Baking with my Beautiful Yellow Kitchen Aid

A few weeks ago for my 20th birthday, Max got me this amazing kitchen aid, and since then i have been on one huge baking spree. Here's what i've made in the last few weeks.... (I'm a little dough happy..)

French Bread....

(Actually Kind of made this one up!)

Sourdough Bread...

http://www.recipezaar.com/Basic-Sourdough-Bread-34753

Focaccia Bread...

And Delicious Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls...

They were so good I have to share...

This recipe is from Linda at http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/SourCinnRolls.htm

1 cup sourdough starter (I will probably post on this next)
3/4 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 1/4 cups bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant active dry yeast

For Filling:

1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, optional

For Frosting:

2 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons hot water

I just basically put everything into my mixer until it was combined, and then switched out the whisk for the dough hook, and set it to kneading while i made the filling.

After the dough was nice and elastic, I turned it out onto my floured counter, and rolled it into a sort-of-rectangle-ish shape. (The longer your rectangle, the fatter your cinnamon rolls will be.) Next, (with clean hands of course-- thank you Sanitation and Safety class for making me paranoid of food-borne illnesses) i just patted all the melted butter down into the rectangle of dough, so that the filling would stick to it. Then i rubbed the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon mixture down into the buttered rectangle. I actually did have a dried fruit mixture to put into the rolls (that may or may not have been from a Starbucks' Oatmeal Packet) but i forgot about it until the end. i ended up just kind of shoving them into a few of the rolls when they had about a minute left to bake.

Next, loosely roll up your rectangle of dough and filling until it looks like a spiral-y log (or maybe like how rolls or biscuits look in a Pillsbury can?) Now for the cutting of the rolls: Cutting them with a knife tends to make them squish, so i used dental floss instead. (I actually only had mint waxed floss (ha ha) but no one seemed to notice any unwanted mint flavor- so I think it was fine.) Slide the floss underneath the roll about 1/2 an inch down. Cross it over the top, and then pull down in the opposite directions. This will cause the floss to slice cleanly through the dough, giving you a beautiful cinnamon roll! (Continue this through all the dough- it will yield about 12 rolls.

Put the rolls in a cake pan, or whatever you have, really, and let them rise for about 30 minutes. After they have risen they should be puffed up and touching each other in the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly brown and yummy looking. (These make the apartment smell SO good.)

Mix up the frosting, drizzle on top, and try not to devour all 12! (Between me, max, and my 3 roommates, these were gone in less than 24 hours.)