good as they looked, too!
A little more dense than your average hamburger bun,
but perfect for soaking up the juices of Italian beef.
Seriously thinking about never buying store bought buns again.

I used all purpose flour instead of bread flour 

(because, again, not wanting to run to the store) 

so I will plan ahead next time and try it with bread flour. 

Brioche Buns
Print Recipe

1 cup warm water

3 tablespoons warm milk

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

2½ tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

3 cups bread flour

⅓ cup all-purpose flour
(I used all A-P and they were still great!)

1½ teaspoons salt

2½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened.

Whisk together the warm water,milk, yeast and sugar and set aside.
Beat 1 egg.

With the paddle attachment,
mix the flours and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Mix in the butter until it is the size of crumbs.
Add in yeast mixture and beaten egg.

Mix on medium until a dough forms, about 5-8 minutes.
It will be sticky, but if it's too sticky, add bit more flour.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and shape the dough into a ball. 

Cover bowl with a damp kitchen towel

 and let the dough rise until it has doubled is size, 1- 3 hours

Put parchment paper on a baking sheet. 

Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.

Flatten each piece, then pinch the edges together
and twist at the bottom to form in to a smooth ball.
Place on the baking sheet, pinched side down

a few inches inches apart. 

 Cover and rest for 1-2 hours, or until puffy and slightly risen.

To make the egg wash, beat the remaining egg with a splash of water. 

When the buns are finished with the 2nd rise, gently brush each one with egg wash.

Preheat your oven to 400 

and place a skillet or baking dish on the oven floor or bottom rack.

Before putting the dough in, add about ½ cup of water to the pan (to create steam). 

This will help keep the bread nice and moist.

 Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Enjoy!

Game Day Favorites

Game Day Favorites

Whether you're a football fan, 

the half time show fan, 

the commercials fan, 

or a food fan, 

these are some great recipes to "fan" over!

To some of us, the joy of a great football game is what it's all about.

To others, we enjoy the camaraderie of getting together with friends 

and family to watch the big game,

to talk, laugh, and to just have fun.

And what goes better with that than some great food.

Delicious dips, appetizers, and yummy pizza.

Here are a few of our favorite game day party recipes.

Enjoy!

Neiman Marcus Dip

 

Yummy homemade pizza. 

Make it with your favorite toppings.

 

A warm garlic cheese spread.

 

Make it a healthy snack with our Avocado/Tomato/Mozzarella Salad.

Pile on the veggies with this great appetizer.
Veggie Pizza!

Yummy BLT dip hits the spot.

Whatever your reason, is we hope you enjoy our favorites!

Buttery Golden Caramel Sauce

Buttery Golden Caramel Sauce

We both LOVE caramel!
Caramels, Salted caramels, Turtles,
Caramel cupcakes with caramel frosting,
Caramel apples....

You name it. We love anything with caramel!

We have made a few different homemade caramel sauces over the years and they were okay.

BUT when we came across this recipe in Good Housekeeping,
our world changed!

Not exactly changed, but got a whole lot better.

It is golden.

It is buttery.

It is just a touch salty.

It is delicious.

 

Yum!

 

Homemade caramel sauce isn't hard to make, but it can be a little tricky.

Simple ingredients.

Having a candy thermometer is a really good idea too.

Stir the water, corn syrup, and sugar together in a pan .

Brush off any sugar crystals on the side with water and a pastry brush.

Make sure your candy thermometer is on and ready. 

Now comes the "hard" part...letting it boil WITHOUT stirring it. 

Just watch it and wait for it to change colors. 

The recipe said about 9 minutes, but we found it 

took almost double that amount of time.

It will start to slowly turn golden and then...

before you know it!

A dark amber color.

Work fast! Remove from the heat and add the cream and the butter.

 It will bubble up!

 Stir and stir and stir!

 Keep stirring until smooth.

Awwww, look at that. Now add the vanilla and salt.

Stir and cool completely. 

