Trying to Keep Up with Life

Cinnamon Monkeying Around Bread
dough going into fridge overnight to rise

Soft outside, buttery and cinnamony outside

There's always school, isn't there; always there are lessons to be honed for the next day. But there are also chores, puzzles to do, reading about pies and maternal boundaries, too much TV to binge, and resting the knees. On top of the usual, I've started my Christmas baking tests. Yesterday I did King Arthur Flour's Monkeying Around Bread. It's a single layer monkey bread made with a simple enriched dough with a cinnamon sugar coating. We are considering baking at school, and this is one recipe for consideration. Each child can make her own batch and take it home. 

Nelly loves one of her new toys so much that she managed to push it into a back corner that I could not reach. But Amelia came yesterday and snagged it out so that Nelly is happily back in business.

00:31

Amelia also fixed the garage door openers so I don't have to worry about animals in the garage during the day. The oil tank in the garage is also protected from the wind now. Except a big flower pot fell on the feeding pipe and had to be retrieved—the copper pipe was not damaged.

In particular, these are the animals I want out of the garage:

The Porcupine

This is not the photo I posted earlier this week. It's the same porkie, just another shot. I couldn't decide which of the two shots was best. They were both handheld shots. The wind and rain kept slamming the door on me, so the tripod (which I did get out of the car and into the house) would not have worked. But somehow, on that dark day, I managed to get the settings right for the light and held the camera steady enough for better shots. I can imagine how good they would been with a tripod. The porcupines have been quiet this week and I have only seen one. I will drive up to the trees in a couple days to see if they are okay or not (Lucy has given no indications that one fell out of the tree, so all should be well).

I've missed some awesome shots this week: a manure spreader in a whiteout, a flock of starlings, candid dog and cat shots. Starlings are rare here and I get excited to see them. They may not be native, may even be invasive, but they are so intelligent and beautifully patterned that I enjoy them greatly. 

I came home to see Betsy in the new cat tree. I woke her up and got this shot:

Betsy

Even though it has been wicked busy and tiring, these have been happy non-depressed days. Classes have been going well. The little bitty kids and I are learning about snowflakes. We also read a Hanukkah book and played dreidel. My snowflake catcher has arrived from Vermont Snowflakes, so we will capture some and attempt to photograph them. Two other classes are doing rates. One class in a consumer orientation, the other in a pure mathematics orientation. There are only two full weeks of classes left before break. The two weeks are followed by two and a half days of kids frenzied by Christmas (the little ones already are) and all of the activities. 

I am truly looking forward to that long break.

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Dorie Greenspan vs. King Arthur

"My" apple cake
I asked Amy to level the top and she said
"It's fine."

You can find recipe links at the bottom of the post.

One of my favorite things to do is to virtually bake with my kids. They are in Vermont, Washington, DC, and Connecticut. Sometimes we simply just bake whatever we want, but sometimes we bake the same recipe. We turn on our phones and show techniques and equipment to each other (yes, just like the baking shows). We holler instructions, question each other's sanity ("You did what??"), and laugh. This new family tradition began during lockdown.

Yesterday, we did a Dorie Greenspan recipe, Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake. I had shared a King Arthur Apple Cake recipe with the group. We all agreed we were going to bake it. But Andrew, in DC, is our professional-grade baker, who is so serious that he specially insures his kitchen. He found the derivative recipe from which King Arthur (KAF) based their recipe. We read, we compared and debated and decided to do Greenspan's original recipe first. 

Again, "my" apple cake

There were quite a few reasons for the decision. KAF uses two flours, 2 extracts, and a crushed nut bottom. It also used fewer apples. KAF was actually a more complicated recipe, which is odd. I suspect they are going through another phase to gain more readers and market. Greenspan got her recipe from a French woman. Andrew said it was authentic, the way the French bake: no spices, just the pure apple taste coming through. I mocked that, because Greenspan uses 4 apples, each a different variety. I doubt the French had a choice of apples back in the day. I cook with Cortland and Macintosh and that's that. But when I think about it, even though the French probably used what was at hand, we are privileged to have all these apple varieties now that can enhance flavor. 

Because of my arthritis, I can barely cook anymore. Amelia was here and I had the Cortlands, so she made two cakes: mine and one for her house (I did prep the pans, though). Andrew had 2 Granny Smith, 2 Gala, and an extra Gala from a Tarte Tatin he made last weekend, giving him 5 instead of 4 apples. I have farm eggs, but somehow I had gotten medium-sized eggs, so Amelia and I decided we had to toss in one or two extra to make sure the cake was custardy enough. Amelia, good little American that she is, was going to add cinnamon and cloves to the cake, but I threatened her life. The entire point of this bake was to taste apple, not spices, like the old French did. After she divided the batter between the two springform pans, we realized we were short 2 apples (that's what happens when you are all talking at once on a video call), so she cut up another one, tossed the chunks in each pan and stirred it all up. She refused to do a fourth. Andrew ran down to the corner to get the best vanilla extract money can buy (you can do that in DC, I guess). We used the vanilla I make from John's old applejack made from our apple orchard.

