Simply Sweet Cinnamon Scrolls

Oh sweet buns, why do you have to look so delicious in the evenings?

Sugar, my guilty pleasure.

Baking has to pretty close to the top of my favourite-things-to-do list. The whole process is so enjoyable for me. It's all about creating something so sweetly satisfying that makes your house smell like a home. However, as unfortunate as it is, eating the baking is even closer to the top of my favourite-things-to-do list. Yes, I love to eat the final result and this is why I don't do a whole lot of baking. It's far too dangerous for me to have muffins, cookies, or loaves lurking in the pantry at night time. I just know I will give in to temptation. 

And this is why I need a bit of a push, an excuse, any excuse to do some baking. Visitors are coming? Great I will make some slice. Someone's birthday? Cake it is. Chocolate was on special? Cookies, I'll see you soon.

So when it was requested to me this week that I do a blog on cinnamon scrolls, I jumped at the opportunity.  Not only did I have a whole day off from study, but my flat mate's new camera equipment arrived this week. Excuses were flying at me from every angle. Why not spend a day researching cinnamon scrolls (seeing as I had never made them before), making and trialing recipes, and taking photos of the final result. The perfect Friday afternoon!

So here we have it, my final result. Sweet Cinnamon Scrolls glazed with icing. I chose to go with a recipe that is simple because as I have discovered, a lot of recipes for sweet scrolls are quite complicated. And honestly, the simpler the better. Not everyone has time to spend hours baking. Even for me this was an odd occasion. So please do give them a go, don't be scared of making the dough, it's easy I promise!

There is only one problem... these beauties taunt me at night time. They are dangerously awesome so make sure you have guests coming over when you make them - they are best eaten on the day!

Ingredients 
Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp dry activated yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 milk
50 grams butter
1 egg

Filling
60 grams butter melted
2 Tbsp cinnamon
2 heaped Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Basic Icing
50 grams butter
1-2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
boiling water as needed

How to
1. Preheat your oven to 100°C. Grease a pie dish with butter and set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast and then set aside.

3. In a sauce pan heat butter, water, and milk over a medium heat until hot (do not boil). Once hot, pour into the flour mixture, add the egg and mix to make a soft dough. The dough should not be sticky but rather soft and elastic. If it is sticky, add a Tbsp of flour at a time till it comes right.
Once you have a soft ball of dough kneed it on a floured surface for 5 minutes and then let it rest for 10 minutes.

4. Roll the dough out to a large rectangle ready to coat with the filling.

5. In a bowl mix the sugars and cinnamon together. Cover the dough in the melted butter and then sprinkle the sugar mixture on the top.

6. Starting from one end, tightly roll the dough into one long scroll. With a serrated knife, cut the dough into about 10 or 11 different pieces.

7. Place the scrolls in your prepared dish and cover with tin foil. Place them in your preheated oven and then turn the oven off! This will help your scrolls rise in the perfect environment. Now leave them there for 1 1/2 hours.

8. Once, risen bake scrolls uncovered for 20-25 minutes until nicely browned.

Icing
For the scrolls I recommend two different types of icing. Just use the basic icing recipe ingredients and then add these yummy extras. You choose! I know this recipe for icing is vague but every time I make icing I do it differently. It really depends how much icing you want and what kind of texture you want.

Brown Sugar Icing
Cream the butter and add 2 Tbsp brown sugar. Whisk until smooth. Add 1-2 cups of icing sugar and vanilla essence then whisk all together. Too thick? Add  tsp of boiling water at a time to thin it out. Too runny? Add 1/2 cup icing sugar at a time to thicken it up.

Coffee Icing
To make this icing instead of adding the brown sugar like above, add a shot of coffee! Dissolve as much coffee as you want (I use 1-2 tsp grounded coffee) in a small (less than 1/4 cup!) amount of boiling water. Coffee icing on cinnamon scrolls is amazing!

Once the icing is made literally drizzle it over the warm sweet buns and you are done. Don't they look beautiful?

I hope you enjoy these as much as my house hold has enjoyed the numerous times I have made them recently. Happy baking everyone, try not to turn into your own personal version of a cinnamon scroll!

-Sophea

Chocolate Caramel Slice

After bragging about how much I have been enjoying eating my home-made chocolate caramel slice this week, and considering that it's Easter weekend, I thought it was about time I share this recipe.

Until recently I have always believed that there is only two types of chocolate caramel slice in this world, the soft icing icing type that tastes far too much like icing sugar, and the type that has a hard chocolate topping which causes all the caramel to come oozing out the sides when you bite into it. Is it so bad to want sweet decadent flavours as well as perfect texture? Or am I just being picky? Well, in the world of Matt and Fee we say texture is just as important as flavour. So here we have it, the perfectly sweet and perfectly textured chocolate caramel slice.

What you will need:
Base:
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 gluten free flour (you could use regular flour if you want. However, for this particular base I think the combination of these flours adds great taste and texture)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup sugar (I use organic unrefined sugar, it adds a wonderful depth of flavour and unique quality)
125g melted butter

Filling
70g butter
1 can condensed milk
3Tblsp golden syrup

Topping
1 block dark whittakers chocolate
3Tblsp coconut oil

Here's how:
Grease your slice tin with butter by using baking paper, don't be shy with the butter! To make the base, mix all the ingredients together well, then press into baking tin and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Then remove from the oven and let it cool.

To make the caramel filling, melt the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a pot and stir it over medium heat for at least 10 minutes. I usually stir it for about 15 minutes. This allows it to get that rich caramel flavour and nice firm, yet sticky texture, Then pour the mixture on the base and bake for another 12 minutes.

To make the chocolate topping, let a pot of hot water simmer slightly and place a heat proof bowl over the water (make sure it doesn't touch the water!). Break in the block of chocolate and add the coconut oil. Stir until completely melted. I love this bit, the glossy chocolate is so satisfying. Pour over the cooked base and filling and then place it in the fridge until completely sold. This will take a few hours.

And you're done. This recipe is so simple, I have already made it twice this week! Use a warmed knife to slice it into small squares. Try not to eat it all in one go. Although, I would be lying if I said we didn't eat ours quickly. With the help of some guests, of course.

Enjoy!

-Sophea

Dairy, gluten and nut free chocolate cake

I haven't posted for a long time. Exams and flat mates that turn out to be crazy seem to get in the way.

For months I feel like a part of me has been missing, not being able to use and enjoy a kitchen to bake and cook in has been traumatic! But now I'm free, and the kitchen is my oyster? Basically I am going to bake, cook, and experiment with food a crap tonne from now on! So watch out...

What a better way to make a come back than sharing a recipe from one of my favourite cooks, Chelsea Winter. I do realise you can find this recipe on her website but I still believe this cake deserves to be glorified over and over again. So, I'll sit here with my piping hot cup of peppermint tea, eat my chocolate cake with strawberries and cream and write about it, the eighth wonder of the world, Chelsea's gluten, dairy and nut free chocolate cake. Too far?

Some might think it's strange but when I saw that this cake had avocado in it, well I was sold. It has no butter, no gluten, and the ingredients that make it decently moist are coconut milk, only healthy oils and of course the avocado. It is a healthy chocolate cake, but don't let this put you off! The whole block of dark Whitaker's chocolate and the cocoa makes for an explosion of chocolate. This recipe is pure genius.

Mine looks a little different but that doesn't matter when it tastes this good. Look at this moist deliciousness... (It was half eaten before I even got a chance to take a picture!

My current favourite recipe is without a doubt this cake. I have nothing to change about this recipe so just click on the link to get the recipe and bake your little hearts away. Serve it with cream or yogurt and strawberries. Divine. 

Just a tip- this cake is HUGE so I wouldn't recommend making it if it's just you, you WILL eat it all. I know I said it's healthier but it's no kale salad!

