Have you ever REEEEEEAAAAALLY wanted to make something, and then proceed to mess it up 2x before you finally get it right? Because that happened to me when I was making these aaahmazing rolls. I’m not kidding.
The first time I tried these was Sunday. I forgot to add the melted butter to the dough, and didn’t realize it ‘til 30 minutes into the rising period. Awful. I threw it out, and made Apple Cinnamon Muffins instead.
The second mess up was today. I followed the original dough recipe that said “add all wet ingredients together”. Eggs are wet, right? Do you know what happens when you add eggs to warm (maybe too warm) butter/milk/water? They scramble. I gag. Awful. Tossed that and changed the recipe a smidge. Also, when I say “warm” I mean between 120-130 degrees, and you’ll want to make sure the butter isn’t any warmer than that also. Any warmer, and your yeast will die!
The third time is a charm apparently, because these rolls are freaking awesome! At least I think so.
I used 3 Empire apples. They’re smallish, sweet, and crisp. Use your favorite variety. My cheese grater has a side for slicing things so I used that to get nice thin pieces. Then I soaked the apples Sunday night (until I was ready to use them), in Wild Turkey American Honey. I may or may not have cut up and soaked an extra apple for eating. Don’t judge.
These rolls are very cinnamony, with a nice touch of apples & bourbon. The next time I make them I’ll probably use more apples, and skip the cinnamon in the glaze. Hubs devoured the one I gave him to test and asked for another!
The dough & filling recipe was adapted from this Apple Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread.
If you don’t want to deal with the yeast and rising times, try using these cinnamon rolls instead… that recipe makes fewer rolls, so you won’t need as much filling, apples, or glaze.
CLICK HERE to see my Bourbon Apple Cinnamon Rolls.
All’s well that ends well.
Happy Baking!
-Hey Waitress!!
before getting dipped… can’t really see the Ande’s & candy cane chunks.
some pb truffles letting the chocolate set
This weeks Sunday Bakery was Peanut Butter Truffles (inspired by last weeks cookies), Peppermint Cookie Dough Truffles (inspired by Big Bear’s Wife), AAAAND Bourbon Balls (because one can never dip too much stuff in chocolate or use booze too often).
First off… the “Pop” part of this experiment was because every time I try to make truffles I make a mess trying to dip them in the chocolate. Every. Single. Time. So I figured… make them “truffle pops” by sticking a lollipop stick into the bottom. Maybe it would save me from making a mess, and getting irritated. Not so much. Sadly… both the Peppermint Cookie Dough & the Peanut Butter truffles were too soft, the stick trick (haha check out THAT rhyme) just barely worked. Once either one got even a little close to room temperature the sticks started falling out or leaning awkwardly. That can be solved by serving chilled though. GENIUS!
I made both the truffle dough’s Saturday night (I have no life), and made the bourbon balls Sunday morning. I just put ‘em in the freezer while I dipped the truffles!
I dipped the chocolate covered peanut butter balls in larger sprinkles, while the Peppermint truffles & Bourbon Balls got their smaller sprinkles sprinkled on top.
As for the Bourbon balls… I made them with American Honey Wild Turkey, and dipped them in melted white chocolate. After being dipped in the chocolate you should leave them in the fridge for 24 hours to let the bourbon flavor come out before you eat them.
Now I have a plethora or truffles. On sticks. That I had to cut down because they wouldn’t fit in my “treat boxes”, and a blister to show for it. Fortunately Hubs got a job last week (YAAAAY!) so I have people to start gifting junk food to again. Double YAY!
One last thing- any of these three recipes would make a great host(ess) gift for a holiday party tucked into cute mugs or stuck in the holes in a colander.
Enjoy.
-Hey Waitress!!
Confession: I’m pretty embarrassed about how badly I’ve been slacking and not posting my weekly baking. I’ve been sort of apathetic the past month or so… lots of stuff going on… Neither Hubs or I have found a job yet, my mom & stepdad came to visit last weekend (and brought their hyperactive shepard-mix dog with them), then we headed over to my Nana’s place in MD Wednesday, so we could spend Thanksgiving with her… meeeeh, It’s not that I don’t love my family… I’m just so set in my ways I hate messing with my routine. AND my running routine was all messed up last week, mostly because I’ve also been kind of sick, and whatever’s wrong with my chest has been acting up again. Boo hiss.
But, because there’s really no excuse for being a downer… it’s time to update! I figured I’d just throw the ones I’ve missed into one super long post. Sorry!
I was feeling kind of lazy today (I usually take today off from running, but I had to “make up” the 2 days I missed last week) so I cheated and made White Chocolate PB&J Puppy Chow from The Picky Palate. You should browse her blog for some major food porn.
I should mention that at some point in my slackerness I lost the notes I took for the Brownies AND the scones. So I’m posting those from memory. Anyhow… here are the last 3ish weeks of baking! Enjoy!
