Twisted Super Bowl Treat

It smells G-O-O-D in here!

We had our own little super bowl party at the bacon house tonight. I decided to make a special treat for it. Nothing better to go with your ice cold... well what ever you're drinking than pretzels. Soft, buttery, salty pretzels were great while we cheered on our favorite team- GO PACKERS!!

They didn't take much time at all to make, but were gobbled up fast. These seem like another one of those scary to make breads because once again it uses yeast. Trust me, it's easy and the taste is SO worth it. These are by far better than those you buy at the mall.

The first steps of this recipe are similar to those I used while making buns here.

Buttery Soft Pretzels

5 tsp yeast (or 2-.25 packets)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cup warm water (110-115*)
3-4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP oil

1/4 cup baking soda
2 cups water
2 TBSP butter - melted
Coarse salt

In bowl, place yeast, 1 tsp sugar and 1 1/4 cups warm water. Let sit until yeast becomes bubbly. Add in sugar, salt and oil and mix. Slowly add in flour 1 cup at a time and mix until dough forms a ball. If using your mixer, when dough ball forms and pulls away from sides. Kneed dough by hand or in mixer for 6-7 more minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning once and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for one hour. I turn my oven on 200* while I start to mix up the dough, I place the dough in the bowl in the oven and turn the oven OFF to rest for one hour.

Ahhh... the relaxing hour. Today was great, Mr. Bacon took the kids outside to play, I was able to get Bacon bit to take a nap... so quiet! It goes by too fast.

Once doubled in size. Punch down and turn out onto a floured surface. You don't need a ton of flour here. Kneed dough a few times into a ball.

Cut ball into twelve pieces. Now the fun begins. This is where this is where it requires some work, but still it only took me 30 min tops to roll these out. And that was with having to answer the door three times because Little Miss Bacon kept wanting to show me the snow balls she was making.

Take one dough ball and start to roll it between your hands. Then roll it along the the cutting board or counter until you get a thin, long rope. My cutting board is 23" long, I made my ropes that long.

Now it's time to twist. If you want to make a traditional pretzel, twist the ends twice like the picture below. Then fold it over on it's self. Tada!

Next- take the 1/4 cup of baking soda and dissolve it in the 2 cups water. Place in a shallow pan, I found my 8x8 baking dish worked well. Take the pretzel and dip it in the water solution. Then pat it on a paper towel to get rid of any drips and place on greased cookie sheet.

If you prefer to make something easier than the pretzel, you can make twists. Roll the dough into a long rope again, cut it in the middle. Lay the 2 ropes next to each other and twist together. Repeat the baking soda bath with the rope and place on the pan.

Once you have them all rolled out. Melt 2 Tbsp butter and brush on the tops of the pretzels. Sprinkle with course salt. Bake in oven at 425* for 8 minutes. Go ahead and try out other variations. You can bake them and then dip them in cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle with garlic salt, our your favorite seasonings too.

Don't worry about the dough puffing up once it sits on the pan. It's ok. It will puff up more once it's bake too so make sure not to crowd them on the pans either. Baked buttery goodness! ENJOY!

Hot BUNS!

Want to know one of my food downfalls? BREAD! Hot, fresh from the bakery, all nice and fluffy and soft bread. I think I could eat a whole loaf of fresh bread to myself. But who has a bakery right next door to them?! (OK I'm sure someone does, but really who wants to pay bakery prices?) Making bread really seems like a hard, long process. It's making you sweat just thinking about making it right? I know what you are thinking, oh but it's only a few dollars at the store, I'll just pick some up. But there is nothing that compares to the smell of fresh baked bread from your oven in your home that YOU made! It's really not that hard to do, and it will save you some money. Especially if you have one of these fancy mixers. I LOVE my kitchenaid mixer. I've had it for two years now and I don't know how I ever lived without it! It's so much a staple in my kitchen that I believe it needs it's own name. Any suggestions? You don't need to have a mixer to make these biscuits. You can just use a bowl and spoon for mixing and your own hands for kneading the dough, it will just be a bit more work, but still worth it in the end I promise!

Tonight's dinner plan was Cheeseburger mac. No not the kind that comes from the box with a red & white glove on it, no "Helper" for my hamburger in this house! Mine comes from scratch and tastes a whole lot better! More on that later. I wanted some biscuits to go with dinner tonight. Not just any biscuits, but warm, fresh from the oven dinner rolls. I used to buy frozen dinner rolls that you had to take out of the freezer and let rise all day before baking, then I thought to myself... "Ma Bacon, you don't need to pay for overpriced biscuits, make them yourself!" And so I did. I found this recipe for the most delicious dinner rolls on one of my favorite recipe sites a while ago and finally decided to dig it out and try it.

