Ham and Cheese Pretzel Rolls

Have leftover ham and cheese for Christmas?  Here is something to do with all of it!

Ham and Cheese Pretzel Rolls

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp. dry yeast (or one package)
1/2 cup left over ham (chopped)
1/2 cup left over cheese like mozzarella, Gruyere, (grated or chopped small)

6 cups water
4 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1-2 Tbsp. kosher salt

Mix the brown sugar, milk, flour, and yeast together to form a soft dough.  Knead for a few minutes until it all comes together.  Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 2 hours until dough has doubled in size.

On a floured surface, roll dough out into a large rectangle.  Cut the dough into squares about 4 inches by 4 inches.  Place ham and cheese inside each square and fold in the bottom and top side first, then the sides.  Place on a greased cookie sheet with the seam side down.  Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Bring six cups of water to boil, add the baking soda and then reduce to medium low so it is at a simmer.  Place four- five of the ham rolls into the water for 20 seconds on each side.  They are hard to flip so do the best you can.

Brush butter and sprinkle kosher salt onto the rolls.  Bake the rolls at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Homemade Bread

I have been making bread for years because I am a bread snob.  I hate the cheap store bought bread and I am too cheap to buy the expensive stuff.  I have been experimenting with different recipes and this is my current favorite.  

Multi-Grain Bread

Adapted from: Favorite Family Recipes Book (a great recipe book!)

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast 

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbsp. salt

2 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup ground flax seed

2 Tbsp. flax seed

2 Tbsp. chia seeds

1 Tbsp. wheat germ 

About 5 1/2 cups of flour (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat flour)

Now this seems like a LOT of ingredients but you don't have to have the wheat gluten, flax seed, and chia seeds.  They are just an extra bonus of healthiness.   

Proof the yeast by adding it to the warm water.  When the yeast is bubbly add the rest of the ingredients and start mixing.  I use a stand up mixer but you can do this in a bread machine on the dough setting or by hand.  You will need to add a little bit of flour at the end to get the right consistency.  Add it cup by cup until perfect.  Knead for about 10 minutes.  Then put in a oiled bowl and let rise for an hour.  I never use a clean bowl.  I just add a little vegetable oil and put it back in the same bowl I mixed it in.  True confession.

When the dough as doubled in size.  Cut it into three equal pieces.  Then roll each piece out a pit to the size of a piece of paper and roll into a log.  Then place each one in three greased bread pans. Let rise again for another hour.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  If you desire brush some butter on the tops of each loaf in the last 5 minutes of baking.  

Cool on wire racks.  And enjoy!  I make this in batches and freeze what we aren't going to eat immediately.  

Best rolls

I have tried A LOT of roll recipes.  This is my new favorite.  I had a craving for Texas Roadhouse Rolls and I found this.  We fell in love.

Ingredients:

4 tsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups milk

3 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup sugar

7-8 cups flour

2 eggs

2 tsp. salt

     In a small saucepan mix the milk, butter, and sugar over medium low until the butter melts.  Stir constantly.  Let cool.  Meanwhile, in another dish dissolve the yeast into the warm water until frothy (about 10 minutes).  In a stand up mixer with the dough hook knead all of the ingredients together until it comes together, but is still slightly sticky.  

  

    Place in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangle and fold the dough back over itself.  Press it down lightly with a rolling pin to seal the two together.

Cut it into squares using a pastry cutter and place on greased baking sheets.  Let rise covered for thirty minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your rolls.  When they come out of the oven immediately rub a stick of butter over the tops.

These freeze great!

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread 

First boil together:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water

When butter is melted take off the heat and place in the bowl you will be using to mix for it to cool completely.

Meanwhile dissolve 2 Tbsp. yeast into a cup of warm water. Let that sit for 10 minutes.

When the butter mixture is cool add the yeast, 2 beaten eggs, and six cups of flour.

Beat together until it is a uniform ball and place in the fridge for four hours.

I make these into little pockets so I set up a little station where everything is at my disposal to create these babies. They take some effort.

