Pumpkin Spice Monkey Bread-By Bees Adventures!

http://beesadventures.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/pumpkin-spice-monkey-bread-with-caramel-glaze/

I found this amazing recipe on “beesadventures” blog! Easy to make, fun to eat!!

Pumpkin Spice Monkey Bread with Caramel Glaze

Yield: 1 bundt pan

Prep Time: 60 minutes | Bake Time: 20 – 25 minutes

Dough Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Lactaid milk (soy milk would work fine too)
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine or lactose-free butter (Becel or Fleischmann’s are my favorites)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup warm water (between 100 to 105 degrees Farenheit)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed (if you want to make brown sugar yourself, see the recipe below)
• 1 tablespoon ground Pumpkin Spice
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine or lactose-free butter, softened

Glaze Ingredients

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lactose-free whipping cream
• 1 tbsp vegan margarine or lactose-free butter, softened

Monkey Bread Preparation

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it is warm to the touch, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Leave to cool.
2. Heat water to 100 – 105 degrees Farenheit. Add yeast; stir. Let sit for 5 minutes to activate yeast. Mixture will look foamy on top when yeast has activated.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, sugar and salt; mix well.
4. Add egg to cooled milk mixture and mix well.
5. Add activated yeast and milk mixture to dry ingredients. Mix until dough comes together in a sticky ball.
6. Add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, kneading well after each addition until dough is soft and smooth but still a bit sticky.
7. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
8. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, pumpkin spice and softened margarine.
9. Tear small, pieces of dough and roll into balls. Toss each into the sugar mixture until coated, then place in a greased baking pan.
10. Cover baking dish and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. If you’d like to cook these at a later time, refrigerate or freeze covered and let pan sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Don’t be concerned if rolls do not rise too much.
11. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit when ready to bake.
12. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until browned. Let cool for 10 minutes before turning out on a serving dish.
13. Serve warm, drizzled with glaze. Glaze recipe follows below.

(Adapted from 90-Minute Cinnamon Rolls at Chinese Grandma)

Caramel Glaze Preparation

1. Pour the water into a saucepan then pour the sugar in a pile in the middle of the water. Turn the heat to medium-high heat and begin cooking without stirring. The sugar will dissolve in the water and begin to boil.
2. When the sugar begins to lightly brown, gently swirl the pan until all of the sugar is a deep golden brown.
3. Carefully pour in the cream and add the butter. Whisk until smooth.

(Adapted from Chef Michael Smith’s Caramel Sauce at Food Network)

PLEASE LEAVE ME COMMENTS!

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Garage Sale Find!

Love this! $5 bucks at a local garage sale. A moving sale actually, the homeowner had her house open to the public to come in and buy anything in the house. That was fun! I often think about what it would be like to go into a strangers house and see how they decorate and stuff, haha.
I’m looking forward to making some wonderful sweets and displaying them on this pedestal-stay tuned for that!

Poppy Seed Cake

Moist, dense, and delicious! This is worth every calorie 🙂

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
13 fluid ounces evaporated milk
1/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and add eggs, vanilla, oil and milk. Mix well and fold in the poppy seeds. Pour into a 10 inch tube pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Place cool cake on a pretty plate or cake stand. Using 1/2 container of store bought frosting (vanilla), place frosting in microwavable measuring cup and heat for approximately 20 seconds. Drizzle over cake. I added a few extra poppy seeds on top for decoration.

Eat and enjoy!!

Peanut Butter Cookie

Hands-down the best cookie I’ve ever had in my life!

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter. I used chunky
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon milk (I used half-and-half)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Set aside a small bowl with 1/4 cup white sugar, for sprinkling.

Preheat oven to 350 F, no need to grease cookie sheet. I lined pan with wax paper.

Add all dry ingredients, mix as you go. Add remaining ingredients. I use my hands to mix the dough well, I prefer hands versus a mixer.

Form 1″ balls of dough, then roll in the white sugar, then place on cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 min, or until the cookie is slightly firm to the touch. Remove from cookie sheet, allow to cool.

Try not to eat ALL the cookies at once! Yes, they are that good, at least to me 🙂

Fail!

These are really funny, but apparently not very popular.

Irish Cream Cake

Fresh out of the oven. Needs to cool down before you put the glaze on top.

Glazed, wrapped, and ready to be delivered!

Here’s the recipe:
CAKE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. I used Bailey’s

THE GLAZE
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Grease and flour a 10″ Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over bottom of pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. Beat for 5 minutes on high speed. Pour batter over nuts in pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto the serving dish. Prick top and sides of cake. Spoon glaze over top and brush onto sides of cake. Allow to absorb glaze. Repeat until glaze is used up.
4. To make the glaze: In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur.

Side note; I used 7 mini-dishes. The cake rises a good amount, I filled the mini-dishes 3/4 full, and baked for 40 minutes. If you are nervous about using a Bundt pan, I would just use a 9″x13″ dish. After cooling-poke holes as directed, drizzle glaze on top of cake. Do what’s comfortable for you 🙂 Have fun and enjoy the delicious cake!

Signs Of Happy Times

These ugly cookie sheets mean more to me than a mess to clean up! It reminds me of all the years my mom spent with me, teaching me how to bake. My 3 children (ages 20, 17, 11) still love to help me in the kitchen, or at least be the first to take a hot cookie off the cooling rack!

I took a 1/2 dozen to my nail girl today. Want to know a way to an angry, hurt or lonely person? HOME MADE COOKIES!

Ps. I will be blogging a new, fantastic cookie recipe very soon! (peanut butter with Nutella, swirl!)

Pizza, Churro’s and Popcorn, Oh My!

Unlike yesterday’s post, this post is all about fun and experiencing the foods of the place you’re visiting!

Dessert in San Francisco

This was my dessert at the Marriott Marquise. I ate it so fast, I really didn’t examine it too much. I was fruity, with maraschino cherries, mousse & white cake. The circle on top of the cake was edible, it was made of chocolate. Yumm, yumm, yumm!

Mint Oreo Cookie Dessert…..OH YEAH!

Super easy, needing only a few ingredients.

1 tub of Cool Whip-whipped topping
1 package of Mint Oreo cookies
3/4 cup of milk (any fat percentage, soy or almond will work too)
And a topping of your choice. In this demo I used cherries. You could use crumbled oreo’s, nuts, sprinkles, etc. You could also pour some chocolate or caramel syrup on top!! I think I just gained 5 pounds, typing that, LOL!!

In this demo I used a 10.5″, round pie dish. If you want to double the recipe, use a 9.5″ x 13″ dish.

Use half the package for the bottom layer. Dunk each cookie into milk, place in dish.


Use half of the tub of whipped cream, spread over soaked cookies.


Add the remaining package as the top layer. Spread again with that whipped cream we all love!


Add your topping of choice. Voila!! Done!

Refrigerate at least one hour before serving. You can also make this the day before!!

Enjoy 🙂