Lavender Rolls

I have been dreaming of these since December, and the time was finally ripe.

You could grind up the lavender if you wanted, it might look prettier.

I didn't mind the little flowers scattered in the dough, though.  I could use more little flowers scattered in things, actually.

Just in general.

The taste was perfect, not too strong and not too subtle.

Just use it the same way you would use cinnamon.

I thought about dying the frosting purple.  Maybe I should have.

I used mascarpone cheese in the frosting instead of cream cheese.  I don't like the tang of cream cheese frosting.  Mascarpone brought that cheesy smoothness without the tang.

If I ever have any kind of food shop, these will be the specialty.

Lavender Rolls
Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks
Makes 12

Rolls:
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast (one packet)
pinch salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk

Filling:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4-6 teaspoons lavender flowers

Mascarpone Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
6 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Combine 4 cups flour, 1/3 cup sugar, yeast, and a pinch of salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Warm buttermilk to 100F on stove.  Add melted butter, eggs, and buttermilk to dry ingredients and beat on medium-low for about 1 minute, until combined.

Switch to the dough hook and run for 10-12 minutes (15 - 18 minutes by hand).  If more flour is needed, add remaining 1/4 cup flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl but sticks to the bottom.  It's okay for this dough to be sticky.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

Prepare your pan, this can be a jellyroll pan or ordinary 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Line with foil or a silpat and set aside (if using foil, grease with butter).

After dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured surface and roll into a 16 x 12 inch rectangle.

Spread butter for filling over the dough, in chunks or fully spread out, depending on softness of the butter.  Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup of sugar, then with lavender flowers.

Roll your rectangle up into a big dough log.  Slice into 12 slices.  The best way to do this is with dental floss, but don't use the mint flavored kind unless you want minty lavender (hmm).  If you don't have unflavored floss around, use a sharp knife to avoid squishing the dough as much as possible.

Place slices on prepared pan and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until the rolls have doubled in size about 1 1/2 hours (rolls can also be refrigerated before this second rise for up to 16 hours, bringing to room temperature and continuing with rise the next day).

Bake at 350F for 22 - 25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.  Cool slightly (or don't), spread with mascarpone frosting, and eat.

For frosting:
Blend cheese and butter on medium speed, about 1 minute.  Add the vanilla and 3 cups confectioners' sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add remaining cup of sugar to taste, based on desired frosting consistency.

Overloadeded Spicy Cheddar Muffins

 
I am going to tell you how to make homemade popcorn.

Because you know what?  You don't need a popper, air or otherwise.  All that is a scam.

A scam!

All you do is, pour about 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a large pot and put it over medium-high heat.

Add in 1/4 cup popcorn kernels.

Affix a lid, slightly ajar.

Hey girl, you look like you could use a muffin.

And WAIT!  The pops, they will come.

When the pops lessen, remove from heat.

Drizzle in butter and sprinkle in salt.  Or be creative and add parmesan or cinnamon, or seaweed.

Why am I telling you how to make popcorn in this post about cheese muffins?

Because that is the kind of week it has been.

Right now I am making cupcakes, eating popcorn, and blogging about muffins.

Busy baby, yeah.  And I like it that way.

(Unless it's too much because then BOOM and you can ask my husband about when that happens but you know what you probably shouldn't let's just let it go)

Overloaded Spicy Cheddar Muffins (adapted from Joy)
Makes 12

So you may have noticed I am still joyfully welcoming dairy back into my life.  Everything I'm making this week seems to have cheese in it somewhere...no regrets! 

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour (you can replace both of these with 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
12 sliced pickled jalapenos for topping
sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper for topping.

*One note from Joy about using paper cupcake liners with these muffins!  "When warm, the muffins will stick to the paper.  When muffins are room temperature, the papers will come out of the papers easily.  To avoid this nonsense, just grease and flour a muffin tin instead of using cupcake liners."  I found her to be correct on this.

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin tin and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and melted butter.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir to incorporate.  Before the mixture is entirely mixed, add the grated cheese.  Stir to incorporate making sure that the mixture is evenly moistened and the cheese is well distributed.

Divide batter between prepared muffin tin.  Top each with a jalapeno slice and sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Bake muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.  Muffins are best served warm. 

Rosemary Almond Olive Oil Bread

I'm going on vacation tomorrow!

We will be hiking, and biking, and swimming, and all that jazz.

