Cinnamon Sugar Croissants

After making Cinnamon Roll Pancakes a few weeks ago, we had some left over cinnamon/sugar mixture.  It's been sitting in the fridge waiting to be used.  Finally, I came up with something to do with it!  Cinnamon Sugar Croissants!


Initially the cinnamon sugar filling for the pancakes began as:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon


For the pancake recipe, all of this was combined and put into a plastic baggie.  After using what we needed for the recipe, I'm going to say that we had approximately a 1/4 of the mixture left in the baggie.  So if you are just going to make the Cinnamon Sugar Croissants, I'd reduce the above measurements to a 1/4 of what they are.  Otherwise, the only other things needed are crescent rolls and cream cheese (I used whipped cream cheese).

First, I mixed together approximately 4 oz of cream cheese and half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Next, I rolled out the crescent rolls and spread a spoonful over the dough before rolling it into the crescent shape.

I placed them on a sheet pan and then decided to add an additional swirl of cinnamon sugar over the top of the crescent rolls.

I baked them according to the directions on the crescent roll package.  A short time later, they came out looking like this:

They turned out lovely.  They weren't as sweet and overly indulgent as the pancakes and had just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess.  

They were really easy to make and I think they would make great pastries in the morning for overnight guests.  My parents will be here next week, I guess we'll have to test these on them! 

ENJOY!

Hashbrowns

This should have been fairly straight forward, however it didn't quite go as well as I expected.

A friend told us how well homemade hashbrowns turned out for them so we decided to give it a try.

First I peeled the potato and then grated it over a cheese grater.

I had the griddle on Medium heat (because I thought that is what my friend said to use) and lightly coated with Pam.  I separated the potatoes into two portions to make it easier to flip.  I seasoned each with salt and pepper.

I waited until the potatoes were getting translucent and the edges were brown (maybe 5-10 minutes).  Then I flipped them.

I waited the same amount of time on the other side however when I flipped them, they didn't look as pretty.

(Not sure what happened to this side).

I flipped them back on to this side again however it didn't seem to do much of a difference.  Since they appeared done after a few minutes, we served them up since everything else was done.

I didn't think the hashbrowns turned out very good but my husband said he really liked them, so I gave him my portion too.  However, we served them with some breakfast tacos (eggs, salsa and homemade guacamole) which were GREAT! :)

Any suggestions on making these better would be greatly appreciated!  

Souffle...not so much

Cheese & Herb Souffles with sauteed mushrooms

(minus the mushrooms for me)

This looked great in the picture:

Followed directions exactly...

Ingredients:

2 oz melted butter, plus extra for greasing

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup milk

generous 1 cup ricotta cheese

4 egg yolks

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

salt and pepper

6 egg whites

scant 1 cup light cream

6 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

*optional sauteed white mushrooms, to serve

Makes 6 souffles

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Brush 6 x 3.5-inch/9-cm souffle dishes well with melted butter and set aside.  Melt the butter in a medium pan, add the flour and cook for 30 seconds, constantly stirring.  Whisk in the milk and continue whisking over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Cook for additional 30 seconds.  Remove from the heat and beat in the ricotta.  Add the egg yolks and herbs and season well with salt and pepper.

Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form stiff peaks and gently fold them through the ricotta mixture.

Homemade Blueberry Bagels

Found this recipe on a Google search, followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great!  Was a little nervous because one review said the recipe wasn't very clear and had to be tweaked a lot...we didn't have a problem...

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water

2 .25 ounce packets of dry active yeast

3 T. plus 2 t. white granulated sugar

5-5.5 cups all purpose white flour

2 t. salt

2 cups blueberries (we used fresh)

cornmeal for pans

10-12 cups water

Recipe said it would make 10-12 bagels, we ended up with 16 good size bagels


In a medium bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and 3 T. sugar.  Gently stir until dissolved.  Allow the mixture to stand for 5 minutes or until bubbly.

5 minutes later...