We had all agreed not to use rum at all.

Andrew's apple cake
He meticulously leveled the cake top

Final Opinions

(Anna was out shopping in Connecticut but was in on the call)

Me

This cake is divine. I never want another cake in my life. I never want to taste cinnamon again except in my pumpkin and squash pies and breads. I will play with different varieties of apples even though the Cortlands were perfect. I'm not going to even try the KAF version.

Amelia

I'm going to use cinnamon next time.

Andrew

I think if you make this with pears and the rum brandy ice cream I make (which tastes like egg nog) it would be a good Christmas dessert. I'll garnish it with some candied nuts.

Recipes:

Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake

Mostly Apples Apple Cake

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Wordless Wednesday: Bread Season Begins

KAF Just Bread

Wordless at
Comedy Plus

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My Simple Photo a Day Project

09.17.2022 Bread is my therapy

While visiting blogs today, I ran across Soma, a graphic artist at Ink Torrents. On her sidebar I saw a link to her Simple 365 Photo a Day Project. She photographed a simple thing every day and captioned each. Soma chose black & white for her photos. I'm going to do as I feel when I feel it. The photos will most likely all be from my phone. They will show the comfort of simple things. I'm changing it to a Photo a Day project because I am starting so late in the year.

As each day goes to the next, I want to move the old photos to a new tab on the blog. I'll see how that designing and formatting go, but that's the plan. 

Yesterday my first shot was of a loaf of King Arthur Flour sandwich bread that I have been making lately. Click the link for the recipe. If a recipe is involved, I will link to it in the sidebar. Unfortunately, I don't know how to make it open in a new window or tab, so just right-click it for a new window or tab.

Thank you, Soma.

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Making Malt Powder: Fail!

In my post Making Bread, I explained that malt powder is used in some bread recipes. I didn't have any when I made my English Granary Loaves (shown in the photo above), so I decided to make my own malt powder with wheat berries that I had on hand.

Following instructions found at jugalbandi blog, I soaked my wheat berries in water for 24 hours (shown above). Then I drained them and put them in a dry bowl and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. They remained in this bowl for another 24 hours and the wheat berries sprouted.

In the photo above you see how I am drying the sprouted wheat on a towel for one hour. In the photograph below, you can see the sprouted berries more clearly.

After drying on the towel, John and I loaded the berries in the dehydrator for another 24 hours. John carefully tore paper towels to fit the shape of the trays of the dehydrator because the berries are so small. We monitored the temperature inside the dehydrator so that it never was warmer than 130°F. This ensures that the enzymes in the malt powder are still alive.

We were finally able to grind the berries into a flour. I don't have a wheat grinder so we used my Cuisinart Mini Food Prep. The flour is very coarse and gritty.

The malt powder is now stored in the refrigerator until I need it again. I am really wondering if we made a true malt powder or simply sprouted wheat flour. We'll find out the next time I make English Granary bread.

My final analysis: I won't bother doing this again. I'm going to pay for the malt powder at King Arthur Flour. It's only $4. The process of making your own malt powder takes several days and a lot of time. To make it properly I need to buy a wheat grinder. That alone is too much of an expense. Now I need to return to the store to replace my wheat berries. This project was a fail!

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Cracked Wheat

I had to show off today's bread. I tried a new cracked wheat recipe from King Arthur Flour. There are two variations for this recipe: two types of sweetener (molasses or honey) and two types of whole wheat flour (standard or white). This would be a great mathematics problem if I made it more interesting with more sweeteners and other ingredients and then ask how many different types of bread could you make with the recipe. Of course for this recipe the answer would be 2 • 2 = 4 types of bread (honey and white whole wheat, honey and standard whole wheat, molasses and white whole wheat and molasses and standard whole wheat).

I used the cornstarch wash from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking in order to have a prettier loaf with the cracked wheat on top. The bread is soft like comfort food and is easy to slice for sandwiches without falling apart. To see the recipe for this loaf, go to my recipe blog. This was a very popular recipe for John, who has nearly finished it off so that I need to make more in the morning!

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Making Bread

French boule loaves of rye (with the seeded top)
and European Peasant loaves.
Boule is a traditional shape of French bread
that is like a squashed ball. Boule means ball in French.

