Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I don't know about you, but when I plant my garden I always have zucchini growing like crazy (and I only plant one plant!) and on top of that, my cute neighbor always wants to share some of his so we have MORE than enough for all of us with a year supply on top of that. Aside from savory ways to prepare all my zucchini, my house loves zucchini bread. My husband is a chocolate fanatic, so when I found this new recipe I knew I had to try it. It didn't disappoint.






Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
(Courtesy of sisterscafe.blogspot.com)
*I altered this recipe slightly from the original*

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup melted butter (cooled)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
2 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 small bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat together the eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) mix until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into greased and sugared loaf pans (Sugaring is just like flouring a pan, just use sugar instead. It will make the crust sweet and crispy)

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

*This batch made 2 smallish loaves in disposable loaf pans, I doubled it and ended up with 4 loaves!*

Herb Rolls

In school today I roasted a turkey to make turkey tetrazzini on Wednesday. We decided to make some herb rolls to serve with the tetrazzini. They look and smell delicious! I won't be baking them off until Wednesday right before we serve them, so I will post pictures after they are baked. Today I just made the dough, formed the dough into rolls and chilled it so it's ready to go when we need them.

(Everything we make is measured by weight and volume, and not by cups...so I will try and convert my recipe so it can be made at home without a scale. Also, it's a huge batch and can easily be cut in half)

Conversions:
1 lb=16oz
8 oz=1 cup
1 oz=2 Tablespoons


Herb Rolls

5 lbs 2 oz flour = 10 1/2 cups
1 oz dry yeast (double if using fresh yeast) = 2 Tbs dry yeast
3 lbs warm water = 48oz = 6 cups
8 oz sugar = 1 cup
1 1/4 oz salt = 2 1/2 Tbs
4 oz powdered milk = 1/2 cup
8 oz room temp butter (or shortening) = 1 cup
3 Tbs dried basil leaves
2 Tbs dried oregano leaves
1 Tbs dried thyme
1 Tbs garlic powder

Add water to yeast to let it activate
Combine the flour, dry ingredients and butter. Mix well. Add yeast to dry ingredient mixture then mix until it forms a smooth dough. Let rise until it doubles in size. Knead and form into 2 oz rolls (a small golf ball size). Let rise again utnil doubled in size. Bake for approximately 10 minutes at 350.
Yield 5 1/2 dozen.

Vanilla pudding cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting and caramel sauce

I'm not even joking when I say that these are probably the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. The pudding in the bread dough makes the bread incredibly soft and so yummy! I hope you love them as much as I do!

Kelsie's incredibly awesome cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1/2 c. warm water
2 Tbs active dry yeast
2 Tbs white sugar
3 1/2 ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
6 + c. flour

Filling:
1 c. butter, softened to room temperature
2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Frosting:
8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 c. butter, softened to room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. powdered sugar
2-3 Tbs milk
Smuckers caramel sauce (or homemade caramel sauce)

In a small bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve. Set aside.
In a large bowl, take pudding mix and prepare according to package directions. Add butter, eggs and salt. Mix well. Then add yeast mixture. Blend. Gradually add flour. Knead until smooth. DO NOT OVERFLOUR THE DOUGH! It should be very soft but not sticky. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled. Then roll out on a floured board to 34 x 21 inches in size. Take 1 cup softened butter and spread over dough. In a small bowl mix 2 cups brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg. Sprinkle over the top of the butter. Roll up very tightly. With a knife put a notch every 1 1/2 inches. Cut with thread or a serrated knife. (I found the knife easier). Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Cover and let rise until double again.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden. Don't overbake!

While rolls are baking, make frosting so it will be ready when the rolls are ready.
Combine butter and cream cheese and mix well. Add vanilla and sugar and mix again. Add milk for desired consistency. I left mine a bit thick.

Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting and top with a drizzle of caramel sauce! So yummy!!

Makes 24 very large rolls

(Note: I also tried butterscotch sauce because I had it on hand, those are also very good but I liked the caramel better)




Just cut and ready to rise



Fresh out of the oven with caramel sauce


Fresh out of the oven with just frosting

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Mart's Grandparents are from England and his mom was born there. He grew up eating a few different English meals that he just loves. One of them is roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It was something I was going to have to learn how to make for him. Last time his Nanan (his Grandma) was here, she showed me how to make a couple different English meals, Yorkshire pudding being one of them.

If you don't know what Yorkshire pudding is, (I didn't know what it was when I met Martin) it's a type of bread. The way I make it it looks like a biscuit, but is not dry like a biscuit. It's more similar to German Pancakes with the eggs that puff up in the oven. The traditional way to make it is on a cookie sheet so then they turn out really flat with the edges puffy. It is most commonly served with mashed potatoes, gravy and roast.

Kelsie's Roast

Ingredients:
A roast (whatever size you need for however many people you are serving)
Carrots
1/2 - 1 onion
1 beef bullion cube (more if your roast is large)
Steak seasoning
Tony's
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper
Water

The night before you want to serve the roast, put roast in a crock pot and season both sides well with all seasonings except the garlic powder. Add veggies. (If I'm making a normal roast instead of one with mashed potatoes, I add cubed potatoes) Season again to make sure the veggies have flavor as well. Sprinkle garlic powder over the entire thing. Add an inch or so of water (more if you want more gravy). Add bullion cube to help flavor the juice. Set crock pot to low and leave until the next day at dinner time. This will make the roast shred and just melt in your mouth. If you don't like it cooked down that much, don't cook it as long.


Before:


After:



Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients:
**Large Batch** (I would suggest cutting this in half unless you are serving 8 or more people)

2 cups cold milk

2 cups cold water

8 eggs

Mix well

4 1/2 cups bread flour (if you have it, if not use all purpose)

Salt to taste (maybe about 2 tsp for this batch)

Beat until just thinner than pancake batter. If you need to add more flour, add more flour.

Chill batter 20 minutes to 2 hours. The longer the better if you can.

Heat oven to 425. Put a small amount of Crisco or oil in the bottom of a muffin tin or on a cookie sheet. Just enough to barely cover the bottom so they won't stick. Heat oil until EXTREMELY hot. (This makes the pudding puff up better, like in German pancakes). Pour chilled batter into hot oil. If you are using a muffin tin, fill each hole about 1/3-1/2 of the way up). If you are using cookie sheets, you will probably need more than one for a large batch. Bake. Do no open the oven, this will make them not puff up.

Baking time:

Cookie sheets: About 40 minutes, or until golden brown

Muffin tins: About 20 minutes, or until golden brown

(Kelsie's Note: If you are going to make gravy to go with mashed potatoes, save about 1/2 cup of the batter and set aside)

Beef Gravy:

Drippings from roast, with everything strained out
1/2 cup or so of left over Yorkshire pudding batter

Heat drippings in a saucepan until warm. Pour in leftover batter and whisk well. Once it heats up it will thicken like a roux or cornstarch, except it will taste better.

Pour over potatoes and roast if desired.