Tag: pancakes

Baking

How Many Ways Can I Use Cinnamon?

Emerald Thunder

I just want to reiterate that I LOVE cinnamon; without a doubt, it’s my favorite spice/flavor. I’m always looking for ways to consume it, be it via cinnamon rolls, a sprinkling in my hot cocoa, cookies, anything.

I have a go-to cinnamon roll recipe, but even though it only takes about 90 minutes from start to finish, I still find baking them to be a messy hassle and not worth it for how often I crave them. Enter Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from Recipe Girl!

They’re pure heaven on a plate, that’s the only way to describe them. The cinnamon swirl cooks up and becomes crusty and delicious, spreading all over the pancake and creating a wonderfully crystallized coating.

The first  time I made them I decided against topping them with the glaze. They were perfect plain, and even though Recipe Girl highly recommends the glaze, it seemed like overkill when I topped them with it the second time I made them.

One issue I had with this recipe came up when I actually flipped the pancakes to cook the swirled side. More often than not the swirl would seep out from the pancake and start to burn in my pan. A few times that led to some smoking and burning, with me begging and pleading with the pan to not get too smokey and burned. I ended up rinsing out the pan after each pancake in order to avoid this, but that made the whole process take a lot longer than I anticipated, since I had to wait for the pan to heat up again each time.

The final results were entirely worth this slight hassle, and I think I’ve found the perfect substitute for when I want cinnamon rolls but don’t want to make a giant mess with flour all over the counter. The almost instant gratification with these isn’t so bad either, which is perfect for my impatient self.

And because this wasn’t enough cinnamon, I also tried my hand at a new Snickerdoodle recipe from Smitten Kitchen. This is probably the best one I’ve tried out so far, so I’ll stick with it if I want snickerdoodles in the future.

They went over really well when I brought them to a party at work, however they didn’t all disappear and so I brought the remainder home. For some reason they didn’t all get eaten immediately, but that was actually a blessing in disguise.

These cookies stay soft for SO LONG. I only had them in a ziploc bag, but they stayed fresh and delicious for more than a week. I’ve never experienced this with cookies before, and I wish I knew what was so special about them to have this result. For this reason alone–never mind that they’re delicious–these snickerdoodles get a top-notch rating and my wholehearted recommendation to everyone.

Baking

It’s a Lemon and Pancake Party!

Emerald Thunder

I can’t even begin to express the sadness I felt as I ate the last piece of this lemon blueberry loaf with a lemon glaze last Friday morning. While the lemon flavor was slightly over-powering, I think it was a fantastic first attempt at this recipe. For future baking endeavors, though, I think I’m going to cut down on the lemon and sugar so that it has a more subtle flavor, rather than a BAM *sour face* one (even though that was thoroughly enjoyable and made me think of Damo and his lemon love each morning). I’m not sure if I want to make this same loaf again Sunday morning, or if I want to try something else for next week. I’m going to have to have a look around the All Recipes site to see if anything new will jump out at me. Whatever I end up baking, though, I hope it will be just as enjoyable as last week’s breakfast was, especially to make up for my lack of breakfast this week (big mistake, because I realized I NEED to eat breakfast every morning).

In other lemony news, I tried my hand at making lemon squares a couple of weeks ago. I can’t believe what I’ve been missing out on. The recipes was SUPER easy, and the results were SUPER yummy. The little squares were “suitemate-approved”, and so now I know what I can make when I want to make a dessert for my suite, since one girl doesn’t like chocolate (I’m going with it, even though I can’t quite wrap my head around hating chocolate. Oh well, to each her own.).

In non-lemon news, I made pancakes. They were also yummy. It was a tried and true recipe, so I wouldn’t have expected anything less than perfection.

Uncategorized

Come on LiveJournal

Emerald Thunder

It’s becoming increasingly irritating that I can’t upload any photos to my entries, because what’s the point of the entry if I can’t show off what it’s about? I want to know what’s wrong with this feature and when it’s going to be up and running again, because I actually have stuff I want to post about, but can’t at the moment. How else am I supposed to legitimately put off all of the reading I have to do, even if it’s just for a short time? At the moment, I’m waiting to post about 1 updated Keroppi, 1 dessert, 1 breakfast, and 1 super sad CT fan that can’t go to the show taping this Friday night even though it’s less than two hours away by Metro-North. *sigh*, Such is the life of a broke college student. If only I could find a decent way to survive without needing to buy groceries or spend money on food, then I would be able to afford the ticket and I wouldn’t care about having to stay in Poughkeepsie until 4:40am when the train would arrive to take me home. I could have sworn that I said to myself that I was going to the next taping, no matter what, but I guess things changed a bit since last October. I guess I’ll just have to wait two and a half weeks for the first of three shows I’m going to. At least nothing’s stopping me from hanging around Radio City alllllllll day long that Friday. If I manage to snag some face time with Keith and Damo to speak some Irish with them, I guess I’ll be okay. Haha.

Baking

Catching Up

Emerald Thunder

This past week has been insanely busy, thanks to finals and work, which means it was the PERFECT time to bake up a storm. Right? Well, that’s what happened. There was the bread and cake from Sunday, but then it just continued.

Tuesday was the school-sponsored "Midnight Breakfast", and I have learned my lesson and won’t be frequenting that event again, partially because it’s held so far from my dorm. So, like last semester, I took matters into my own hands and created a wonderful Midnight Breakfast for myself and my suitemates. Unlike the food from my school, this breakfast was actually hot and GOOD. Rather than cold waffles/pancakes/bacon/dry muffins, my creations consisted of homemade cinnamon rolls with copious amounts of frosting, pancakes, blueberry sauce, strawberries, whipped cream, nutella, and scrambled eggs. I know it wasn’t a wonderful cross-section of the breakfast world, but any more and we wouldn’t have been able to move or study.

The cinnamon rolls made the kitchen smell heavenly when they were in the oven; so much cinnamon-y goodness. The pancakes decided to be extremely temperamental, and so only a couple of them cooked up nice and evenly golden. 

  

 

Thursday morning prompted the baking of lemon blueberry scones, and the first batch was okay, nothing amazing. If I hadn’t been in a rush to get to an exam I would have baked them for a couple minutes longer to get them a bit browner. When I finally got around to baking up the rest of the batter, it had been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, and so they turned out more akin to fortune cookies in respect to their taste. All in all, this scone-venture was a failure. I think i need to make one more batch so I don’t end on a bad scone note. 

I admit I didn’t make this cake. One of the secretaries at the school I work at bought it for the little party we had for my last day there. It was a pretty little cake, but once I saw the ingredients list it became much less pretty. I think I’m becoming a bit of a baking purist. But it’s the thought that counts, and it’s not like I’m going to hold this against her, partially because it was such a cute little cake.

Tomorrow, I’ll be baking up a cake for my suitemates’ graduation, so I need to start thinking about what it’s going to be and what it’s going to look like. Hopefully it’ll turn out well.