If you know me, you know I make bread. It has been a lifelong chore. Bread making was never especially enjoyable, but it was necessary — especially for my father. I started by grinding my own wheat when I was about 10 years old and making 8 loaves a week of whole grain bread for the family. (This is why I dislike whole wheat bread now.) The bread making habit stuck and I have continued to make bread all these years. I've done it manually, in bread machines, in antique bread buckets that screw to table tops, and in standing mixers.

Lately I have not liked kneading bread because of the damage in my hands from using computers too much. So when I read about the new no-knead artisan breads in the Kind Arthur Flour blog, I immediately tried the new bread making methods.

Now, besides our daily bread at home, I make the communion bread from these no-knead recipes. I also made 20 loaves for a luncheon at church for 40 people. However, only 20 people actually came to the luncheon so the unused loaves that I made were sold at $5 a loaf and $81 was sent to the UCC Haiti Relief Fund.

An aside: the new bread recipes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking allow me to use my huge bread bowl and dough whisk. (Buy the dough whisk — it's worth the $15.) I haven't used them for years because I wouldn't knead the bread and I would use bread machines or mixers to knead it. But now I can stir the dough and let it rise in my beautiful bowl.

My bread dough bowl

My dough whisk after stirring English Granary bread dough.

The no-knead recipes from this book and from recipes from other bakers on the Internet (see also here and here for more) require new ingredients and equipment. Not much, just a bit. I am fortunate that John could make me a baking stone for the oven. It took him five minutes! He also had side less cookie sheets that I use instead of a pizza peel. I seem to require a lot of parchment paper to slide these loaves into the oven, but I'm trying to cut back on that expense. We also bought two food quality plastic containers that each hold 8 quarts to store the dough in the refrigerator. We bought them at Sam's Club. Don't get the bins from King Arthur because you pay three times the price of Sam's Club. The bins cannot be air tight because the yeast gases would make the bin explode. But to store dough in the refrigerator, the dough has to be covered or it will dry out. John solved that problem by heating a thin wire until it was red hot and then pushed it through the lids of the bins (it slipped through the plastic lids like butter). The hole is invisible but is big enough to to let yeast gases escape safely. If I ever want the bins to be air tight, I simply need to plug the tiny hole with a tooth pick.

The new ingredients are not required because of the no-knead method. They are required because the recipes are Old World, not American. They are authentic tasting recipes that are way better, I find, than the health food loaves I would make when requested. My creativity is sparked by these recipes and I look forward to creating new tastes and shapes of loaves. The textures of these breads are fascinating and the taste of the loaves is rich.

Below is a photo of one of my piles of bread gear in the kitchen:

My bread gear

In this photo are oat flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, oat bran, raw seseme seeds, wheat berries, cracked wheat, my yeast jar, raisins, dates, malted wheat flakes and other stuff. Some of these things I get at the Kearsarge Coop but they don't carry a lot of things they should carry, are very expensive and are often grouchy. The grocery stores now carry a lot of this stuff. I only had to go to King Arthur for the malted wheat flakes and the cracked wheat. I also have huge amounts of King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, rye flour, and corn meal.

I should have also gotten malt powder but I forgot. So I am now making my own. I searched the Internet for a malt powder substitute and found that I could make my own malt powder with wheat berries. I happened to have some wheat berries in my bread gear, so I am processing them now for malt powder. Click this link at jugalbandi blog for directions in how to make your own malt powder.

Wheat berries soaking in water for 24 hours.

I am not entirely sure why malt powder is used in some of the bread recipes. But it is a sweetener, helps the leavening, and improves the taste, color and texture of the bread (or so I read). According to Wikipedia, "malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate by soaking in water[1] and are then quickly halted from germinating further by drying/heating with hot air.[2][3] Thus, malting is a combination of two processes: the sprouting process and the kiln-drying process. These latter terms are often preferred when referring to the field of brewing for batches of beer or other beverages as they provide more specific information."

When Anna visited us two weeks ago, I was in the middle of baking for the church luncheon. She went home with about 10 loaves of artisan bread. She prefers whole grain breads but I also sent home a couple of white and light wheat loaves for Aaron. They loved it all!

When John and I went to the King Arthur store this weekend, I impulsively bought the second bread book by Hertzberg and Francoise: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients. Don't buy impulsively! I paid $27.50 for a book that amazon.com carries for $18.47. I am kicking myself now. Click my links here for either (or both) books and you will be having as much fun as I am baking bread.

Hertzog & Francois have a great blog at Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It has updates, new hints and tricks and corrections. The authors will personally answer any questions that you have and cannot find answers to elsewhere.

A final note . . . John is not the biggest fan of these artisan loaves. For him, I still make a wonderful traditional loaf found at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2010/01/28/sandwich-bread-fit-for-the-king/.

