Baking Binge

I am very happy to report that I have gotten back into enjoying cooking. For a couple of months there, I just really didn't want to do it. I did. But wasn't really loving it like usual. I would get hungry but just really wanted someone else to prepare the food for me.

I am also happy to report that with the cooking has come baking. Maybe it's me getting into the nesting phase. We shall see.

First off, last week, I started with Chocolate-Buttermilk Brownies. I got this recipe out of my trusty standby:

I'll spare you the step-by-step directions because you can simply visit their website to see for yourself but here is what my pan looked like. I added pecans to the frosting which was delicious and I love nuts in my brownies. They also were a little more like a cake and in the cookbook it says that another name for the brownies has been known as a Texas sheet cake. Whatever you want to call it, we called it yummy.

Next up, I had never made anything with yeast. Or that needed to rise. I don't know why. For some reason, bread just sounds intimidating to me. I feel like if one little thing went wrong, I would get discouraged and give up. I know, right? Great attitude. 

Anyway, I was flipping through my Pioneer Woman cookbook and decided I would give her cinnamon rolls a try. The recipe says that it will make 40-50 rolls. Well, Ben and I don't really need that many cinnamon rolls and I didn't want to use all those ingredients if they weren't going to turn out. I mean, 9 cups of flour is a lot! So I decided to cut the recipe into a quarter. I know, it's kind of weird but I thought half even still sounded like a lot. 

I even wrote in the cookbook what the measurements would be so I wouldn't get mixed up. However, for some reason when I got to the flour I only cut it in half. So I heated the milk, oil and sugar like the recipe says. 

Then I added the yeast.

Then I added too much flour. And the mixture was really dry. However, I still didn't catch my mistake. So, I mixed it the best I could. And set it out to let it rise. I let it "rise" for about two hours. I came home and it looked exactly the same.

I was discouraged. My mom stopped by and looked at it. We couldn't figure it out. All of a sudden the light bulb went on and I remembered how much flour I put in. I started over. First two steps down, mixed in the flour, let it rise and the rest was history.

Oh yeah, I added pecans to these, too. We like pecans.

Frosting mixture.

Well, hello lovelies.

On goes the goodness.

These were so good. I am so happy they turned out because I would have been discouraged if they didn't. Now that I have made them and know what to do, I would up the batch next time. They also really aren't that time consuming. Just simple, sugary, buttery, cinnamon-y goodness. And the maple frosting is to die for. We enjoyed them all weekend. Go to the PW website and make these and I promise you will please anyone  you want with these babies.