Cinnamon Rolls

 

 This week we took a break from the cookbook and decided to go with a classic recipe: Cinnamon Rolls!

 Preparing the dough

 The secret trick: the bread machine to make the dough!

 Hard work mixing the cinnamon and brown sugar ;)

 Ellie thought she'd go running, but then realized rolling out the dough was a workout in and of itself...;)

 Rachel tried spreading on the butter with a spatula until Ellie's mom suggested just using hands--Ellie decided to give it a try...with some interesting...GREASY...results!

 Slicing the cinnamon log into cinnamon rolls.

 Rachel's artistic moments: the cinnamon rolls were ready for the oven, and we prepared the YUMMMY butter-cream frosting!

 Ready to frost then EAT!

The Reviews:

"You can't get a roll this good in a tin pan!" ~Ellie's mom

"Excellent!" Rachel's stepdad

"The buttercream frosting was fantastic!" ~Rachel's mom

Rachel's Recipe Review:
I was excited to try a recipe that wasn't from the cookbook we've used for all previous desserts. This was Ellie's mom's favorite cinnamon roll recipe, and from Ellie's constant compliments, it was on my list of things to try. I'd never made, or eaten for that matter, homemade cinnamon rolls, so this was definitely an experience. I had no idea the process involved. In the end, though, it was most definitely worth it. The cinnamon roll itself was extremely moist, which is hard hard to come by (we had an interesting experience on a recent trip to Manitou Springs, CO......). I'd never had homemade buttercream frosting before either, which was a real treat. It was thick, and rich, and YUMMMY. Together, made a delicious combo. All in all, our homemade cinnamon rolls were a tasty treat. :)

Ellie's Recipe Ramblings: For me, this was a time-tested recipe, as my mom frequently makes it. However, I had never gone through the whole baking process myself, so I was excited for this dessert challenge! Homemade cinnamon rolls have always been one of my favorite recipes, but there has been a surprising lack of ability in our world to make good cinnamon rolls! ;) Wherever I go that I find cinnamon rolls, I am excited to eat them, but soon find out that they are no good. So these were sure a treat! :)

"Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert." ~B.C. Forbes

Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Pie

After the heat wave swept through Minnesota last week, we were ready for something cold!

 

 Preparing the graham cracker crust.

We skyped in our wonderful German friend, Leona. She was a vital part in our Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Pie extravaganza. :)

  Pretending to be the one making the chocolate and coffee mixture.

Rachel decided to let Ellie grace one of her photos.

 Our super-coffee make master--Gabe

 Chopping up the Heath bars for the pie topping!

 Maneuvering the ice cream into the pie. A difficult task indeed!

 Yum!

 The Reviews:

"Best dessert yet." ~Ellie's Dad 

"Good. Very good. Can't really go wrong with coffee, toffee, and graham cracker crust. Your best dessert so far." ~Ellie's Mom

"Good. The ice cream adds a nice smooth to the chewy bottom, and the heath adds a nice crunch." ~Davis

"Mmmmm...could even use more coffee. It's good." ~Gabe

"Woooowww, this is really good! My favorite so far." ~Rachel's Mom

Rachel's Recipe Review: There are no words to describe how delicious this dessert was. :D

Ellie's Recipe Ramblings: This was definitely a very refreshing way to cut the summer heat! One thing I really liked about this pie was the layer of chocolate-coffee between the crust and the ice cream. It made this more than just coffee ice cream in a graham cracker crust--it made it a real dessert. All around--delicious! Oh, and by the way, if you noticed that basically every picture in this blog was of Rachel...well that was because after our last blogs she was for some reason feeling really insecure...she, for some reason, thought that "all the pictures so far" had been of me..so anytime I did something (a lot of somethings.;)..) for this recipe, she'd jump in and make me take a picture of her! :P

"I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream." ~ Heywood Broun

Salted Nut Roll Bars

 

 After our last little dessert disaster, we decided to try something a little more simple. We were led to this recipe by our shared addiction to the timeless salted nut roll candy bars (that Rachel will feed to her kids someday.<3)

 Marshmallow fluff is always a FUN ingredient to work with...especially when it comes in an SHATTERPROOF container (Ellie "Threw it on the ground!!"...lol..SNL anyone?)!!

 This time, Rachel made a point to not buy generic brand chips!

 The lovely nougat ingredients all ready for the microwave.

 Rachel layering the pan with the first layer of peanuts.

 

Notice the difference? We learned that Rachel was not an "aggressive stirrer"! Ellie turned out to be a little too aggressive when the spatula snapped in half!

 

Ellie pouring the yummy nougat on top of the peanuts.

 Hundreds (well..maybe a couple of dozen..) of caramels needed to be unwrapped one by one.

 YUM!

The Reviews:

"They taste like the candy bars! Mhhhhm!" ~Ellie's Mom

"Sweet. Salty." ~Davis

"Better than Salted Nut Rolls." ~Gabe

"Sweet and salty...and creamy nougat. They're really good." ~Ellie's Dad
"Oh my gosh...soooo good!" ~Rachel's Mom
"Doesn't look exactly like a cow pie (professional experience), but thumbs up!" ~Rachel's step-dad (the salted nut rolls on the plate got a little squished down to a slight resemblance of cow pies...haha)

Rachel's Recipe Review: 

YUMMMMMY! That's the only adjective I can think of to describe this delicious dessert. It was a nice break from some of our other desserts in that it was suuuuuper simple-- we didn't even have to use an oven! We used salted roasted peanuts for the majority of the dessert, but decided to add a few honey roasted peanuts to the top, which, in my opinion really added! I found that our bars were a bit more peanutbuttery than the Salted Nut Roll candy bar, but it was a nice addition as well!  I love sweet and salty treats, so this was a delight!

Ellie's Recipe Ramblings:
These were easy...these were good! All that needs to be said! :D

Buttermilk (not so) Bliss

We decided we were at the point where we wanted to try something new and interesting! Neither of us had heard of buttermilk pie before, so we figured it would make for a good experiment...and that it was!

Preparing the graham cracker crust

After our last dessert (chocolate cheesecake), Ellie's super-cool-Dutch-oven-mitts had gotten a little chocolately, so she decided to 'trow 'em in the warsh' (Leap Year, anyone?)....Unfortunately, after a cycle in the dryer, they SHRUNK!

Pouring the creamy buttermilk filling into the pie crust.

After being sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg, the pie was ready for the oven!

All baked...now cooling time!

After a night in the fridge (including a little bit of a tip...Ooops!), the pie was looking....interesting...

The Reviews:

"SWEET!" ~Davis 

"Sugary." ~Gabe

"Sweet and sugary! If it had pecans, it would taste a lot like pecan pie." ~Ellie's dad

"'Too rich for my blood!'" ~Ellie's mom  

"This stuff is disgustingly yummy!" ~Jessah

"Oh my gosh! This is really good! Oh my gosh!" ~Leona

"Really good!" ~Danielle

Rachel's Recipe Review:

I'm not usually a big pie fan, but this sounded different than your regular old cherry or blueberry pie, so I decided to give it a shot (how can you go wrong with butter, buttermilk, and sugar?!). We had a few minor issues along the way, but in the end, I thought the flavor of the pie was delicious! Obviously (from the picture above), the texture didn't really turn out...AT ALL. Because of the lack of firmness, the texture of the sugar was extremely evident, which could really turn a person off if they're not into really..really sweet, rich treats. I would most definitely take a stab at this recipe again....just maybe bake it a little longer? :)

Ellie's Recipe Ramblings:  

Well...this was definitely the most interesting dessert I've made to date...I don't really know what happened...When I saw it, I thought it would be something really new and interesting that wouldn't be too hard to make...Little did I know what we were in for! The pie never really set up or firmed out, which turned out to be interesting. The look of it actually reminded me a bit of creme brule; however, since it didn't firm out, it was still extremely sweet (the edges that did firm up were a much better sweetness). I'm still not really sure what I think of this recipe. One thing that we changed that I thought was definitely good was that we used a homemade graham cracker crust rather than a pre-made regular pie crust. So...I suppose this pie could be worth another shot...I just don't know if I'm brave enough!

"Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold." ~Judith Olney