Filled Sweet Rolls

The cup was given to me by my V.T.'s Becky H. and Laura R. (Thanks, girls!)  

Thinking of my hubby's late Aunt Alma-- and, missing her. She was such a special and sweet person-- a great homemaker, cooker, baker, great everything!  While our families visited back 'n forth quite often, a farmer's life/schedule can simply 'get in the way' of things we'd like to do.  Now that we aren't as tied down since we sold our milk cows, it's too late.  Special times don't wait for freer schedules, that's for sure.  Lately, I've been thinking of her (and her sister, the late Aunt Esther) very often.  Today, my mind went back to Aunt Alma making what I thought were the BEST kolache's (for the Bohemian in her family, she'd say)!!  Her fillings for these baked goodies varied between prune, poppy seed and other fruit.   OH, SO GOOD!  Well,... with me being much younger and busy with children and farming duties during those earlier years, I never asked her for the recipe--           : (            but, I surely wish I had!

Not having her recipe, I decided to make up a batch of pretty regular (sort of) sweet rolls and 'pretend' they were kolaches in how I prepared them. (I seriously doubt that's something that can be 'pretended', though!)  While these didn't end up as large and spread out as hers were, I am happy to say these turned out g-o-o-d enough that, after having just one, I quickly put them 'out of my sight'!  : )

Yield:  With the dough being rolled to 1/2-inch thick before cutting, I ended up with two dozen rolls, with a small chunk of dough left-over.

INGREDIENTS for the dough:

• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar

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• 2 cups milk, heated alone till 'hot to touch'
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 egg  yolks, slightly beaten

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• 5 and 1/2 cup sifted flour (bread flour will make a lighter product)
• 2 teaspoons salt

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• 3/4 more cup of sifted flour

DIRECTIONS:

• Dissolve yeast in water with the tablespoon of sugar, set aside until frothy.
• Heat milk in saucepan until pretty hot to touch; remove from heat and add to it the butter and sugar.  When this mixture cools down to being 'just warm', add the 2 slightly beaten egg yolks.
• Add the bubbling yeast mixture, and mix everything together.
• Add the 5 and 1/4 cups flour and 2 teaspoons salt to the above.  Using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and with the paddle attachment, I let this mix for about 4 minutes.  The dough was still very, VERY sticky!  
• Dump in last 1 cup of flour and mix with the dough hook on mixer for another 2-3 minutes.  (The dough will still be quite sticky-- some sticky is a good thing!)
• Remove dough from bowl and transfer to a lightly floured surface for kneading until the surface gets "satiny"-- 5-8 minutes?   (I think I may have used another 1/4 cup of flour by dusting the kneading surface during the first couple of minutes.)
• Put kneaded dough ball into a rather large greased/oiled bowl, turn 'ball' to oil top,  cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.  (1 hour?)
• When fully doubled, punch down; roll dough out to be 1/2" thick, cut with biscuit cutter. (Next time, I'm going to roll the dough closer to 1/4" thick and cut it with a bigger cutter-- mainly, just to see how that works out.)

 

• Place on greased or parchment-lined baking pan, leaving about one-inch space between each. 
• Brush with melted butter and let rise again (covered) until light to the touch-- about 25-30 minutes? (If you want to cover rolls at this stage, you can spray a sheet of Saran Wrap with non-stick spray and gently lay that on top-- something that will come off easily without hurting the 'rising that happened'.)
• Carefully, make a one-inch circular indention in the center of each raised roll and fill with the filling of your choice.  (I used Solo brand raspberry filling for some; and made cream cheese filling* for others.)  Some bakers make a poppy seed OR apricot filling; and sometimes, use canned pie filling.

Above:  For some, I put a dab of cream cheese filling in first, then a dab of raspberry.

• Let rise while you preheat the oven to 375-degrees.
• Bake for about 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven and brush with melted butter, again.

After baking, you can top with glaze** OR... another option is to wait until they are cooled and dust them with powdered sugar through a screen/sifter.

*CREAM CHEESE FILLING:  Beat together 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese with 1 egg yolk, until very smooth.

**GLAZE:  2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons softened butter and almost 4 tablespoons milk.  Combine all and spoon over rolls while they are still warm.

Peanut Butter Candy Bar Squares

I saw this recipe on the Betty Crocker website a few years ago, but I've changed it up just a tiny bit.  If I hadn't gotten the peanut butter cookie mix* at a really good sale price, and didn't already have the 14 oz. bag of caramels on hand, I would NOT have given this 'sweet/nutty' recipe a second look.  But, I did............. so,.............. I did! 

*This is the FIRST time in my life that I've bought any kind of cookie mix.  Truthfully, I could never see a reason always wondered why anyone would buy a 'cookie mix' when cookies are so easy to make from scratch.  Well,... I now have an idea as to a possible why--  it could be because some recipes ASK that a mix is used.  Like this one...

Suggestion:  Unwrap the caramels before you start anything.

Ingredients for the Base Layer:

• 1 pouch (1 lb. 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker dry peanut butter cookie mix
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Spray bottom only of a 13x9 baking pan/dish with cooking spray.  (I sprayed the bottom, then lined the dish with foil and then also sprayed the foil liner; on the foil, I left little tabs with which I could lift all up/out for cutting on a cutting board when done/cooled-- see photo below.  I think you could use parchment paper to serve as the 'lifter', too.)
3. In large bowl, stir above cookie base ingredients until soft dough forms.  
4. Using a spoon, drop the dough all over the prepared baking dish, then spread it out evenly and press lightly. 
5. Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until light golden brown. 
6. Cool completely, about 30-40 minutes.

