New Year Sweets <3

During the holidays time isn’t something you have a lot of…so here are some quick and easy sweets that anyone would love!!

~Monkey Bread~

Ingredients you will need:

• 2 cans of pre made cinnamon rolls
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if desired
• 1/2 cup raisins, if desired
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a bundt pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large -storage plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
2) Separate rolls; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding nuts and raisins among the roll pieces.
3) In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over roll pieces.
4) Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

~Buñuelos~

Ingredients you will need:

• a dozen of pre made tortillas (not cooked yet)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Vegetable oil

1) Heat oil in a frying pan; mix sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

2) place uncooked tortilla in the pan cook until brown; once cooked quickly sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it; repeat on the rest of them and serve warm.

Hope you liked this quick and easy recipes!! ^^

This post was written by:

KAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com

Pretzels!!!!

Tired of going out to buy soft pretzels? or just thought homemade pretzels are to hard to make? Well then your in for a treat. Pretzels are very easy and you only need a few ingredients, which are.

1 package (1/4) active dry yeast

1 cup of warm water (110 to115 Fahrenheit)

2 Tbs butter, softened

1 Tbs sugar

1/2  teaspoons salt

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbs baking soda

coarse salt

To start in a large mixing bowl dissolve  yeast in warm water.(Note: water should be warm enough to be safe to keep your finger in if its hotter then that it will kill the yeast)  Add butter, sugar, salt , and 2 cups of flour;

• Beat until  you  have a smooth texture
• Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough
• Once you made the dough put it in a bowl and cover it. place it somewhere warm for 20 mins to rise; it should double in size.
• Punch dough down. Divide into 12 equal pieces.
• Roll each of them to long stripes
• Shape them into a circle with about 3 in of each end overlapping.
• Twist the ends where they overlap
• Flip the twisted ends over the circle; placed ends around edge and pinch under

After shaping the pretzels, put water to a boil then add the baking powder ( be careful not to add it in to fast it will over flow)   Drop a pretzel in and let it boil for one min. Remove with a slotted spoon; drain. Place on a greased baking sheet; sprinkle with coarse salt ( Note: Don’t go crazy with the salt like I did,  just a pinch or two will be nice ) Repeat with the rest of the pretzels.

They should look kind of bloated like this

Bake at 475 for 10-12 mins soon enough you will have these beauties dipped them in a nice cheese dip, butter, Jam or whatever you like ^^  Great for parties for just a midnight snack!!

This post was written by:

KAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com

Mmm nothing like homemade bread ^___^

I alway wanted to make my own bread so I had the time and decided to make it 😀

Ingredients you will need are:

3 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

2 cups of warm water

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of butter (or one stick of butter) I would use unsalted butter but I didn’t have any on hand so I used salted butter I decided to not put any salt, it turned out great so use which ever you like.

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

7- 3/4 cups of bread flour

First: in a bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, salt, eggs, and 4 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Stir enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Second: Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl (I used extra virgin olive oil but you can use anything) turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. ( you can use a bread maker if you want but you don’t need one for a warm surface I used my rice cooker to help rise it.)

Third: Push down two fingers into the dough if the finger dents stay its done if not it needs to rise more. If ready punch dough down. Turn onto a heavily floured surface; divided into thirds. Shape each portion into a loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise for another 45 mins.

Fourth: Preheat oven at 350 and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown. let it cool and then Enjoy  😀

It should make three loaves I made two only cause I underestimated how big it would get lol but its very good it maybe sweet but my family fell in love with it 🙂 Hope you try it!!

This post was written by:

KAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com