Bake it. Eat it. Love it. 

Here's the recipe: http://chelseawinter.co.nz/gluten-nut-dairy-free-chocolate-cake/

And here is a piece covered in runny cream that I am about to devour 

Oh and meet Claude, my new kitchen assistant. Thank you for holding my iPad while I bake, you're a star!

- Fee

Quadruple Chocolate Banana Muffins

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!! I love to bake with chocolate, and to tell you the truth, I love it so much that I always have blocks of chocolate stored up just for baking. By blocks of chocolate I don't mean ‘cooking chocolate’, I mean chocolate such as Cadbury or Whittakers. I vary between the two brands (depending on what is cheapest at the time usually). I prefer to use this good quality chocolate because it gives my baking the quality it deserves.

And so, being the sweet tooth that I am, I just had to choose a sweet recipe to start with. Here is an easy favorite...

For these muffins I used Cadbury's top-deck and old gold chocolate blocks. I only used half of each block for one batch of muffins, saving the rest for another time. I love this combination of chocolate because the bitterness of the dark chocolate counters for the sweetness of the lighter chocolates. Sweet, but not over powering.

I like to bake these muffins with oil instead of butter because this makes the muffins nice and moist. Oil is excellent for making muffins (and cakes) moist because unlike butter, it is a liquid at room temperature. This plays a huge part in keeping baking from becoming dry or tough when cooled back down to room

I have already mentioned how I always have chocolate ready to bake with, another thing I always like to have handy is frozen ripe bananas. As soon as any bananas become too ripe I chuck them in the freezer. It is incredibly easy to grab a frozen banana out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for a minute, peel off the skin, and then add it to any recipe. Once microwaved for a minute or so, I find that the bananas are usually so soft they don’t need much more mashing, therefore they can be added straight into the mixture!

!

(Microwaved frozen bananas are the best!)

This is a really simple recipe to follow, anyone is capable of making these delicious treats!

 Salt you say?! Often people become nervous about adding too much salt to their baking and therefore don’t add enough, or none at all. Don’t be one of these people! Yes, it does say 1/2 a teaspoon (this seems like a lot), but never be afraid to put the whole amount in. Salt is important when it comes to baking, even in the sweet things. Salt helps to bring all of the flavors to life and to balance them all out at the same time. Don't skip any ingredients, they all matter!

 The combination of the banana, egg, and oil shows just how nice and moist these muffins are...

I love chunky pieces of chocolate and so does my man, so I always cut rough pieces (so much better than pathetic chocolate chips you buy in the packets). Whenever I am cutting the chocolate up I can’t stop my self from having a piece, or two… doesn't it look beautiful?

On another note, when the recipe says fold, it means fold. Over mixing can cause muffins to become dense and tough. All you need to do is fold the wet ingredients in until everything is only just combined. The mixture may look like a lumpy mess and not smooth at all but this is good! This helps to keep air in the muffins, keeping them moist but also light! 

One more tip, when making these muffins I always use butter (or margarine) when greasing any sort of baking tins. Butter never sticks. Not only is it non-stick, but it always tastes great. Make sure you fill each muffin tin up to the top rather than only 3 quarters fill. This way you will get ‘large top’ muffins, just the way I like them!

I guarantee that everyone will love these muffins, they are truly delicious. Not the most healthy, but hey, we can treat ourselves every now and then!

Ingredients:- 1 1/2 cups flour
– 1 cup caster sugar
-‘heaped’ 1/4 cup cocoa
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 3-4  medium mashed ripe bananas
– 1.3 cup oil
– 1 egg
– chocolate chopped up (read above)

Method:
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt. In a separate bowl combine mashed bananas, oil and egg. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until only just combined. Do not over mix. Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks. Spoon the mixture into medium sized greased muffins tins. Fill each tin almost to the top. Bake at 160 degrees on fan bake for 20-25 minutes. They are finished when a skewer comes out clean or the  muffins bounce back up when pushed slightly.

Enjoy 

~Fee