Sweet Dinner Rolls
1/2 cup warm water ( about 110*)
1/2 cup warm milk (about 110*)
1/3 cup sugar
1 - .25 packet yeast or 2.5 tsp yeast

* Place water and milk in mixer bowl add sugar to dissolve. Add in yeast and stir just a bit. Let this sit for 5-10 min. This is called proofing the yeast. Your yeast should get nice and bubbly.

Add in:

1 slightly beaten egg
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup softened butter or margarine

Mix.

3 3/4 cups flour

SLOWLY (unless you like a flour storm in your kitchen!) add in the flour. Your dough should start to form a ball. If it seems sticky yet, add in more flour. If it seems too dry and won't form a dough ball, add more water. Once you have a nice dough ball, let it kneed for 5 or so minutes in the mixer. See I love my mixer... it does all the hard work for me!

Take the dough ball out of the mixer and place it in a WELL GREASED bowl (spray it with cooking spray). Put it in the bowl, and then flip it over so the top of the dough ball gets some of the grease on it too. Take out some plastic wrap and spray that with cooking spray as well. Place spray side down over bowl.

Place the bowl some place warm, ideally I like to place it in a nice sunny window. Currently in Minnesota we don't get to many of those days. On non-sunny days or if placing it in a window due to lurking pets or curious toddlers is not an option, you can place it in a warm oven to rise. First start your oven to 200*. Once the oven is pre-heated to that, TURN IT OFF and place your covered bowl in the oven. make sure the racks are not to close to the top, you want room for your dough to rise. Don't worry, the plastic wrap won't burn or melt in the oven as long as it's turned off. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. This is a great time to kick back with a nice drink, a good book and relax! After all, making bread is hard work and you need to pamper yourself (or at least that is what you can tell people who are amazed that you bake your own bread!) Once the dough ball has doubled in size, take it out. Turn your oven back on to 200* to pre-heat again.

Take the plastic wrap off carefully and save it, I'll tell you why in a minute. Clear off a work surface for your dough. I use my built in cutting board for this step. I FINALLY found a good reason to use this cutting board. Honestly I tend to forget about it for chopping other foods for some reason. Place some flour on the work area, you don't need much no more than 1/4 cup. I have way too much on my board here. Take your fist and punch it in the middle of your nicely risen dough. I know seems mean right! Here you have this beautiful dough ball, and you need to destroy it. Trust me, it's all worth it in the end!

Kneed the dough in a little flour, not too much. Kneading is just a fancy word for making a dough ball again. Little miss Bacon and Little boy Bacon do this all the time with their play doh! Once you have a dough ball, now the 'work' begins. Decide what type of biscuits you want. You can just have nice round biscuits by creating lots of smaller dough balls. Take your dough and cut it into 12 biscuits. Roll them into balls again and place them on greased pans or a 9x13 baking dish so the ends just touch. Make sure to leave room for them to expand again. You can even get fancy and roll the dough out into big circle, cut into wedges like a pizza and then roll them into crescent rolls if you'd like

Today I decided I wanted to make pull apart biscuits. The kids love that they can tear their bun on their own and butter it. I cut my dough in half. Then each half I cut into twelve pieces. Each of those twelve pieces I cut in half again- so total I have 24 little pieces. I rolled those into balls and place 2 of each in well greased muffin pans. Then I repeated with the other half of the dough.

It seems like a lot of work. Really it's not, just stepping out of your comfort zone. It took me only 15 minutes from the time the dough came out of the oven as a big dough ball to getting them ready to go back in the oven again. Cover the pans with the spray covered plastic wrap you saved from earlier. Now they are ready to sit in the oven again. TURN OFF YOUR OVEN AGAIN! :) And place the pans in there to rest for another 30 mins. Go back to that book you were reading and pick up where you left off! Ok so I can dream right. If I didn't have 4 kids that needed me to go in 4 different directions all at once, I'd love to pick up a book and get lost in it while I have bread rising in my oven.

After about 30 minutes, or when the biscuits have doubled in size, take the plastic wrap off the pans. Turn the oven on to 350* and bake for 16-18 minutes or until the biscuit tops are golden brown. Take out and cool on wire racks. I brush the tops of my buns with some butter right when they come out of the oven. Makes them even yummier!

How can you say no to one of these?! Delicious. They taste and look like you slaved away in the kitchen all day long! (and you did, how far did you get into that book?!)

They went perfect with my cheeseburger mac.

Cheeseburger Mac:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 med. onion- chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups cooked elbow noodles
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 breadcrumbs- optional

In skillet brown burger with onions and garlic. In mixing bowl combine soups, milk, seasoning and half the cheese. Add in cooked noodles and burger. Mix well. Place in greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top. Bake in 350* oven for 45min. During last 5 min add remaining cheese to top and let melt.

