HausMade Cinnabon Rolls

This recipe is widely known on the Internet as the Cinnabon Clone.

Forget the Yankee candle, bake these instead.

For the Rolls:

• 1-envelope ( or 2¼ teaspoons) of active-dry yeast
• 1 cup warm (105º to 110º) milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten until smooth texture
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Add ingredients in order into a bread machine & set cycle to "dough". When the dough has doubled in size, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface & shape into a rectangle 21" by 16" and about 1/4 inch thick.

For the Filling:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, spread the softened butter over the surface of the dough and sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar evenly over the surface.

Working carefully, roll from the 21 inch edge and make a log of dough with the filling spiraled inside. Cut 1 3/4" slices off the log and place about six at a time on a lightly-greased cookie sheet or baking dish. Allow to rise again until doubled in size (about 30 minutes) then bake for 10 minutes or until light brown on top.

For the Icing:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

While the rolls bake, combine the icing ingredients and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. When rolls come out of the oven, coat each generously with icing.

This particular method makes about 12 huge cinnamon rolls. If you cut the rectangle of dough in half lengthwise, you can make twice as many regular size rolls. I made even smaller rolls & ended up with about 40 of them -- filled one 9X13 AND one 9X9.

I made these last night & reheated them in a warm oven this morning, then topped with the icing. You can also make the rolls ahead of time & refrigerate before allowing the dough to rise a second time. When ready to bake, remove the rolls from the fridge, allow to warm & rise until double. Then bake according to the directions.

Between 8 teen girls, MiniMe & I there was nothing left after breakfast except for a few sad crumbs in my baking dish.

Yep, that's how good they are.

Libby's Pumpkin Roll

CAKE

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

FILLING

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

For the Cake: Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax or parchment paper. Grease and flour paper & set pan aside. Generously prinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

Combine: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake: 13-15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

For the filling: Beat cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Cooking Tip: Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.

Taffy Apple Pizza

Ingredients:

1 Pkg. (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened

1 Pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Cinnamon

1/4 c. caramel ice cream topping

1/2 c. peanuts, chopped (optional)

The Method:

Place dough on a round or square cookie sheet/stone. Roll dough to about 1 in. from edges. Bake at 350F 16-18 minutes or until brown. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cookie from sheet/stone.

Using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla in a bowl until creamy. Spread mixture over completely the cooled cookie.

Arrange the peeled apples over the cream cheese mixture & sprinkle with cinnamon.

Microwave the caramel topping in the microwave on high 30-45 sec. or until warm. Drizzle over the apples. If desired sprinkle the peanuts on top of the caramel.

Cut like you would a pizza.

Tip: To help prevent the apples from browning drizzle with lemon juice or Fruit Fresh.

Editor's Note: Hey, I'm surprised that BB Lady didn't go ahead and give us a from-scratch sugar cookie recipe. I'll have to dig around, find mine & post it because it totally rocks.

Bake the cookie on parchment paper & remove the paper after it cools. This prevents the cookie from sticking & unnecessary kitchen profanity. Not that I would know, or anything.

But, BB Lady does.

If you are in the market for lightening up this recipe (only so you can eat twice as much, not because you dare to calorie count a dessert recipe) here are my suggestions:

Use reduced fat or fat free cream cheese. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fat free, but (butt?) with the peanut butter & sugar you are about to add, you won't notice the missing fat. I am a huge fan of real peanut butter - the kind you have to stir & refrigerate - and think it would be really good in the recipe because of its incredibly nutty flavor. Besides, who needs extra preservatives?

Oh, yeah, those would be in the prepackaged cookie dough. Not that we care.

You can also shave off a few calories by using Splenda Blend Brown Sugar - follow the package directions, because I do believe you only use 1/2.

Make sure the apples are sliced very thinly. Someone made this somewhere in my past and the apples were way to chunky. It's really about the cookie & cream cheese, not big-honking pieces of fruit. To prevent browning, apple slices need to be lightly coated in citric acid. Sprite & 7-Up work well without adding extra tartness.

Just for the record, this dessert is really good sprinkled with pecans or walnuts.

And, Thank You, BB Lady for posting this. I haven't thought about Taffy Apple since the late 90's when this recipe was making its rounds on the Pampered Chef circuit.

~HausFrau

Oreo Cookie No-Bake Cake

• 1 package Oreos
• 1 5 oz vanilla instant pudding
• 3 c. milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 c. margarine, softened
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 8 0z Cool Whip

Crush the cookies until fine in a blender, using the entire cookie. Set aside.

Thoroughly mix the pudding, milk & vanilla, then set in refrigerator to cool.

