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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Crock-pot Monkey Bread

Hello everyone and happy Sunday to you! I really am enjoying my Sunday since I took off work tomorrow and have supplied myself with a big 'ol tray of monkey bread to chow down on. Not to mention the fact that it was 75 degrees out today - I really can't complain.

When I was trying to think of a unique recipe for this Sunday's crock-pot creation, I thought it would be cool to use my crock pot for something other than a savory dinner type of meal. I began searching for breakfast recipes you could make in the crock pot and I saw a few for cinnamon rolls in the crock-pot. I decided that I would want to try to go for monkey bread since I really cannot rival my mom's or my aunt's cinnamon roll recipes. I think this is a great idea for christmas morning because you can prepare ahead, and let these cook up while you and your family are opening presents!

You will need:
A crock-pot
4 7.5 oz cans of pillsbury buttermilk rolls (these a little smaller than the grands ones)
1 c granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 sticks of melted butter
Buttercream frosting




Start off by cutting each buttermilk dough into quarters. Make sure your dough is cold, so they are easier to cut.


Please the cut up dough in a large plastic bag with the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Shake well to coat each piece of dough.


In a small bowl, mix your melted butter and brown sugar.







Place your dough into your crock-pot.


Pour the butter and brown sugar mixture over the top.


Cook on LOW (mine has 8 and 10 hour settings - use the 8 hour setting if you have the option, the 10 hour one was too slow) for approx. two hours or until they are cooked throughout.


You will end up with some crunchy pieces and some really soft pieces which is what I love about monkey-bread.


Ooey-gooey goodness on the bottom.

Serve warm with some buttercream frosting and enjoy!


I hope that you all have an amazing holiday and get to spend lots of time with family and friends. This year has been so great with my blog and I couldn't thank you all enough for your support and I wish you the very best for your holiday season.

P.S. Now I am going to sit down to watch the game with some hot wings and monkey bread for dessert. LETS GO BIRDS! E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! 

P.P.S. Go check out my friend Dave's brand new blog here: http://yathoughts.blogspot.com/



Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt

Hey guys! Welcome back for another Christmas Cookie recipe! This one is for my braver foodies out there. There is a new trend I have noticed with an obsession over sea salt, and theres always the obsession with Nutella so I thought this pairing would be interesting to try out! Not to mention the fact that it takes 5 ingredients and literally 25 minutes from start to finish!

Ingredients:
1 cup Nutella
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
Coarse sea salt


Mix your Nutella, brown sugar, egg and flour in a bowl with an electric hand mixer.







Chill your dough in the freezer for 10 minutes.



Roll your dough into 1 or 2 inch balls and place two inches apart on a baking sheet.


Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.



Let cool for a few minutes before sprinkling with coarse sea salt.


These are best warm and ooey-gooey so sit back and enjoy your fudgey, sweet and salty cookies!!







Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Swirled Sprinkled Sugar Cookies!

Disclaimer: This particular recipe is a slight pain in the butt.
But if you want to go the extra mile - go for it.
If not, just use the sugar cookie dough, ball it up, add some sprinkles - and Merry Christmas!!!

Ingredients:
3 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick margarine
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
Green or Red food coloring

To make the sugar cookie dough:

In a small bowl, mix together your flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.



In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, cream together your margarine, butter and sugar. 

Add in your vanilla and mix well.

Add in your eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between.


Slowly incorporate your dry ingredients into your sugar/butter mixture using a large spoon (do not continue to use your hand mixer!) 


The dough should come together into a ball. 


This next step is VERY important - chill your dough for at least one hour in the refrigerator. You can chill the dough over night as well . I did not let my dough chill long enough, and it became difficult to work with. 

Once your dough is chilled - you can either follow the directions below, OR you can ball up the sugar cookie dough, add some sprinkles on top and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

To make the Swirled Sprinkled Sugar Cookies:

You will need to make two batches of dough. Keep one of the batches plain, and use green or red food coloring to color the second batch. Use about 15-20 drops of coloring after you add in your eggs and before you incorporate the flour mixture. 


Remember- make sure your dough is completely chilled! 

Next, using a rolling pin, roll out both sets of dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. 


Using a small amount of water, brush water onto the surface of the colored dough. This will help your dough stick together.




Layer your plain colored dough on top of your colored dough and press down lightly to adhere them together. 

Trim up the edges to form one, clean cut, rectangle. Use the scraps to make more cookies! 

Now carefully roll up the dough into a log. You can continue to brush a little bit of water along the dough to help it stick together. Take your time in doing this to form a tightly rolled log. By not chilling my dough long enough - this part was especially difficult. 


Once your dough is rolled up into a log, lightly brush the entire log with a little bit of water. Spill out your sprinkles onto the counter and begin to roll your dough on the sprinkles until you have the log completely covered.


Once you have it covered, wrap your log in saran wrap and chill for at least one more hour. 

Once chilled, cut your log to make the size of cookies you want. I like mine to be a little thicker, but you can make thinner cookies if you would like! 



Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

These are some extra special cookies, so if you take the time to make these make sure you share them with loved ones this holiday season! Enjoy!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Guinness Stew!

Hello there everyone and happy Sunday! I hope that you didn't have a difficult time in the snow today, the road were an absolute mess! Snow days like today are perfect for making a big batch of stew in the crockpot - and its even better when you add beer! Today's Crockpot Creation is for Guinness Stew! Enjoy!!

Ingredients:
3 lbs. stew meat cut into cubes
2 lbs red potatoes, roughly chopped
4 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, cut in fourths
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 can of beef broth
1 package of onion soup mix
2 8oz. cans of tomato sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup of flour
salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and basil to taste
12 oz. of Guinness beer (or any dark beer works)




You will need a crockpot for this recipe. If you don't have one, I highly recommend purchasing one while everything is on sale during the holidays. They are so worth it!

Start off by placing your meat in a brown paper bag with your flour. Add salt and pepper to taste. Shake the bag to coat the meat with the flour.





In a large skillet, heat your olive oil and begin to brown up your meat. You may want to do this in batches so that you don't over crowd your pan. You don't need to cook the meat all the way, just get it browned up on the outside. Set aside.


While your meat is cooking, you can begin to chop up all of your veggies. Place your potatoes, celery and carrots in the crock pot first. 





Once your meat is all cooked up, remove it from the pan and set aside. In the same pan that you cooked your meat, cook your onions and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Then add your beef broth and let cook for a few more minutes, scrapping the bottom of the pan to get up all the bits.



Now you can add your meat and the broth/onion/ garlic mixture to your crockpot. Add in the rest of your ingredients and stir gently. My crock pot got REALLY full so I ended up scooping some of it out so I could stir it better. 





Cook on 4 hours at HIGH or 8 hours on LOW, stirring occasionally.
Serve with fresh biscuits and enjoy!!