Cinnamon Bin "Cin"-fulness

There is no time that I exercise self control more than when I walk by the Cinnabon stand in the mall and do not buy something cinnamony and gooey and ridiculously bad for you. I will actually admit something that I am very proud of - I have never bought one. Something in me can't justify eating an 880 calorie, 36 gram-of-fat snack. (Yup, those are actual figures; I just checked them out on their website.) But they do a good job of making my mouth water!

A couple years ago, my roommate and I were walking through Trader Joe's while we were in college and prepping for a Shabbos meal, and we stumbled across fresh pizza dough. They sold three varieties - plain, whole wheat, and herb - and we bought a couple bags of the plain variety and went to town with a couple experiments. The one the stuck and the one that we have made many times over the years is cinnamon buns. We rolled it out, buttered the dough, added brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins, rolled it up, sliced and baked it. They came out really well and were always a crowd-pleaser. But I always had 2 problems with the dough: it got a little hard when it cooled down (think about what pizza dough does in general), and it didn't rise or expand too much (again, think about pizza dough). But the really fluffy, really doughy dough is part of what makes a great cinnamon bun!

In looking at cinnamon bun recipes online, they all end up being made with an egg-y dough, similar to a brioche. Well, we're all familiar with egg-y bread dough - hello, challah! So, I decided to use a Kineret challah as the base of my cinnamon buns. (You know what I'm talking about - the kind that you find in the freezer section, that you allow to rise for a couple hours and bake off. It tastes as close to homemade as store-bought will ever taste.) This dough is meant to rise, which means that you end up with a light-as-air dough. When I tell you that they were perfect, it's an understatement. They were so soft, so sticky, so yummy-smelling, and even I was pleasantly surprised with the results! And, come on, can you beat a 5-ingredient recipe? I don't think so.

(P.S. I am going to be perfecting this recipe over the next few weeks. I want to try to come up with a gooey sauce for the bottom of the pan so that, when you invert them, the sauce spills over the sides. Or maybe an icing.....check back soon for an update :-) Also, the photo below shows what they look like in the pan. When I served it, since they were inverted on a plate, they were covered in liquid sugar, which made them shine. Oh so good!)

Super Easy Cinnamon Buns

1 box of frozen Kineret Challah dough
6 tbsp. margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins

1. Remove the challah from the box and defrost it until just defrosted. Do NOT allow it to rise.
2. Knead the dough into a ball with your hands.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a 12 inch x 8 inch rectangle, with the long side facing you. (You may need a little flour so that the dough does not stick. It makes it very easy to do this on a cutting board.)
4. Microwave 4 tbsp. of the margarine for 10 seconds, to make it very soft. Spread the margarine all over the dough.
5. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, the cinnamon, and the raisins all over the margarine.
6. Starting with the long side closest to you, roll the dough up into a long snake.
7. Cut the dough into 11 slices, a little over an inch thick.
8. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick spray. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the remaining brown sugar all over the bottom. Place 8 of the cinnamon buns inside the pan, cut side up, leaving space in between.
9. Cover the pan with a damp towel and allow to rise 4 hours to overnight.
10. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the towel; the buns will have risen and just about doubled in size. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top. Slice the remaining 2 tsbp. of margarine into paper-thin slices and scatter all over.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the dough is cooked and the sugar is bubbling (but not burning).
12. To serve, invert the cinnamon buns onto a large plate. Pull apart and enjoy!

Mind your P's

Well, it's still fall, which means pumpkins are still all over the place, which means I'm a happy girl :-) I've talked about pumpkins before have even come up with a really delicious pumpkin bread pudding back around Sukkos. But this past weekend, I was with my family and we had this outrageously good pumpkin ravioli. I knew I had to do something to replicate this recipe.

When I say that this pumpkin dish was awesome, that's an understatement. It was fresh pasta, stuffed with a velvety smooth pumpkin filling, tossed in a brown butter and sage sauce. It was so good and so perfectly seasoned....but I've never made fresh pasta before, and ravioli is a bit heavy for a weeknight meal. So I decided to borrow all those flavors - the brown butter, the sage, the pumpkin - and combine them into a much simpler, much quicker, and equally delicious dish. It worked out great and it ended up being a perfect single-serving meal. Since I only used about a third of the canned pumpkin, guess what I'll be making again this week for dinner....:-)

Pumpkin Pasta
(serves one)

4oz. (1/4) of penne
1 tbsp. margarine or butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
2/3 cup fat free half-and-half
1/2 tsp. ground sage or poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta is cooking, melt butter or margarine in a large skillet. Cook for 3 minutes over medium-high heat, or until it begins to brown.
3. Add pumpkin to browned butter and turn heat down to medium. Add half-and-half and whisk to incorporate. (The mixture should be thick, but if it seems especially lumpy, add more half-and-half.)
4. Season with sage or poultry seasoning, onion powder, sugar, salt, and pepper and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
5. When pasta is finished cooking, reserve 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Drain pasta and toss it with the pumpkin mixture, adding the reserved pasta cooking liquid to thin out the sauce.
6. Serve pasta with a liberal sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Soup-er Dinner

It's finally late fall/early winter, so you know what that means: I finally switched over my closet and now I get to wear all my boots and scarves and coats and fun wintery clothes! It also means that a thick hearty bowl of soup classifies as the perfect meal. There is nothing better than coming home on a cold, wet, almost-winter day, changing into sweats and cuddling up in bed with a bowl of soup. It's the best way to unwind. And today, when it was one of those cold, wet, almost-winter days, I was looking forward to the sweats-and-soup combo since the minute I walked outside this morning.

Broth-y soups don't do it for me on a day like today. I needed something thick with a lot of texture and great flavor. I decided on a corn chowder that I've been throwing together for years. The chunky vegetables make you feel healthy, but the creamy soup is perfect for these cold nights. And did I mention that this is quick? It literally comes together in 20 minutes. All things considered, this isn't a horribly unhealthy soup either - pair it with a salad or a piece of crusty bread, and I'm telling you - it's perfect. This soup can also easily be adapted for a fleishig meal - use real chicken broth and pareve creamer, and it can go both ways! Now, all I want to wash it down is a steaming mug of hot cocoa....mmmm.....

Creamy Corn Chowder


4 tbsp. margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 bay leaf
1 15-oz. can of corn, drained
1/2 cup flour
4 cups pareve "chicken" broth
2 15-oz. cans of cream-style corn
1 cup fat-free half-and-half
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, melt the margarine. Add the onion, celery, carrots, bay leaf, and corn and sautee on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until the vegetables soften.
2. Whisk in the flour and allow to cook for 1 minute.
3. Slowly add the broth, whisking to combine with the vegetables and remove any lumps. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Add the creamed corn and allow to simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes to allow all the flavors to combine.
5. Whisk in the half-and-half. Season to taste. Remove bay leaf before serving.