Pay It Forward: Cinnamon Rolls!

Last week I wrote about my Facebook commitment to Pay It Forward to 5 people this year. I got really excited for the project and paid it forward before Easter with boxes of homemade truffles and flowery cards. I worked on those packages the week before Easter and developed some kind of pay-it-forward "high". My mind was buzzing with ideas of things I could do for other people. So I came up with the idea of making cinnamon rolls for our apartment building on Easter morning.

I had briefly mumbled to Andy what I was going to do while in the grocery store. He didn't bat an eye while I loaded hoards of powdered sugar and butter into our shopping cart. I guess the prospect of dozens of fresh hot cinnamon rolls being made in our kitchen was enough for him not to question anything.

Not just one pan of cinnamon rolls, but potentially 4-pans of the ooey gooey rolls were on my to-do list. The project began at about 10pm. (I told you I was a night owl!) There was butter on my forehead and flower just about everywhere, as I feverishly rolled and cut and placed the cinnamony rolls into their pans. Andy watched from a distance with droopy eyes. He wanted to go to bed so badly, but couldn't tear himself away from the idea of a fresh cinnamon roll.

At about 1:30am the first batch of steaming cinnamon rolls came out of the oven. They smelled heavenly! I'm sure the whole apartment building was wondering who was baking at such an hour. Andy was doing everything he could not to pounce or drool as I frosted a particularly large cinnamon roll for him. He snarfed it down in about 30 seconds and promptly went to bed. As the night was quickly nearing 2am, I decided to bake the rest of the cinnamon rolls in the morning.

I was up early the next morning to bake pan after pan of cinnamon rolls. They were all generously frosted and set out for the neighbors. By the afternoon there were successfully NO leftovers and lots of satisfied neighbors. It was a 'sweet' Easter to say the least.

The recipe that I used can be found Here. It is the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and let me tell you, it tasted exactly like their cinnamon rolls. Amazing!

PS. If you make this recipe, don't let them bake a minute too long or else this will happen and your pan will be soaking for weeks...don't say I didn't warn you:

How to make French Macarons

Last week I posted about these macarons that I made. Here is the follow up with a picture how-to. Enjoy!

French Macarons

With Valentines Day approaching I wanted to make French Macarons. Not only do they taste fantastic, but they are a beautiful treat. I love a good excuse to make a great looking and tasting dessert. The basic recipe that I followed came from here. I changed it up a bit though, to create the flavors that I wanted. The macarons are raspberry with a lemon cardamom butter cream filling. The flavors went together excellently! To make some of the macarons pop more I added some hot pink sugar sprinkles. These are such a girlie treat! Below is my butter cream recipe. Next week I'll post a picture how-to for making macarons with a few tips that I have learned.

Here is my Lemon Cardamom butter cream recipe:
-1/2 stick butter (4-5 Tablespoons)
-1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
-1 (scant) teaspoon cardamom
-3 Tablespoons milk
-3 cups powdered sugar
(yellow food coloring optional)
Mix all ingredients together with a high speed mixer. Add yellow food coloring to your desire.

Raspberry & Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

In preparation for Valentines Day (coming up!) here is a wonderful, delicious tartlet recipe. (If I do say so myself.) I am not a huge fan of Valentines Day, but I do love the excuse to make fun desserts.

I used a crust recipe from Epicurious and it will work for either a full 9" tart pan or about 4-6 mini tart pans, which is what I used. This crust recipe is great to make ahead of time and then freeze until you need it. If you make it ahead of time, form the dough into a disc (or discs if you are using smaller pans), wrap, and freeze/refrigerate it that way.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Preparation:

Blend flour and salt. Add butter; using a pastry cutter, cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons ice water and cream. Process just until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375°F and spray or butter the tartlet pans. Roll dough into a small circle and then push the tart dough into the pans, poke holes in the bottom with a fork, and place in freezer for 10-20 minutes. Remove from freezer and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the Ganache:

• 6 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam
• 3-5 cups fresh raspberries

In a small sauce pan allow the cream to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam. Then stir in chocolate. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate has melted. Let the ganache cool for about 10-15 minutes, then pour into baked tartlet crusts. Arrange whole raspberries on top of the tarts. Over medium heat stir remaining 3 tablespoons of raspberry jam and 1 teaspoons of water until melted. Pour this glaze over the raspberries on the tartlets.

Divine

Cranberry Almond Wedges

View the recipe here.

Yum, these wedges look divine. I might just have to try my hand at making them for a Thanksgiving day snack. Move over turkey and stuffing I want the sweets!