Bakers Royale

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Rolls ~ Word of caution: Use a fork. This is a delectable mess of ooey-gooey goodness.    

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Roll

A mash up of favorites, I decided to combine two flavors I love, chocolate and cinnamon into one favorite breakfast treat.    

The basis of the recipe is an adaptation of Fine Cooking’s Cinnamon Roll that I made previously, but with a few more tweaks this time around. I wasn’t sure if all the spices along with the chocolate would be too busy, so I decided to omit the cloves and allspice. I did add a little nutmeg to the cinnamon and then traded in the springform pan for a muffin pan. I didn’t have any unsalted butter, so I used regular butter and omitted the salt.    

The result . . . this is now the only way my family wants their cinnamon roll. 

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Raspberry Crumb Bars ~ A fruit filled breakfast bar that is fast and easy, and won’t leave you feeling guilty (okay, too guilty) as you enjoy this breakfast dessert.

Since the last post we established I’m not very good at listening; now it seems I should mention I’m not too good at sticking to agreements either.

The summer heat is killing us here, so baking turns our small place into sweat box quickly. Given that, Matt asked that I refrain from baking until the heat passes.

Sure why not, right? There are plenty of no bake recipes. Well I should have thought better than to commit to that. What was I thinking? Asking me to keep my baking hands to a minimum is like asking our dog Jack, not to jump in excitement when we come home. » Read the rest of this entry «

Heath Bar Coffee Cake ~ A low prep, no fuss coffee cake kicked up with crushed Heath candy bar bits.

Heath Bar Coffee Cake

Why Heath candy bar? Well my dessert-loving comrades, it is the ingredient that provides a much needed balance in an often unbalanced cake where the streusel not only takes top billing but it can also dominate the cake in flavor and in texture.

Given that, I wanted a recipe that would provide harmony between the cake crumb, the streusel and the nuts.

I started out with giving the cake crumb a more nutty flavor by using whole wheat flour instead of regular flour. From there, I skipped the traditional streusel topping for a streusel layer in the cake that included crushed Heath bar. The Heath bar allowed me to lower the brown sugar portion without sacrificing any sweetness. I added toasted nuts because nuts can pretty much make any baked good better, but of course feel free to skip this part. Lastly, I drizzled the top with some white chocolate and finished with a simple dusting of granulated sugar. The latter two items add more to aesthetics than taste—you know my inclinations for all things pretty. » Read the rest of this entry «