Who said you shouldn't make homemade puddin'

If you want an easy, but impressive, dessert, go with made from scratch chocolate pudding. Made from scratch anything has a wow factor associated with it, but facts are facts, made from scratch doesn't always translate well. See homemade cakes. Which brings me to wonder, why can't I make a cake from scratch and really love it? I dunno. I've tried. Goodness knows I've tried. Must be some chemical magic in the box mix that I can't recreate.

But, homemade chocolate pudding is another story. It tastes a million times better than store bought. Is made from only ingredients you can pronounce. And is so quick and so easy, but homemade, so you look like a culinary rock star. And who doesn't like looking like a culinary rock star?

I personally love it when my kids chant my name and declare I must open a restaurant that serves cheesy hotdogs, mac and cheese, and chocolate pudding. And yes, I know only one out of those three items are actually homemade by me. Still, I like it.

Scratch Chocolate Pudding
1/4 C cornstarch
1/3 C granulated sugar
skimpy 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
3 C whole milk
1 C good quality Semi-sweet chocolate chips. I prefer Guittard
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine cornstarch, sugar and salt into medium saucepan and stir to mix.

Pour milk into the above in a slow drizzle while whisking furiously, to avoid lumps.

Cook over medium low heat while alternating between whisking and scraping the bottom and sides of pot with a silicon spatula. You do not want to let this go too long without stirring, as the milk will potentially scorch to the bottom and not taste delicious.

Pay attention. After approximately 10 minutes, and just before your pudding comes to a simmer, the mixture will begin to thicken. Once it coats the back of a spoon and you can leave a trail with your finger, lick, it's thick enough. You really don't want this to go above a barely there simmer.

Now that it's perfectly thick, add the chocolate chips.

Whisk and spatula for about 2 minutes more to allow the chocolate chips to melt and incorporate.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. It'll look like your pudding is separating, but keep whisking and it'll all come together.

Press plastic wrap directly on the top of the pudding to avoid the dreaded skim and let cool. My Grandma would've spooned it into fancy bowls and let it cool on the kitchen counter, tempting us until dinner was through. I cooled mine in the fridge this time for about an hour. It was still slightly warm when we ate it.

Most important step: top with a drizzle of cream. Yup, pure cream and prepare for old fashioned, creamy, homey, chocolaty goodness in every spoonful. Add more cream as needed.

This really brought me back to my childhood; when I licked the bowls clean. Mostly to savor every last drop of the cream. We ate a lot of desserts with a drizzle of cream over the top. Not whipped cream. Weird but good. But, now I know why my mom got after me for licking the bowls clean. Same reason I got after my kids for doing it.

Aww, love the sharing of an old-timey, family tradition. And to be clear, the tradition I'm talking about is not the licking of bowls.

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Chocolate and Peanut Butter Frosted Chocolate Sheet Cake

 Do you ever wish you had a go-to frosting that was easy, but darn versatile?  Something you can use on cookies, cakes...straight from bowl to mouth?  Then this is your frosting.  It uses things you have in your pantry....and it's so quick to make, you microwave it!  Whoot! 

Used while still warm over a fresh from the oven cake, it oozes into all the nooks and crannies and sets up soft and pliable.  Cooled down, you can pipe it over cupcakes or cookies for a glamorous look.

Today I'm using this frosting over a chocolate or Texas sheet cake.  I'm not providing the recipe for the sheet cake, so simply find one you like.  I prefer to use This one by the Pioneer Woman, but go with whatever works for you.  When the cake is about 5 minutes from being done, get going on the frosting.  You want the cake and the frosting to be warm at the same time.

In previous posts about this frosting, I've used a double broiler to melt everything...but not today!  Today it's all about making the yummiest frosting the simplest way possible, in the microwave.

 You do need a microwave safe bowl.  That can be glass or microwave-safe plastic.  I'm using a silicone bowl that I got for Christmas.  It's perfect if you make hand-dipped chocolates because the silicone doesn't hold onto the heat like glass or Pyrex does.

Okay, so let's get started.  Your cake has about five minutes left of cook time, and....