We are going east of the mountains, which in Oregon, signifies a sudden and total climate change.

Snow, maybe!  And not raining every day!

Smaller trees for sure.

Also - mountains and lakes!

I'm very excited to take baby, although his favorite will probably be the hotel swimming pool.  And the tub!  We don't have a tub, and he's so big now he's all elbows and knees in his little baby bathtub.

Here is a soft and lovely delicacy.

Gentle olive oil, earthy rosemary, and that lightness only yeasted breads have. 

It's a keeper.

Rosemary Almond Olive Oil Bread (adapted from Living Without)

1 cup warm water (110ºF)
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1¼ cups almond flour
1 cup cornstarch
½ cup tapioca starch/flour
3 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, diced
½ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup flax seed meal
1 cup almond milk
¼ cup olive oil

Preheat oven to minimum oven temperature, no higher than 170ºF. Grease a standard (8x5-inch) loaf pan.


In a small bowl, combine warm water and honey. Stir in yeast and let mixture sit 5 to 10 minutes or until froth forms on top.



In a large bowl, place almond flour, cornstarch, tapioca starch/flour, xanthan gum, rosemary, salt and flax
seed meal. Mix very well.

In a medium bowl, mix together almond milk, olive oil and yeast mixture.  Pour into dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth top with a spatula.



Place bread in preheated oven and let rise about 40 minutes.

Leaving bread in oven, increase temperature to 375ºF and bake for 50 minutes or until done.

When done, remove loaf from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Brown Butter Rosemary Corn Bread

Ordinarily, I am a sweet cornbread kind of gal.

Big, fluffy cakes?  With butter?  And honey?  And honeybutter?

Or maybe maple syrup.

And cinnamon?

Yes please.

But every once in a long while, something savory tickles my fancy.

Have you had brown butter yet?

Exquisite.

The liquid and the solids separate, and the liquid turns a nutty brown while the solids darken and sweeten.

If you are using salted butter, it will leave behind (and also carry with it) a fine coating of crystallized salt.

I like to do it with salted butter.

Dip this in chili.

Cover this in cheese and sour cream.

Or just slice and eat it, because it's tender and cakey and tasty enough to do that.

Cornbread, you have a summer home in my heart.


Brown Butter Rosemary Corn Bread (adapted from Joy the Baker)
I wanted to do this sugar free, but the original recipe adds in a 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.  Feel free to do so!  If you're into that sort of thing.

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and 8×8-inch square baking pan.  Line with parchment paper and grease and flour the baking pan.  Set aside.

In a light-colored small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Melt and cook butter down completely.  It will sizzle and crackle.  Keep an eye on the butter and you’ll see brown bits begin to form at the bottom of the pan.  Swirl pan and cook until browned bits are a chestnut color and the butter smells nutty.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and browned butter.  Set aside.

If using sugar, in a large bowl blend together sugar and chopped rosemary.  Blend with the back of a spoon working the rosemary flavors into the sugar.  If not using sugar, skip this step.  But rosemary sugar is probably really cool.

Add flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda to the large bowl with the flavored sugar.  Whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir to combine, ensuring that all of the dry ingredients are moistened and incorporated into the batter.  Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth to the edges.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  Bread is best served warm and will last, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to three days.

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread

 
Have you ever thought about how carbohydrates and cheese form the basis of all the best food?

Pasta!  Lasagna!  Baguette!  Pizza!

Mac and cheese, anyone?  Grilled cheese?  Garlic bread?  Casserole?  Cheese and crackers! 

This bread cuts right to the point.  It feeds you what you want to eat:  carbs and cheese.

Well, all those elaborations, all those apologies, all those worries about calories, they just aren't necessary. 

What is necessary is this bread.  With cheese.

Oh, and onions.

Garlic Onion Cheesy Bread (adapted from Food Wanderings in Asia)

1 loaf of soft, fresh bread
1 stick butter, melted
1/8 c olive oil
3 t minced onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 T dijon mustard
1 T poppy seeds
12 oz grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Mix the melted butter, olive oil, onion, garlic, mustard, and poppy seeds in a bowl.

Slash the bread with X slices, making cubes without cutting all the way through the crust. 

Pour the butter mixture into the X cracks and over the top of the bread.  Fill the cracks with the grated cheese.






Wrap the loaf with foil, sealing it in and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and unwrap, and then bake for another 10 minutes to crisp up the cheese.