It was an amazing dinner for a cold winter day!

I want to say "Thanks" to all my readers. Please keep coming back and checking on the Bacon house. I have some big things in store that involve these:

Please feel free to leave a comment or just say Hi! I'm still looking for the perfect name for my mixer... any suggestions?

mmmm....Donuts for cheap

So I was lying in bed this morning and I just couldn't get donuts out of my mind. Crazy, but I guess that's what being pregnant with bacon bit does... Oh the fun cravings. So I got up early (we're talking 5:30 am here!) and was going to make some, but I'm out of oil. Bummer. SO I decided to write about them for everyone else to enjoy! (I'm off to the store later for some oil though!!)


Here is the recipe for homemade yeast donuts:

Yeast donuts:

2pks yeast (5tsp)
1/2 cup warm water (110-115*)
1/2 c warm milk
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c. shortening

2 eggs
1 tsp salt
4.5-5 cups flour

oil for frying

* I make this in my kitchenaid mixer with dough hook but you can make these the old-fashion way with a bowl, spoon and hands.*

In mixing bowl place water, yeast and 1tsp sugar. Let it sit for 5 min or until bubbly. Add in milk, sugar, shortening, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Mix on LOW ( I use splatter shield attachment too) Mix in enough flour until dough pulls away and forms ball. Mix another 4-5 min on 2-3 speed. Turn on floured surface and kneed it a few times (I usually do about 8-10 turns- probably don't have to do this since the machine does a lot) Grease bowl - place dough in it and turn once. Let rise 1hr in warm spot.

Here it is after it's first rise

Punch down, just as it says, shove your fist in the middle and push down. You don't need to take any frustrations out on it though! One punch is all you need. Cut dough in 1/2. roll out 1/2 dough to 1/2" thickness and cut into donuts with donut cutter (or round cup, cookie cutter ect all work). place on greased baking sheet. Cover with a towel (flour sack dish towels work great) and let rise for 30min or about double in size in a warm spot. Finding a warm spot can sometimes be tricky. I normally put them in the sun, but on cool days I will pre-heat my oven to 200*. TURN OVEN OFF! Then set the pans in there to rise.

These were cut with a 3" donut cutter

Doubled in size and ready to fry

In electric skillet or pan, place enough oil for frying and let warm to 375 -(I bought an electric skillet at walmart for $20 and it works awesome- has temp control too so I don't have to worry about a thermometer) GENTLY place donut in oil, or their 'bath' as Little Miss Bacon likes to call it! If the kids are around, make sure they stay back and just watch this step. And be careful yourself, make sure not to splash the donut in and watch for oil spatter when frying so you don't get burnt. Because it hurts... I know I've done it! Fry until light brown, flip and brown other side.

Take out and drain on paper (i use brown paper bag and paper towels) and let them Cool.

Don't forget the donut holes too!

Look at how many one batch makes!! I got about 3 dozen donuts and 3 dozen donut holes! And you were thinking of spending $5 on a dozen!!

I spent under $5 on all of these.

Now the YUMMY part... Top with frosting/sprinkles ect. This is always fun for the kids to help out. Sometimes you get a sprinkles overload (and yes the floor will be covered in them too!) but as long as they are having fun right?! The frosting I make is just powder sugar, milk and almond extract. Honestly I just wing it, but it's something like this:

3 cups powder sugar
2 TBSP milk
1/2 tsp almond extract (you can use vanilla or any other kind you have on hand.... you can even omit this if you don't have anything)

Mix it all together, if it's too thick, add more milk. Thicker frosting can be spread on top and sprinkles added. If it's too runny, add more powdered sugar. Runny frosting, donuts can be dipped in it for a glaze. Once I frost my donuts, I usually place them on a wire rack so the extra frosting can drip off and get hard.

If you prefer chocolate you can make a ganache frosting for them. Or just add cocoa powder to the recipe above.

Chocolate Ganache:
9oz chocolate chips (1.5 cups or 3/4 of a standard bag)
1cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a bowl. Warm cream on stove in sauce pan until it boils. Watch this closely as it happens fast and if not watching it will boil all over the place! Once it boils, pour it over the chocolate chips and stir with a whisk until smooth. Let it cool for a few minutes before frosting donuts. You can also whip this with an electric mixer or whisk once cooled for a nice thick chocolate frosting!

I know it looks like I spent a lot of time making these. And if you've never made homemade breads before it can seem really scary at first. But these are really easy. The part that takes the longest is waiting for everything to rise! Mixing the dough is really fast. And it doesn't take much time to cut them out or fry them up. So give it a try. They are SO DELICIOUS and worth it! And invite some friends over to help you eat them because they make a TON!