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Frosting over Chocolate Sheet cake

8.5 oz. chopped dipping chocolate or fine quality chocolate chips

4 Tbl. Creamy Peanut Butter

3 Tbl. softened butter

Handful of salted peanuts, chopped fine

**You don't have to be terribly particular about the measurements here.  If you have a bit more chocolate, that's fine, and I never actually measure my peanut butter.  Have you ever tried getting peanut butter out of a measuring spoon?  It's the worst.  I just throw in what looks to be 4 Tbl, and then taste it to make sure it's delicious.**

Chop your chocolate into smallish chunks.  You don't have to be too obsessive about this because you're melting them in the microwave.  If you were going to use a double broiler, then I might say cut them fine to save some melting time.  If you notice my fancy chopping tool, it's called a chocolate chunker, and if you regularly cook with large blocks of chocolate, it's a finger saver.  Urmmm....

Place chocolate, peanut butter and butter in your microwave-safe bowl.  Heat for 30 seconds at a time, remove from microwave, stir and check the consistency.  You want it to be nice and liquid-y smooth.   No chunks.  The reason you are heating in 30 second increments is you don't want to scorch your chocolate.  I think mine took about 1 minute and 30 seconds to get to the consistency I wanted.

Add peanuts and stir until they're coated.

The second the cake gets out of the oven, make sure it's on a level surface and then pour all the creamy, gorgeous frosting over the warm cake.  Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting all around until it covers the cake.  Be careful not to puncture the cake with the peanuts or your spatula and then let it sit and cool.

I did not lick the bowl clean....my kids did.

Once cooled, the frosting will have firmed up a bit and is the perfect foil for the rich, chocolate cake.

Serve with a scoop of ice cream and you'll have the best dessert around.  It's not too sweet thanks to the peanut butter and salted peanuts and for those of us who aren't impressed with big globs of sickeningly sweet frosting, this is perfection.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Easy Berry Cream Cheese Danishes

I'm sorry to have to do this to you, but it must be done.   This easier than pie recipe has to be in your life for the bounty that is summer.  I will be making this with all manner of berries as they come into season, then the peaches and plums and after that, well, who knows.

This recipe is so quick and easy and basically no fail.  Sorry finicky pie crust, puff pastry is my new best friend.  If you happen to love cheese cake, this is your easy fix for that, as well.  It is basically the perfect dessert.  Serve it warm from the oven or let it cool, either way it's just right.

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 C. Granulated sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 egg yolk
Lemon zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Berry Topping
1 TBL. cornstarch
1/4 C Sugar
12 oz. combination of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

1 Sheet, thawed frozen puff pastry
1 Egg, whisked

Preheat 375 F

In mixer, combine all ingredients for cream cheese filling, mix until blended and smooth.  Scrape sides as necessary.

Combine cornstarch, 1/4 C Sugar in medium mixing bowl and 1 tsp water.  Add berries and gently stir until the cornstarch and sugar have dissolved.   Set aside.

Combine whole egg, whisked and 2 tsp water in small bowl.  Set aside.

Roll puff pastry dough into a 12 inch square (or as close as you get it) on lightly floured counter top.   Cut into 9 even squares, approximately 4" x 4", each and place these onto cookie sheet lined with parchment.

Evenly spoon the cream cheese mixtures diagonally across each puff pastry square, starting and stopping about 1/2" from corner.  There will be a bit of filling left in the bowl.  Spoon berry mixture evenly over cheese.

Pull one corner of each danish into the middle, brush with egg wash and then fold opposite corner over it, sealing by pressing gently in the middle.  Brush remaining egg wash all over dough with pastry brush.

Bake until nicely golden brown and crisp for approximately 30 minutes.  Transfer immediately to cooling racks to avoid danishes sticking to cookie sheet.

Serve a la mode with some Praline's and Cream ice cream and enjoy a sweet taste of summer.

If this happens, don't worry, it'll still taste just as good as the others....just won't be as pretty.

Happy Summer!

Heather

Millions of Peaches, Fresh Peach Trifle

There really isn't anything better than a perfectly ripe, juicy peach.  The juices dripping down you arm as you reach up to take a succulent bite, then dripping down your chin making a sticky mess of everything.  Mmmmm, how I love late summer and using the glorious, fresh produce that is just everywhere!

I was in charge of making a dessert this last week for our Theatre Group.  Yes, it is as tony as it sounds.  I have a theatre group.  If you can call theatre, the local musical theater here that does comedy spoofs, theatre.  

I was thinking I needed something fairly easy as I was going to be having an extremely busy day, the day of the show.  Trifle!!  As I was strolling through the produce section of my grocery store and examining the strawberries (as that is usually what I would put in a trifle), I realized that it is in fact peach season right now, and I was fairly confident I could substitute peaches for strawberries to great effect...affect...urrggghhh!!! Got it, it's totally effect.  It was a good choice because I was able to save some time by doing some of the prep work the night before: Diced the pound cake and made the pudding.  

You know what, this trifle worked out better than I could have imagined.  The Mister is not normally what I would call a peach person, well, I mean, if you put it that way, he is, but that's a different kind of peaches....anyway, back to my trifle.  He doesn't really like fresh peaches.  Does that stop me from basing an entire dessert around them?  Nawww.  After taking one bite, he proclaimed this his FAVORITE DESSERT EVER!!!  I mean, hell ya!  I am no longer going to avoid the fresh peaches in whatever I want to make, ever again.

One of the menfolk there, had on his plate, a few ribs and a giant pile of peach trifle and nothing else.  I'll call that a win.

So, if you're looking for an easy and impressive dessert, two of my favorite criteria in a dessert, this is the one for you.  Plus, it's got layers, and as we all know, everybody loves layers.

Fresh Peach Trifle

2 Pound Cakes, I used Sara Lee's in the freezer section, diced into 1 inch cubes

Nilla Wafers

A large Vanilla pudding, prepared (you could be extremely fancy and make homemade pudding, I didn't and it was still amazing)

1/2 to 1 Cup Orange Juice (this is to add a little bit of sog to your trifle.  You do NOT want a dry trifle, eww, also, I think trifle is quite often made with booze instead of O.J., but this is Utah, people)

Peach butter (it's basically cooked peach jam) My recipe for peach butter

8 or so large, very ripe peaches, sliced

1 Pint Whipped cream, whipped with vanilla and sugar (just make it like you normally would)

Take a large, glass bowl.  You want it to be clear so that you can show off how fancy you are and begin to layer the ingredients.

Begin with a layer of pound cake.  Over the pound cake you are going to pour some of the O.J.

2: The pudding.  Spread it over the pound cake (remember to only use a portion of the pudding as you are going to need more as you go up the bowl.  Pay attention to your bowl's shape, mine was narrow at the bottom and wide at the top so I had to adjust my ingredients accordingly and didn't do such a great job portioning it out)

3: A layer of freshly sliced peaches.  I actually sliced the peaches right over the bowl so all the peachy juices would be included.

4: Now a drizzle of peach butter

5: Next comes the Nilla Wafers.  This gives the trifle a little texture.

6: A layer of whipped cream (See the above note about the pudding, you are going to need a bunch of this for the top).

Repeat the layers, end on whipped cream.

If you are wise, you'll save more of the whipped cream for the top.  As I was a little short on whipped cream, I just dolloped it in the middle and left the outer edges showing the peaches.  Turned out very pretty. I had also hoped to make a gorgeous peachy design at the very top, in the middle of the whipped cream, but had no peaches left.  Oh well, no peachy design needed cause it was that good.

And, awesome mom I am, I made my girls and their babysitter individual peach trifles.  I'm cool like that.

Aren't they precious?  Anything in a mason jar is simply precious. I just dolloped ingredients in one at a time. I only got one layer of each component in, but it was just fine, I heard no complaints.

To be honest, my kids getting their own version of this peach trifle is really the reason I didn't have enough whipped cream and pudding for the other layers.  I planned perfectly and if I wasn't such a good mom then my dessert would have been a true show-stopper.  I blame them...I mean, I love my kids and am glad I could make them a tasty treat.  :)

When you dish this dessert out, make sure you dig deep with your spoon so everybody can enjoy all the layer-y goodness.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Chocolate Embelishment for Cookies

I dunno.  It's not frosting.  It's not ganache.  It's just good old melted chocolate, sort of tempered so that it doesn't take a hundred years to harden and piped or dunked on a cookie.  What would you call it, then?  Chocolate Emblishment, it is then.  Oh, oh, oh, I know....enrobed.  Chocolate Enrobed Cookies.  Meh,  I already typed Emblishment up there, it's all good.  And, I mean it.  It's all good.

See how pretty they are, and just perfect for giving out at Christmas.  The chocolate is firm, so you don't have to worry about the cookies making a giant mess.  And it's just so yummy and fun!  You get to be creative and make pretty designs and...

Ugggh.  Fail.  Okay, so don't be like me and do this with your chocolate.  That's not exactly the goal.  I was using a plastic baggy, filled with chocolate with a snip cut out of the corner.  I had made a very petite snip though and as a result, busted out the bag.  Try, try again.  And eat the cookies that were sacrificed for this viewing audience.

Step 1.  Make this cookie  You will not regret it.

Step 2.  Assemble the ingredients you need.  That would be chocolate chips and a bit of vegetable shortening.  I would say I had about 1 cup of chocolate chips.  I used both semi sweet and milk chocolate, actually they were what were left in the bags after I made These Cookies!  And 1 to 2 tsp Veg. Shortening.

Step 3.  Separate the chocolate chips.  Put 3/4 of the chips in one bowl and 1/4 of the chips in another.   Give or take.  Maybe even less than 1/4.

Step 4. To the larger bowl of chips add 1 to 2 tsp. vegetable shortening.

Step 5.  Microwave on full strength for 30 seconds the larger bowl of chips.  Stir.  Microwave for 30 more seconds.  Stir.  You do not want to burn your chocolate, but you also don't want it not melted.  You want it to be just melted.  So after 1 minute, be cautious.  You will have to probably zap it again, but go in much smaller increments, like 10 seconds a time.  Once you have nicely liquid chocolate...

Step 6.  Add the un-melted chips to the melted chips.  Stir until everything is melted.  Voila!  You have sort of tempered chocolate.  Tempered chocolate is super more complicated than this, it involves thermometers and seed chocolate and...I'll get into it another time.  But, this'll get the job done for you.

Step 7.  Spoon chocolate into a baggy, cut a bit off one corner and get all artistic with your bad self.  Do not make the hole too small.  Or face the consequences.  And they are dire indeed.  Too big though, and you might not get the look you're going for.  You can also dunk part of the cookie in the chocolate that spilled.  I like to decorate my cookies while they're sitting on a piece of parchment, it keeps the chocolate from getting everywhere.  You can also take a spoon, dip the tip in the chocolate and swing it back and forth to make your cookies look oh so elegant! 

Step 8.  Let chocolate firm up.  I cannot give you an exact amount of time, as I was gone for about an hour after I had piped and enrobed my cookies with chocolate.  So, somewhere within an hour, they should be nice and solid.

Enjoy your beautiful embelished and enrobed cookies.

Merry Christmas!

Heather

 

Toffee Butter Cookies

This simple cookie doesn't look like much, but oh baby, does it taste wonderful.  It's kind of like those potato chips, you can't eat just one, same deal.  You pick one up, they're deceptive, you think, this isn't going to be much, just something to munch on until the good stuff gets here.  Bite.  Chew.  Close eyes. Heaven.  The caramelized toffee hits you and it tastes so much bigger than you could ever have imagined!  Quickly snatch another one, maybe two more, hoping people aren't watching you make a pig out of yourself.

I originally came across this recipe in America's Test Kitchen's annual Cookie magazine.  I have saved it for many, many years.  It is a go-to recipe for me, because it's easy and so, so good.  I have adapted it a bit to fit my tastes.  This cookie does require chill time, so be aware.  You can't just whip up a batch completely spur of the moment, you've got to give it a couple of hours to chill.

Toffee Butter Cookies
Adapted from:Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking Magazine, 2008

2 1/3 C.  Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
16 Tbl. Regular, salted butter, softened
1 C. lightly packed brown sugar
1 Egg...fresh, perhaps?
2 tsp Vanilla, homemade if ya got!  I used bourbon vanilla, it was yum!
An entire bag of Heath Toffee Chips.  Either plain toffee or the toffee with chocolate, I like them both...but I do lean towards the toffee with chocolate.  I'm a chocolate kinda gal.

optional ingredients for chocolate drizzle
1 Cup chocolate chips (I use a mix of semi sweet and milk)
A small dollop of vegetable shortening.  Probably a teaspoon or two

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar until light brown and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla. Mix until combined.  Add flour combo and mix.  Add the heath chips.  Mix.

Now, take your dough and split it in half.  Throw one half of  it on a large piece of plastic wrap and begin to form it.  You want it to be shaped approximately 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.  Nice and rectangular.  This can take a bit of doing.  I use the plastic wrap and help mush it and squish it and form it.  I open and close the plastic wrap, making it tighter each time to help the dough squish down to the appropriate size and shape.

Do the same to the other half.

Refrigerate, in the plastic wrap for about 2 hours.  You can also freeze them for about half an hour and they'll be fine.

Using a sharp knife, slice logs into cookies, about 1/4 inch thick.  Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  You can pack them in pretty close as they don't rise much.  Bake for about 11 minutes, until just beginning to brown around the edges.  Let cool completely.  DEVOUR!

Wednesday's post is going to be about how to take them up a notch and add chocolate drizzles.  But, trust me when I say these cookies are perfect just as they are.  Oh, and they are so good for dunking in hot cocoa!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. not to freak you out, but Christmas is in 9 days.  That means 8 more shopping days left...and 8 more days to make Christmas Cookies!!!  Get busy!

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Heather

 

Rebel Mormon Cinnamon Buns, if you want your house to smell like Christmas

Today I am sharing something that's very special to my family.  My roots come from Danish, Mormon pioneers who settled in Utah in the 1800's.  Details are few and hard to come by, but let me share with you the story of one of my most treasured recipes.  Cinnamon buns.  They aren't like any cinnamon buns you've ever had, unless you're related to me.  I originally shared this over at Inspiration Cafe when we were doing our series on recipes from our heritage.  Well, it's Christmas time, and that is the best time to have these, warm from the oven with a cup of hot cocoa.

This recipe was the creation, as far as we can tell, of my Great, Great Grandmother Margaret.  They are what my family affectionately calls buns.  As a child, I was always perplexed by the cinnamon buns with gobs of white frosting at the local mall. Because, our cinnamon buns never had frosting.  What gives?  If you ask me, they're a lot better without frosting.

I wanted to get the origins of this recipe as accurate as possible.  My Mom didn't know all the details so we called my Grandmother Evelyn, and her two older sisters, my Great Aunts to find out what they knew.  Aren't I lucky that I get to call them up for a visit any time I want!!  I cherish my Grandma and love to hear her talk about the "olden days".  

Here's what we know, Margaret was the daughter of a polygamist, and a rebel child at that!  Her family had to send her away to live with another family because she was too difficult!  Sometime in the late 1800's she came up with this recipe.  She made bread two to three times a week and one day decided to make a treat with her bread dough and these buns were born.  In my family, you just say you're making buns, and everyone shows up.

Margaret taught her son's wife, Catherine (My Great Grandma, let's keep all these greats straight, now) how to make buns.  Catherine taught my mother how to make buns (Grandma Evelyn makes pies, but respects the buns), my mother taught me and now I'm teaching my girls.  As far as we know, none of the other children of that old polygamist made these buns.  I am the lucky progeny that gets to pass them on to my young and am sharing them with you. 

It's interesting to me that when people talk about countries that have a deep connection and history with their food, they always say the US doesn't have that.  Well, to heck with that.  I have recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation, that still get made to this day, even though they are old timey and a bit different.  I truly believe, that if you look closely, you'll see that Americans do have a historic food culture, but it's something that has to be passed down.  You have to make these things or they will get lost.  Get ready daughters of mine...this will be your legacy in twenty years or so.

This recipe really isn't hard to make, it does require yeast, which scares some people, and if you happen to have a starter, feel free to use it as that is what my relations always used.  I do not have a sour dough starter, so I use active dry yeast.  It does take some time, as with homemade bread, you have to let it rise, punch it down and rise again, but it is so worth it.  And, it takes some imagination because this recipe is....well, subject to interpretation.  Let's get to it!

Cinnamon Buns
1 quart milk (a quart is 4 cups, but I gotta use old timey measurements! Also, this is how my family makes the milk, you boil 2 potatoes really well in 2 quarts of water, then you take out 1 quart of the potato water, remove the potatoes and set them aside to be mashed in a bit, to the quart of potato water add whatever amount the directions call for on a box of powdered milk to make a quart of milk...why don't we just use regular milk?  I don't know!  My Mom says this makes it taste better and is what her Grandma did.  So potato water and powdered milk).

1 C. Sugar
1 Tbl. Salt
2 Tbl. Shortening plus more for greasing the pans and dough
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
1 Lb. raisins 
Light corn syrup (like Karo...well, this isn't exactly the way Gr. Gr. Grandma Margaret made it, a few alterations have been made thanks to science)
a bunch of white sugar and cinnamon

Place your raisins in a bowl and pour over them the hottest tap water you've got and let them sit and soak until needed in a little while.

Grease a 12 quart stainless steel bowl with shortening and set aside...if you don't have a 12 quart bowl, then use a couple large bowls and/or dutch ovens...like me.  Use what you got.

Mash the potatoes in a stand mixer and to them add the "milk", sugar, salt and shortening and mix well.  Once this mixture has cooled to luke warm, add the yeast and let it dissolve. Mix to combine.

***here's where you've got to go with the flow...this is a pioneer recipe after all***

Using paddle attachment on your mixer, add enough all purpose flour so the dough is like a stiff cake batter.  Drain your raisins and add them in (they don't have to be patted dry, just drain them.)  Mix.

Now, continue slowly adding flour and mixing with the paddle attachment until it just pulls away from the bowl (My mother thinks it took about 12 cups of flour, but she is just guessing as she was using her sifter and sifting it in).  At this point, switch over to your bread hook and knead for 5 minutes.

You could of course, go full pioneer woman (not that pioneer woman) and not use a mixer, and just use brute strength, in which case you stir until you cannot stir any more. 
 
Place dough into greased bowl.  Grab a handful of shortening and smear it on top of the dough.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled in size.  This will probably take a couple of hours....depending on how hot or cold your house is.

Punch the dough down.  You do this to de-gas it.

Let rise again until doubled... now, this is where you get all old timey again, you know your dough is done when you stick two fingers in and the marks stay!  If you look up at the picture at the top you can see where my mom tested her dough!

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a bunch of 9" x 13" cake pans...and by a bunch I mean, as many as you've got.  This recipe will make approximately 4 dozen buns.

Mix up a pile of cinnamon and sugar.  Sorry for the vagueness.  I would say get 3 cups of sugar and enough cinnamon so that the color is light tan, or until it tastes good.  Take half of this mixture and put it in a small sauce pan.  Measure it because you need exactly the same amount of water that you have cinnamon and sugar.  So, if you have 1 1/2 cups cinnamon and sugar, you need to add 1 1/2 cups water.  Add in a large dollop of corn syrup.  This is to make your cinnamon syrup that gets brushed on top of your buns.  Place on stove, stir and bring to boil.  Once it has boiled, reduce heat to low and keep at a low simmer until needed.  The rest of the cinnamon sugar is going in the buns.

Spoon a bunch of cinn/sugar onto your very clean counter tops.  Cut off a hunk of dough.  How much is a hunk...well...let me put it like this, take your hand, grab some dough, that's a hunk.  Now's the fun part.  You are going to roll out snakes with your dough in the cinn/sugar.  Make sure to always have your dough snake rolling in the cinn/sugar.  You want to get them really well coated throughout. Once you feel it is long enough and cinnamon-y enough, then you coil it up and place it in your greased pan.

Now you need to let the rolled buns rise for a little bit, so here's what you do.  When you get a pan filled, set aside and cover with a tea towel. Fill some more pans and set on top of each previous pan, cover with tea towel.  Now that you've got your pans filled, take the bottom one and cook it while the others continue to rise.

Bake buns at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes until GBD (golden brown and delicious).

Once done, brush on your cinnamon syrup over each bun.

And then dump, upside down onto a piece of parchment or wax paper.  Hopefully if you greased them well enough, they'll just fall out easily...if you didn't grease enough...you might have to pry them out.

Let cool until you can't stand it any longer!   Unwrap the luscious coils a few inches at a time and devour.  The best way, is warm from the oven...and maybe dunked in hot chocolate!!  My Great Grandma would dip her's in her tea. 

p.s. These freeze really well!  Put them in a freezer bag, squeeze the air out and you will have buns at a later date when the craving hits...and it will, oh it will.

Grandma explaining that she expects these girls to carry on this tradition of making buns...

Something tells me they will...as long as this mama has anything to say about it.

Thanks for reading!

Heather