Crème De Menthe Brownies
Not much to say about these… beside the fact that they are sooooo freaking yummy! I really like fudgey brownies, and these don’t disappoint me. However, I did second guess myself a few times during the baking. They don’t really seem “done” until they’re cooled completely. I guess it’s because they’re so fudgey. My Andes and both kinds of chocolate chips also melted completely away in the middle! The only place the chunks survived was closer to the edges. Weird.
Bailey’s Scones
This recipe was originally the Grand Marnier Scones from Janet at the Ashley Inn. I just changed out the GM for Bailey’s, and made mine half the size. Make sure you don’t over knead the dough, it makes it kind of tough. Otherwise I really love these. They’re supposed to be for breakfast, but Hubs and I definitely eat them as often as possible. I esp enjoyed them with a Bailey’s riddled coffee. Just sayin…
Bourbon Maple Cupcakes with Whipped Bourbon Maple Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Yah, so I really felt the need to make something (kind of) seasonal for Thanksgiving this past week. Hence the Wild Turkey American Honey I used in these cupcakes. Honestly, I also wanted another crack at the Maple Bacon Whiskey Cupcakes (without the bacon this time). They still caved in, and I still can’t figure out what I did wrong. Grrrr! These guys don’t have much flavor. I was really hoping the maple syrup would come out more, but all I could really taste was the ganache. Speaking of ganache… next time I make it to be whipped (as a frosting); I’ll probably use milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet. It’s not quite as sweet as I like. I also forgot to time how long it took me to “whip” it. I think it was close to five minutes, maybe as little as 3. Eeek! Overall these cupcakes are good, but not excellent, they could use a tweek or two. They did get eaten at Thanksgiving dinner with the family, and nobody spit ‘em back out so… success? Pretty close.
Happy Baking!
-Hey Waitress!!
PS the section headers are links to the recipes!!
Yes, you read that right.
This weeks Sunday Cupcakery was inspired by my cousin. I’ve been suffering from a lack of imagination… and he suggested these. I was a little wary after I made the Jack Daniels cupcakes. But, I’m not one to shy away from a challenge.
Firstly I had to find a recipe for bourbon balls, which wasn’t really a problem. Apparently they’re a pretty common “treat” for the holidays? The problem I ran into was finding a bourbon. Seriously… Bourbon/ Whisk(e)y, Scotch, TN Whiskey, Canadian Whiskey, Rye… It was all sort of confusing. I spent a whole afternoon doing “research” online, and asked a few friends.
Eventually I picked the WT, went to the liquor store and then let my husband convince me to try the American Honey. It seems sweeter then the regular WT (Duh, from the honey), and pretty smooth. AND to be totally honest… I didn’t want to use regular Wild Turkey, as it has some interesting college memories attached to it (Thanks KS). I used to gag when I had to serve it to customers. Not this time!
Ooops… before I get to distracted I’ll get to the point…
The bourbon balls are from The Joy of Baking. I used Walnut instead of Pecans, and American Honey instead of plain bourbon. I also made my balls bigger (I guess), because the recipe said you should get 36! This is one of those recipes when you REALLY want a food processor. My walnuts and Nila wafer definitely weren’t chopped as fine as they could have been, and I’m guessing that’s part of the reason I had trouble getting my bourbon balls to stick together. It wasn’t a big deal, I ended up damping my hands, and rolling the balls between my palms. This is the point where you would cover them in melted chocolate, powdered sugar, or more chopped nuts… but because I was going to stuff them into cupcakes, I left them plain. Store them in the fridge over night … the bourbon flavor will really come out…
The cupcake batter is based on of this yellow cake from All Recipes. It’s yummy! I just subbed out half of the milk for Wild Turkey American Honey. You can taste just a hint of it in the cake. For once, I got exactly 24 cupcakes! Tah-Dah!
The frosting… is interesting. It’s definitely too sweet, and it’s not fluffy like a buttercream, or liquidey (I know that’s not a word) like a glaze… It needs work. Other than that I really like these cupcakes. The flavors aren’t overwhelming and the cake is fluffy. What more could a girl ask for?
One last thing before I go. A few weeks ago, my precious hand mixer, finally decided to go to Small Kitchen Appliance Heaven. Or at least she made her wishes known. Sadly, I’m cheap, and I continued to use and abuse her until last weekend. We had gone up to my mom’s house in MA to pick up a few things (namely a Valet Chair that used to belong to my grandfather), and she surprised me with an early Christmas present! Guess what it was… GUESS!! It was a super duper awesome fantastic KitchenAid stand mixer! WOOT! It’s going to take some getting used to, the speeds and such… but I’m very excited to continue using Paula (yes, I named my stand mixer) as much as possible!
Now, I’m going to eat another cupcake, or find something to blend/ mix/ stir!
Happy Sunday Cupcakery!
-Hey Waitress!!
CUPCAKE recipe here! Bourbon Ball recipe here!!
Unremarkable 