Ingredients for the Filling Layer:

• 1/3 cup light corn syrup (I used Karo, the kind that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it.)
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 and 1/2 teaspoons water
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• Dash salt
• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar (Original recipe calls for 3 and 1/2 cups.)

1. In large bowl, beat all filling ingredients EXCEPT POWDERED SUGAR with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and smooth. 
2. Gradually beat in sifted powdered sugar until well blended (filling will be thick).
3.   Drop this by spoonsful all over the baked layer, then carefully spread it out evenly. 
4. Refrigerate while preparing the next (caramel/peanut) layer.

Ingredients for Caramel Layer:

• 1 bag (14 oz. caramels, unwrapped (I. hate. unwrapping. caramels!)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 and 1/2 cups unsalted dry-roasted peanuts (I used lightly salted Virginia peanuts)

1. In 2-quart saucepan, heat caramels with 2 tablespoons water over low heat, stirring constantly, until caramels are melted and creamy smooth. 
2. Add peanuts.  Stir over the low heat for just a very little while longer since the addition of the peanuts may have cooled the caramel too much to spread easily.  When everything is evenly hot, spread this caramel/peanut mixture evenly over 'filling' layer. 
3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes, or until caramel layer is quite firm.

Ingredient for Topping:

• 1 bag (about 2 cups) milk chocolate chips

1. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High for one minute, stir; microwave for one more minute, stir. 
2. Then, when totally melted and smooth, spread evenly over cooled and firm caramel/peanut layer.  (A few minutes after putting the topping on, I used the tip of a skewer stick to make swirls in it.)  

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until chocolate is set.

  

IF you used aluminum or parchment paper to line the pan before baking the base (as shown below), lift out... 

It is so, SO easy to cut them into neat-edged squares after lifting them out of the pan/dish...

 (Because they are 'sweet', it's probably best to keep pieces a bit on the small size.)  Store covered at room temperature, or wrap/freeze.



Enjoy!

Spinach/Sausage/Cheese Stuffed Manicotti**

Since finding this particular recipe in 2007, I've made and liked this Manicotti pasta stuffed with sausage, chopped spinach, and ricotta, mozzarella and cheddar cheese, eggs; topped with a favorite spaghetti sauce.

  

With this, you can make just 1 lb. meat go far! These are good (and fancy) enough to serve 'for special', but are easy to make!   According to the website (see bottom) where I found this recipe, it was found in a great little booklet called, Dinner on the Double, by Better Homes and Gardens."  (It was listed in a collection of recipes considered to be Low-Glycemic.)

For me, the 'filling' mix below ends up being enough to stuff about 23 of the large Manicotti pasta tubes-- this means you'll need a very large baking dish, or use two separates.  Of the two 14-ct. boxes of Manicotti, there may be about five 'left over' (empty).

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 boxes (8 oz. each) Manicotti pasta tubes (this may total 28 'tubes')*

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• 1 lb bulk pork sausage, cooked and drained (I used a one pound tube of sage flavored sausage).  To get more fat out of the sausage, I start frying with water added.  When browned, I drain fat off and 'rinse more off' by pouring very hot water over sausage in a colander.
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed and drained
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cups ricotta cheese (can use low-fat variety)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

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3 cups of your favorite spaghetti sauce

*You can also use the jumbo SHELL pasta (you'll need about 32 of them) and they make for a super pretty finished dish, but... although I've used them,  I don't care for how, when boiling them, they like to 'nest' into each other causing some to end up with little rips as they are pulled apart.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and add 1 minute to that. Drain and rinse with cold water, and drain again.
2. Combine remaining ingredients, except spaghetti sauce, in a large bowl and mix very well.
3. Fill each pasta tube.  (I like to use my large pastry bag for this-- without using a special tip you can squirt the filling the length of the tube with a little "oomph", but a plastic bag with a snipped off corner m-i-g-h-t work, too.)
4.  Spray your baking dish with non-stick.  It works great to put down a thin layer of spaghetti sauce.  Place the filled pastas in the dish.
5. Top with your favorite spaghetti sauce. (I used Chunky Ragu Garden Combination.)
6. Bake at 350 degrees until heated through, about 30-40 minutes.  Cover loosely with foil if you notice the top getting darker than you'd like.  (If baking from frozen state, add minimum of 30 minutes and then check for doneness.)
7. To freeze:  It is best to freeze before baking.  You may freeze individually wrapped filled pasta without sauce, or freeze sauce-topped shells in a baking dish (tightly covered).  How I freeze these 'individual filled pastas' without the tomato sauce on them:  Space them on a  baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper;  freeze overnight; remove them, vacuum seal the number you want in a bag; date/label and return to freezer. 
8. Yield:  10-12 servings 

** I first made this back in 2007, and it hasn't gotten 'old' in that it remains an especially easy  'go to' recipe for me when having Sunday dinner guests-- I say that because it can be prepared ahead of time and served the next day, OR frozen and baked whenever needed.  I found this recipe on the website of Natural Health Doc, Dr. Linda Hadley, N.D., D.SC., Ph.D.