Random thoughts from Kellie's Brain...(5th ed. with links)

In the last 24 hours I have been to our local library eight times.

Since Monday I have been there fourteen times.

Just thought you might want to know. (How's that for random?)

Last week I said I would make my Friday posts short and sweet, and start linking up to other blogs or articles I have found interesting. So here they are:

#1 - For my peanut butter/chocolate fans I give you this exciting bit o' news. I am already wondering what wonderful Christmas morsels will be made with these babies...of course, when I find them I will certainly test them, for blogging purposes of course.

#2 - What are you doing for Father's Day? I am going to make my husband grill his own supper (he thinks fire and meat is the perfect holiday), while I set the table using these. I figure that eating hamburgers and potato chips will seem so fancy with fun folded napkins.

#3 What? Are there people out there who don't brush their teeth twice a day?

#3 - For three years I have said that I will make these Tote-able Towels. This may just be the year....

#4 - In five years of blogging, I had a "first" today. I was "recognized" at the gym by another mom. "Recognized" might be stretching it a bit because when we lived here the first time, her girls attended the school where I taught music. I had never met her before, but I did remember her sweet baby (who is a big girl now!)

She let me know that she had recently read my blog (she found it through a mutual friend on Facebook). She told me that she had been encouraged by a recent post. I was so glad she told me... and I have been thinking about it all day.

Why?

Well, because in my haste to get ready to go this morning I had accidently grabbed an old pair of yoga pants that have shrunk through too many washings (to say I looked ready for a flood would be an understatement.)

I hadn't showered and my eyebrows haven't been waxed in forever. Having just finished a very sweaty Zumba class, I was headed into another weight lifting class looking, well, sweaty.

In the grand scheme of things, I was not at my best.

Or was I?

It is my greatest desire to keep things real here. To be an encourager to those who walk the same road as a mother, a wife, a friend... a woman.

Every blogger hopes that that day will come when some "stranger" tells you they read your blog. You hope that it doesn't happen when you are in grocery store screaming at your kids, or when you've just walked out of the doctors office after a pap smear.

But those things are authentic, they're real. At least they are in my life.

I'm grateful that I could experience that moment in authenticity, because at the end of the day, its not about me.

So if you are a reader, and you happen to see me screaming at my kids in the frozen food isle, come on over and say "Hi!"

You'll totally make my day.

Are You Sitting Down?

 .....Because I am about to give you something that will simultaneously make you love, and hate, me.

I am going to share my Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl Bread Recipe.

Actually, you probably have this recipe hidden in that Better Homes and Garden: New Cook Book, circa. 1989, that you stole from your mother when you when you moved out and were desperately trying to makes dinners for your new husband.  

Not that I'd know anything about that, but what I am trying to say is, I have been using this cookbook for at least 14 years and I just now found this recipe. 

To make up for the lost time I made this recipe twice this week. Once when the CarpoolQueen came over ('cuz I heard that her love language was bread), and again because I realized that I didn't exactly follow the recipe the first time, so I wanted to do it exactly as written.

Unfortunately, it turns out that I don't EVER follow recipes exactly. A trait that tends to annoy me in other cooks/bakers, especially when they make things by adding a little of this and a little of that, when what I really want to know is, how can I make that at home and make it taste as good as you made it?

The truth is I'm a rule follower until it comes to baking/cooking and then I am reckless; an absolute rebel. 

Apparently a very word-y rebel. Could we get to the point of this post?

Oh yes, the recipe, and the rules I broke:

1. The first time I substituted 2% milk for the evap. milk in the dough (but not the filling). I actually liked the consistency of the dough better that way, it was way more elastic and pliable, and the finished (baked) product less dense. I am sure this is because evap. milk has less water content, for all you baking scientists out there. 

2. The recipe said to make the dough 24 hours in advance, place in the fridge, and take it out of fridge 45 minutes before shaping.  I didn't have that kind of patience time, so I opted for letting the dough rise for 45 minutes to an hour.

Moving on....

Let's start with ingredients:

4-5 cups of flour

2 pckgs

active dry yeast

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup margerine or butter

1/2 tsp salt

1  5-oz can (2/3 cup) evaporated milk (divided)

2 eggs

Filling:

1 cup chocolate chip (semi-sweet

2 TBLS sugar

14/-1/2 tsp cinnamon 

Struesal Topping

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 butter (better if slightly cool)

A handful of chocolate chips- more or less dependent on your liking.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Place 3/4 sugar, 1/3 cup evap. milk, salt, and butter in a microwave dish. I like to cut up  my butter for control issues so that it melts evenly without getting the mixture too hot (which will kill the yeast). I zap my mixture for about a minute...or until the butter is melted, but not completely. Like this:

Take 2 cups of flour and place it in the bowl with the yeast. Add eggs. Pour in milk mixture and mix on medium speed with a dough hook. You'll need to scrape the sides.

If you don't have a Kitchen Aide mixer you could do this next part by hand, but before you get your hands dirty, go put a Kitchen Aide mixer on your Christmas list. They are worth every dime.

Begin to mix in the rest of the flour. Be careful sometimes you need more flour, sometimes less.

This is the point that I don't mind getting my hands dirty.

When your dough looks like the picture above, I take it out and start to knead by hand. It doesn't take a lot of kneading since the machine has done most of the work. The reason I do this is I like the dough to look like this:

 Place plastic wrap over it and set it aside to double in size. About 45 minutes. Meanwhile.....Take the ingredients for the filling and place them in a sauce pan. Over medium heat, constantly stir until melted... chocolate scorches quickly so don't place the heat too high.

Now go check on your dough.

 There it is all yeasty and puffy.

This recipe calls for one large loaf of bread.  I don't have a loaf pan that is big enough so I recommend cutting this mound in half.

Roll each half out into a rectangle of sorts...

Pour half the chocolate mixture....

Roll it up and put it in a pan. 

Repeat with second half. 

Only, this half we'll make into rolls...

For those of you who don't already know this trick, let me share a roll cutting tip my grandmother gave to me. Take a piece of thread, slide it under the place where you want to make a cut, cross the string over on them selves, and pull. You will have perfectly cut rolls every time!

Place the ingredients for the Streusel Topping in the mixer and use the paddle to mix. When it begins to look crumbly be sure to stop, other-wise you will soon have a paste instead of crumbs. 

Sprinkle on top. 

Cinnamon rolls cook for about 20 minutes, leave the bread in for 15-20 minutes more.

This sounds way more complicated than the actual process so don't be scared...

...or, well, on second thought, maybe you should be.