Roll out the dough. I sometimes have to just pick it up and stretch it. It fights back.

 Cut into squares with a pizza cutter.

Brush a little melted butter or margarine on each square and put cut up ham and grated cheese on each one.

Then pick up the two opposite corners and squeeze them together.

Then squeeze the other two corners together and you have a neat little pocket.

Or my new method which is MUCH FASTER is to roll them like a burrito!

Then press all the seams together to make it secure.

Place them on a sprayed pan or one with a Silpat on it and brush with melted butter.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until golden. Careful the bottoms seem to burn easily for some reason.

Store in the fridge in a container or a bag. You can freeze too. Just make sure they are completely cool before you put them in the freezer.

Here's another topping choice you have. I make little pizza pockets too. Repeat the first three steps... roll out the dough, cut, etc. Then dab a spoonful of pizza sauce into the center of each square.

Then place a few pieces of pepperoni or your favorite pizza toppings.

Fold together the same way and bake for the same amount.
My kids and husband love them both ways. You can make this recipe healthier by decreasing the sugar, adding wheat flour or just by adding different fillings. I've added green peppers cut up before and that was good. Coming next is the dessert you can make with Monkey Bread!

Monkey Bread II

Okay, now for the dessert Monkey Bread. I made two batches of monkey bread this week and I had some left over when I ran out of toppings and my back couldn't take rolling it out anymore, so then I made the dessert.

For the dough recipe go

Melt some margarine... about 1/4 of a cup depending on how much dough you have. Mix a few tsp. of cinnamon, a packet of butterscotch instant pudding, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar together.

Place them all in convenient containers to dip dough balls in.

I usually use a loaf pan to bake this in but it is always hard to get all the dough cooked this way so I decided to try a pie pan and it worked a lot better!

 Usually I roll and dip as I go, but I decided to roll all the dough into balls first this time and it went a lot faster and was a lot less messy.
Roll the dough into balls and then dip one by one in the margarine and then the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place in the pan close together and bake in the oven at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Make sure the dough on the bottom is fully cooked. Just lift up one of the top ones to check.
Take out of the oven and frost with whatever you want. I just used a tiny bit of my left over margarine from dipping and added 2 cups of powdered sugar and a dab of milk. I added purple food coloring because we were having a PPP night at a youth activity at church and the treats had to start with P. I fudged with purple Monkey Bread.

They are delicious cold or warm. Enjoy!

Homemade English Muffins and Egg Sandwiches

I've been wanting to try to make my own English Muffins for a while.  The recipe I used was extremely vague on the times and stuff so I'm going to try to improve it for you.

English Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. white sugar
3/4 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup melted shortening
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt

   Warm the milk in a saucepan until it bubbles then remove from heat.  Mix in the sugar.  Stir until dissolved.  Let this cool until its lukewarm in a large bowl you will be doing the mixing in (save yourself a dish!).  Dissolve the yeast in warm water in another bowl for about ten minutes.

  Combine the yeast and milk mixture in that large bowl.  Then add the shortening and 3 cups flour.  Beat until smooth.  Then add salt and the rest of the flour until it makes a soft dough.  I didn't use all of the flour.  Knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for an hour and 1/2 until doubled.

   Punch down.  Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick!  This is important!  Half of mine were too thick and 1/2 were too thin.  Cut out with anything you have that is round.  I used a glass.  Sprinkle cornmeal on top of a couple pans, place the muffins on the cornmeal, sprinkle some cornmeal on top of these, cover, and let these muffins rise for another 1/2 hour. 

   Heat a griddle and spray with non-stick spray.  Cook muffins on the griddle for about 10 minutes on each side.  Mine needed a little less time.  Then place in a 270 degree oven to keep warm while you make the rest.

Split and toast.  Spread with your favorite toppings.  Or make up some fried eggs, place some ham on top of that and you have a fantastic egg sandwich.

Enjoy!

Bagels

My sister made bagels a few weeks ago and challenged me to make some and I'm so glad she did because they are amazing.  Seriously I don't know if I'll be able to buy bagels from the store now because I realize what a rip off they are!

Here is where we got the recipe.

My only change is that I don't really like plain bagels so I tried putting things in them...

So after you have made the dough and let it rise for 1 1/2.  Separate the dough into 8 pieces or 16 if you doubled the recipe like I did.  (I used a pastry cutter to do this and it was SO easy!)

 Then get yourself a helper and add some more ingredients.

We added chocolate chips, blueberries, raisins and cinnamon... the possibilities are endless.

Just make a little well in the dough, put whatever you want inside, and then knead it in.  Simple, easy, yummy...

 Then roll them into balls and follow the rest of the instructions... rise...

 Punch holes in, boil, bake...

 I have to say that after doing this you should use fresh blueberries instead of frozen because they are just too juicy.  I thawed mine and drained them, but they didn't turn out great.  The chocolate chip ones were fabulous though!

Favorite Breadsticks

My husband's roomate gave him in this recipe and it is one of our all-time favorites we make all the time and people ask me for the recipe all the time so here you are...

Magic Breadsticks

1 Tbsp. Yeast

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup water

3 1/2 cups flour

Add the yeast and sugar to warm water and let sit until dissolved and bubbly.  Then add the salt and flour.  Mix in until you have a slightly sticky dough.  Put in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1/2 hour.  I often put mine in the oven with a pot of boiling water because in the winter time its freezing and dry at my house. 

Roll into "snakes" and brush with melted butter and garlic salt, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, etc.  Whatever you like.   Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.  You can re-brush with butter/garlic half way through if you would like.

Or if you want another fun method of rolling out go HERE .  I tried it this week.  They turn out way prettier.  Its just a little more work.

Kids love these.  Enjoy. 

Monkey Bread (the original)

First sorry about the pictures on this post. My camera is acting up. It is not taking pictures where I am pointing it and the view screen is messed up too.

When I got married my husband asked me to make a few recipes from his mother and this one of them.

Its Monkey Bread and at first I thought it was just too sweet, but it grew on me.

I make this for quick lunches my husband can grab at a moment's notice. They freeze great and you can just put a few in a Ziploc bag and you're good for lunch!

First you make the dough. I make mine in my bread machine, but you can do it by hand or in a mixer.

First boil together:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water

When butter is melted take off the heat and place in the bowl you will be using to mix for it to cool completely.

Meanwhile dissolve 2 Tbsp. yeast into a cup of warm water. Let that sit for 10 minutes.

When the butter mixture is cool add the yeast, 2 beaten eggs, and six cups of flour.

Beat together until it is a uniform ball and place in the fridge for four hours.

 I make these into little pockets so I set up a little station where everything is at my disposal to create these babies. They take some effort.

 Roll out the dough. I sometimes have to just pick it up and stretch it. It fights back.

 Cut into squares with a pizza cutter.

 Brush a little melted butter or margarine on each square and put cut up ham and grated cheese on each one.

 Then pick up the two opposite corners and squeeze them together.

 Then squeeze the other two corners together and you have a neat little pocket.
Then press all the seams together to make it secure.

 Place them on a sprayed pan or one with a Silpat on it and brush with melted butter.Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until golden. Careful the bottoms seem to burn easily for some reason.
Store in the fridge in a container or a bag. You can freeze too. Just make sure they are completely cool before you put them in the freezer.

  Here's another topping choice you have. I make little pizza pockets too. Repeat the first three steps... roll out the dough, cut, etc. Then dab a spoonful of pizza sauce into the center of each square.  Then place a few pieces of pepperoni or your favorite pizza toppings.  Fold together the same way and bake for the same amount.

My kids and husband love them both ways. You can make this recipe healthier by decreasing the sugar, adding wheat flour or just by adding different fillings. I've added green peppers cut up before and that was good. Coming next is the dessert you can make with Monkey Bread.

Best French Toast

Alton Brown has again done something marvelous with a hum drum food. His French Toast is the best I've ever had. Try it.