Next cream together the cream cheese, margarine & powdered sugar until smooth. Mix together the chilled pudding mixture and the cream cheese mixture. Fold in the Cool Whip.

In a 9x13 pan start layering your dessert starting with the crushed Oreos followed by the pudding/cream cheese mixture, then crushed cookies, etc, making the top layer of crushed cookies.

Mix it up: use double chocolate Oreos & chocolate pudding.

Bright Ideas:

Make a Potted Plants Dessert: Use perfectly clean & new flower pots instead of the baking dish & add artificial flowers.

Make a Dig in the Dirt Dessert: Have gummy worms coming out of the cake, add shovel & gardening tools for decoration.


Make a Spooky Graveyard cake: Use Milano cookies for easy tombstones.

Editor note: You can totally lighten up this recipe by using fat free or reduced fat milk, cream cheese & Cool Whip. Margarine can also be halved. Ok, fine. If your jeans are looser than mine, then go ahead and do the full fat thing. Just trying to spare you some muffin topping flab. ~HausFrau

Laze-E's Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes, each batch

Difficulty: easy

This recipe makes a wonderful cake-like spice cookie.

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream together with electric mixer:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature

To cream mixture, add & beat until creamy:

• 15 oz canned pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons amaretto

Mix in dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.

Use small scoop to make 1 inch diameter cookies.
Roll cookie dough in a mixture of:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Place on baking stone or cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Remove cookies from baking stone & move to a wire rack. Immediately spread on canned vanilla frosting & sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar. Frosting will melt on the hot cookies and make an icing glaze.

Cookies can be sprinkled with powdered sugar instead of frosting.

Nuts, raisins & chocolate chips can be added for variety.

Patrick's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Difficulty:Easy

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Baking Time: 8-10 minutes each batch

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Add chocolate chips to your butt's heart's desire

Preheat oven to 375F

Mix thoroughly shortening, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Drop dough 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes

BB Tip: Use a small ice cream scoop to get uniform cookies, one inch in diameter.

Welcome to Strudel

It is a sad but true fact that I am not that talented when it comes to dessert magic. I can do the basics like bake a box cake or throw together a cherry crisp, but when it comes down to waving the magic wand and creating something delectable, I fail miserable.

Usually, I can't even think of a good dessert to take to a potluck shindig.

So, I don't. I bring a crockpot of Texas Beer Chili.

But, my friend Coral, who we all now know & love as BB Lady, is awesome when it comes to desserts. She is the only person who I know in real life who can make any dessert without a quick trip to the grocery store. Her fridge, freezer & pantry are always stocked with the good stuff.

Go on, ask her.

Yep.

She has phyllo dough just hanging out in the freezer waiting to jump into a pan of baklava.

When I started blogging Not Just Schnitzel, I knew that it needed a sister site for desserts & I knew exactly who needed to be the star.

BB Lady has graciously agreed to share some of her best dessert recipe & ideas with us. These are tried and true recipes that have been keeping people happy in North Central Texas for years.

We are expecting 1-2 new recipes each week. Which is great for us because we are coming up on a very busy time of the year for get-togethers that definitely need a food porn star at the dessert table.

Speaking of Food Porn . . . it's all food porn on this site. It's a dessert blog, for goodness sakes!

So, please help me welcome BB Lady to Not Just Strudel. Let's keep her happy with oodles of positive feedback so she'll keep sharing the love.

~HausFrau

Mini Lemon Tarts

Difficulty: Easy

If you like lemons this is for you. If not, what's your problem?

When life hands you lemon, make a tart!

Crust:

• 3 oz cream cheese soft
• ½ cup butter softened to room temperature
• 1 ½ cup flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Filling:

• Zest & Juice 3-4 lemons to make 1/3 cup of juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup butter, melted

Mix all of the ingredients for the crust with an electric mixer, then chill for one hour.

For the filling: in the food processor, thoroughly combine the first three ingredients including the zest. Then slowly add the butter. After combining, pour into a double boiler & cook over simmering water until it starts to get thicken. It usually takes around 10 minutes. Remove from the stove and let cool.

In the meantime, spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick baking spray & preheat the oven to 350F. Using a small scoop, scoop crust into the muffin pan. Press crust into the pan until the edges are just level with the pan. Cook in oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool.

Using a spoon or small scoop, fill the crusts with the lemon filling. Place in the refrigerator until cold.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

If you would like you may add fresh whipped cream to the top of each one right before serving.

Bake time: 20 minutes

Prep time: 15 minutes, plus 1 hour chill time

Tip: I put the crust in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill