Tea Time Treats - January 2012

This months 'Teatime Treats Blogging Challenge' theme over at Lavender and Lovage is sweet pastries and breads.   'The Tea-time Treats Blogging challenge' is hosted on alternate months by Kate at What Kate Baked and Karen at Lavender and Lovage.  Any one can enter and at the end of the month there is a 'Showcase' round up of everyone's delicious contributions and ideas.  I will be entering  'Cinnamon Rolls' this month.  I have blogged about these beauties twice before Here and Here.  If you haven't made them yet, I strongly recommend you give them a go.   

Ingredients

Serves: 12

• 15g (1/2 oz) dried active baking yeast
• 7 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 450ml (16 fl oz) warm water (45 C)
• 800g (1 3/4 lb) plain flour, divided
• 2 eggs
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 dessertspoon ground cinnamon

Method

(I put the dough ingredients in my trusty old Bread Machine and let him do all the work.  Then I have time to write my blog!)  

1.

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and 7 tablespoons sugar in warm water. Stir in salt and half of the flour. Beat mixture for 2 minutes. Beat in eggs and oil. Stir in the remaining flour, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.

2.

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together remaining sugar and 1 dessertspoon cinnamon; set aside.

3.

Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. Take each piece of dough, roll into a log and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Then roll up the log into a pinwheel. Place the pinwheels in a lightly greased 23x33 cm (9x13 in) baking tin. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4.

4.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until golden.

Tip:

For a delicious addition, you can add sultanas, Craisins, pecans, or walnuts to the cinnamon and sugar mixture just before you make the dough into pinwheels.  I have also left mine over night so they are ready to bake in the morning.  You are hard pushed to find a better start to the day than a warm Cinnamon Roll and a house that is filled with a sweet cinnamon aroma.

I Have Been Busy Making....Three Small Gift Ideas

This is my first attempt at crocheting an 'Apple jacket'.  It is not quite right, but it does the job.  I may actually start to take an apple to work now it can be fully accessorized in crochet loveliness.  I am a sucker for pretty packaging.  I also do not fancy an apple that has rolled around in the bottom of my work bag for a few hours.  On my diet Healthy Eating Plan I really should be eating more fruit...these little 'Apple jackets' work because I have just eaten the model in this photograph and it was pretty delicious.  I am sure it tasted better for being kept in a crochet wrapper.  You can find the 'Free' pattern for 'Apple Jackets' Here.  I want to make a whole fruit bowl full now.  If anyone has a pattern for a 'Banana Jacket' please let me know!

As you know we are all 'Tea Bellies' in this house but we don't like it cold!  It takes no time at all to make one of this for your favourite mug.  The pattern is one of a pair of 'Mug Cosies' I designed and is available Here.  The Crochet rib pattern is particularly useful as it is so elastic it clings well to the mug.

I saw one of these Jolly Little Goody Bags over at The Smiling Robot Blog.  I thought these look cute for carrying fruit or snacks to work too.  I particularly enjoyed making the curly chord for this, I have admired these Twirls over at Chalky's World for a while now, but never tried one.  I needed to adapt the 'pattern' maybe because of my tension.  I made a chain for the required length and then worked three trebles into each chain...hey presto...as if by magic...Curly Twirly.
These three projects are super quick to make and would be perfect as little gifts or stocking fillers.  Who would not love a present wrapped in a 'Festive Jolly Little Goody Bag'?
I have also been making these:

Cinnamon Rolls

I put them to rise tucked away in the oven over night.  Then when I got up this morning I just had to turn the oven on.

The boys enjoyed them warm for breakfast, it made a good start to a frosty day.  The house was filled with a delicious spicy aroma...  I have talked about Cinnamon Rolls before Here and you can follow the link for the recipe.  I just used a soft white bread dough, sweetened with a tablespoon of sugar and the filling was simply Cinnamon and brown sugar.  MMMmmmm!

Cinnamon Rolls and Maggie Sefton Knitting Mysteries

I may aswell come completely out of the closet!  I do enjoy reading 'Knitting Fiction'.
 There I have said it!  My favourites are the Maggie Sefton 'Knitting Mysteries'.  In the winter I went through a spell of getting cosey and reading until I nodded off.  The titles of the books themselves are great.

To go to sleep with a head full of knitting, Yarn stores, Alpaca farms, sheep shearing and fleece, spinning etc is the thing that dreams are made of.  I don't like anything scary or gruesome so these mysteries are about as hardcore as I get.  I think there are eight in the series.  Each book contains recipes and knitting patterns at the back too.  The main character 'Kelly' spends a great deal of her time either in the Yarn Store or the Coffee shop, when she isn't solving mysteries.  In one book she was drinking 'Gingerbread Coffee' and in every book she eats 'Cinnamon Rolls'.  I tracked down a place in town that served 'Gingerbread' flavoured coffee so I did a 'Kelly' and treated myself.  It was delicious.  Then last week I found this recipe...At Sheep Spinach and Strawberries  a blog about

"Food, Farm and Fiber -raising, growing, cooking, sharing".  I love this blog and today tried my version of this recipe.  I didn't have Craisins but I used sultanas and Walnuts.  Both of my Son's sampled when the rolls were still warm and when I asked for marks out of ten, the youngest said '100 out of infinity' I think that means he liked it.

I won't be solving any mysteries but I do like Cinnamon Rolls, coffee and 'Yarn Stores'.