IF you can wait that long!

That's when we grab a spoon and taste it. 

We just can't wait!

 It is that good.

Now comes the fun part. What are we going to put it on?

A brownie.

 How about a brownie with caramel AND whipped cream?

A hot drink...like salted caramel apple cider.

Ice cream! Oh yeah!!

BUTTERY GOLDEN CARAMEL SAUCE

Print recipe

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream

4 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp salt

In a 4 quart pan stir together the sugar, water, and corn syrup.

Brush any sugar crystals off the side of the pan with water and a pastry brush.

Make sure you attach your candy thermometer. 

Heat on medium high heat until boiling and it reaches 320 - 345 degrees (a dark amber color)

WITHOUT STIRRING.

Once it reaches that color remove from the heat and work fast! 

Add the cream and butter.

Stirring until it is smooth.

Add the vanilla and salt.

Cool completely.

Store at room temp for a month or in the refrigerator for 2 months. 

Let's be serious! 

It won't last that long because you won't be able to resist!

It is that good.

Reheat in microwave if needed.

Buttery Golden Caramel Sauce.

Enjoy!

 Recipe found in the Dececember 2016 issue of Good Housekeeping.

Or bring some to work!

Dorie's Rich and Easy Coconut Cream Pie

Dorie's Rich & Easy Coconut Cream Pie  

 Brrrr...It's cold outside. A chilly 20 degrees. 

So what do you do when it's that cold out? 

You dream of a tropical vacation

...an island in the Caribbean, the South Pacific, 

the Bahamas, or even the Florida Keys.

 Somewhere that has sunny beaches, fruity drinks, 

and... coconuts!

 Since we are not on one of those islands

 we have to improvise.

 Let's make a Coconut Cream Pie!

Dorie, a very, very, good friend, 

shared her recipe with us in 2011 

and it has been our go-to 

coconut cream pie recipe ever since. 

She IS the pie queen.

 This past Thanksgiving she made TEN different kinds of pies. Yes, 10!

 Count them: 1. Rich & Easy Coconut Cream pie, 2. Chocolate Chip pie, 3. Grasshopper pie, 4. our Pecan pie, 5. Pumpkin pie, 6. Banana Cream pie, 7. Lemon Meringue pie, 8. Apple pie, 9. Peanut Butter pie, and 10. S'Mores pie. 

Yep that's 10.

 Like we said PIE QUEEN.

What makes this recipe so quick and easy 

is that this topping isn't your usual meringue top. 

It is a whipped topping. 

You could make your own whipped cream, 

but we like to use Cool Whip...so much easier. 

 These simple ingredients make a rich and easy pie.

This time, instead of making our own pie crust, we used Pillsbury frozen pie crust 

and found that you can actually get 

two pies out of this recipe. 

Normally we use a bigger pie plate

 with our homemade crust and mound it up up up.

It worked out great to have two this time. 

 One for us (going to share with my dad 

since he LOVES this pie)

 and one for Dakota to take

 to work tomorrow for "food day."

Make sure you watch the coconut closely when toasting it.

While your pie crust is cooling, mix up the filling. 

Once it is cool, pour the filling into the pie crust,

top with the Cool Whip,

 and sprinkle with the remaining coconut

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving to let it set.

Dorie's Rich & Easy Coconut Cream Pie

Print recipe

2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut

3 (3.4oz each) pkgs instant coconut pudding

2 envelopes (1.3 oz each) whipped topping mix

4 cups 1/2 & 1/2 cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 single pie crust, baked and cooled.

1- 8 oz container Cool Whip

Lightly toast 1 cup coconut; cool.

Combine pudding mix, whipped topping mix, and half & half cream; mix at medium speed until thick and fluffy.  Stir in vanilla, 1 cup remaining coconut, and 1/2 cup toasted coconut. Spoon into baked pie crust. Top with Cool Whip and sprinkle with remaining toasted coconut. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy!