There is no doubt that Christmas is coming. Are you preparing for this nice holiday? I’m honestly a little nervous regarding how our 1st Christmas while not Dad is going to be. i do know it’s about to be onerous, however it’ll be sensible to be with family thus we are able to all support one another and lean on one another. We’re hosting at our house, and coming up with on keeping things terribly low maintenance. That’s how it’s invariably been in our family anyway. This has never been an enormous food vacation for us. We’re too busy enjoying the giving and receiving of gifts and simply spending a lazy day with one another. Food has invariably been a lot of an afterthought. Cinnamon rolls is obviously my favorite cake. If you’re having guests in your home for a holiday breakfast or brunch, these cranberry orange cinnamon rolls would be an ideal option. The rolls are made and assembled in advance and then refrigerated until you are ready to bake them. The cranberry and orange flavors with a hint of spice are just right for the holiday season. I love the way the tart cranberries contrast with the sweet cinnamon-sugar mixture, and the orange provides a bright accent. I used a simple orange flavored glaze, though I think a spiced glaze like the one from these pumpkin scones would also be wonderful. If you are a fan of more of the browned crust portion of the cinnamon roll you can proof and bake them on a baking sheet – the rolls will spread out a bit more than rise up, leaving more surface area exposed to the oven. If you’re more fond of the soft pull-apart seams, try proofing and baking in a dish like a 9 x 13 or something similar so they have nowhere to go but up.
Cranberry Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Yield: 12-16 cinnamon rolls
INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
6½ tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
5½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. orange zest
3½ cups bread flour
2 tsp. instant (rapid rise) yeast
1 cup plus 2-4 tbsp. whole milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
For the filling:
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
Dash of grated nutmeg
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
For the glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
6-7 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. orange zest

DIRECTIONS
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the sugar, salt and butter on medium-high speed until smooth. Mix in the egg and orange zest until incorporated. Mix in the flour, yeast and milk until a dough forms. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed, about 8 minutes until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky. (You may need to add a little extra flour or liquid to achieve this texture.) Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
• Mist a work surface with spray oil. Roll it out into a rectangle with a rolling pin, lightly dusting the dough with flour if needed to keep itf from sticking (about 12 x 14 inches for larger rolls or 9 x 18 inches for smaller rolls). Combine the sugar, cinnamon rolls, and spices in a small bowl and mix to blend. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the surface of the dough. Sprinkle the berries over the top evenly of the dough. Starting with the wide edge, roll up the dough into a cigar-shaped log, creating a cinnamon sugar spiral as you roll. Pinch the seam shut, and with the seam side down, slice the log into your desired number of rolls. Transfer them to a baking sheet or baking dish lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, placing the rolls about ½-1 inch apart.
• Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 75-90 minutes, until the rolls have grown into each other and have nearly doubled in size. At this point, the rolls can also be covered and retarded in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Pull the pan out of the refrigerator 3-4 hours before baking to let the dough proof.
• Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool in the baking pan or dish about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Whisk together the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth and then drizzle over the top of the cinnamon rolls. Let cool at least 15-20 minutes before serving.
I love cinnamon rolls; however they’re thus time consuming to form. I found this recipe within the Barefoot Contessa’s Back to Basics cookbook and thought I’d share!
If you’ve never tried operating with Puff Pastry, it’s very nice. it’s loaded with legion nice recipes using frozen puff pastry.
I puzzled a protracted time ago what precisely is puff pastry? This can be what I identified during a nut shell…However, you don’t need to bear all of this work to form your own puff pastry – they sell it within the freezer section at the foodstuff.
Puff pastry is sort of a pie crust that rises high with no leavening. There are solely four ingredients that conjure puff pastry…butter, flour, salt and water. it’s how the ingredients work along when heated makes the pastry puff.
The dough begins like pie crust with cold butter mixed into the flour to a cornmeal consistency. Once it comes together is when the true labor begins. The dough is rolled around a thick slab of butter. Through a process of folding, turning, and rolling, the butter is dispersed throughout the dough creating hundreds of very thin layers of dough separated by a film of butter.
The butter layer is what causes the rise. When the pastry is heated, the butter melts and boils, creating steam which lifts the successive layers higher and higher. At the same time, the heat is cooking the flour, hardening it around those minute air pockets, creating the puff.
This would be a perfect addition to any Christmas morning menu!
EASY STICKY BUNS
12 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 package (17.3 oz./2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
FOR THE FILLING:
2 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup light brown sugar
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12 cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Combine the 12 T. of butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded T. of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.
Lightly flour your working surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1 inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with the 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. of the cinnamon and the 1/2 cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the Sean side down. Trim the ends of the roll concerning 1/2 in. and discard. Slice the roll in half-dozen equal items, every concerning one 1/2 inches wide. Place every bit, spiral aspect up in half-dozen of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet to form a complete of twelve buns.
Bake for half-hour or till the sticky bus are golden to dark brown on high and firm to the bit. Permit to chill for five minutes. Invert the buns of Cinnamon rolls onto the parchment paper and ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon and serve heat.