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Communion Bread

I made the communion bread for church for December (and am hoping to do it every month in the future) and I'm proud of the results of the rustic recipe from King Arthur Flour. After the breads have cooled over night, I take the crust off of one and a half of the loaves. I cube the bread. The half loaf that remains is partially cut through. The pastor uses this half loaf and pulls it apart for the congregation during communion. The cubed bread is divided into two piles, one pile for each aisle in church.

In my denomination, the United Church of Christ (Congregational), we have communion on the first Sunday of each month. Every person is invited to participate, so we want to be as inclusive as possible. This recipe is sugar free, which hopefully will be acceptable for diabetics.

The King Arthur bakers have a blog now, and this wonderful and versatile recipe can be found at the No-Knead Crusty White Bread blog post. It is perfect for chili or soup. You can make it all different shapes and textures. This really is the easiest bread you will ever make in your life! Try it!

The recipe is adapted by the King Arthur Bakers from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

But this bread is not gluten free.

Since I had never made bread without gluten (can it be called bread if it does not have gluten?), I bought a Red Mill gluten free bread mix. I followed the directions religiously. Even though the dough of the gluten free loaf felt like a pile of bird seed, I was hopeful that it would be a good alternative for the gluten free folks. It actually smelled quite good in the oven. But it was quite a disappointment. It was nearly impossible to determine when it was finished baking. It was nearly impossible to slice. And it was impossible to eat. It was tough cardboard. We tossed the gluten free loaf out for the birds. It is still there to this day, buried in the snow. The birds won't touch it.

I'm definitely going to buy the book from which my communion bread recipe came. I'll have fun this winter trying all the quick rustic breads. You can't err when making these simple breads, so don't be intimidated by bread making. Click the link below!


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Homemade Playdough Recipe

Rainy day got your kids down? Looking for a quick and easy homemade craft that will get their creative gears turning? Try this homemade playdough. Just 5 basic pantry ingredients and an adult to heat the water, and the world of color, fun and fantasy are just around the corner.

Hands-on time: 5 mins. to 10 mins.
Total time: 5 mins. to 10 mins.

Playdough

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups very hot water
various food coloring (optional but fun)
various scented oils or liquid flavorings (again, optional)

Directions

1) Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar with a whisk until well blended. Break up any lumps of salt with your fingers.

2) Add the oil to the hot water (a good job for grownups). Mix into the flour blend until a smooth dough forms. The dough will be quite warm to being with, but cools quickly.

3) If using colors and scents, divide the dough into sections and scent and color each. Wearing rubber gloves for the initial kneading will help keep your hands from becoming stained.

4) Once your shapes, critters, and designs are done, they can be dried at room temperature overnight, or longer, and painted with craft paints for lasting treasures. If you are not keeping shapes, etc. the playdough can be stored airtight in the fridge for one week.

© King Arthur Flour, Inc.

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My First Brioche

My Food Set on Flickr

Last week I went to King Arthur in Norwich, VT and found a brioche mix and pans (which I can't find up here in the Kingdom). So I bought two brioche pans and 1 mix and made it today. How delicious! But look: they are too brown, too big for the pans, and my topkknots? Where are they? One fell off and the other slipped down and looked like a wart! The mix is fantastic. No chemicals. You add a stick of butter (and use real butter — who would use anything else?).

I'm ordering two more pans right now. We've never had brioche before and are amazed at how light and flaky this bread is. Apparently the French eat one of these for breakfast with jam. These pans seem a rather big for one person, though. Click on King Arthur link, go to the store there, and order your mix and pans now. (No, I'm not getting paid for this post. But if KA wants to send me some stuff — well, I'll let them!)

Technorati Tags: King Arthur Flour, brioche mix
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New Haven: Aaron Makes Lava Cakes

[photo removed by duress]

Aaron preparing to make King Arthur Flour Lava Cake mix.

Don't do this! He used some vegetable spread that isn't even margarine. Butter is the only thing one should use.

He mixes. He stirs.

He pours the batter into the silicon lava cake forms.

He bakes. He put the timer on (after I reminded him) but we didn't pay attention. We were talking, laughing and having a good time while they baked.

They are done! Timing is critical with lava cakes. There was no fudge sauce in these.

Third mistake: Cool Whip! It is difficult to believe that they even have some. But chocolate cake is chocolate cake and they were good chocolate cakes.

Technorati tags: King+Arthur+Flour lava+cake
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Amy Made Lava Cakes

On Labor Day weekend, Amy and I went to the Glover store and got more King Arthur lava cake mixes. The dates on the packages there are old but it doesn't matter one bit because the mixes always come out perfect. The first photo up above is what a lava cake is like when it is all finished, just before it is gobbled up. If your store does not have the mix, order it directly from King Arthur. It is more than worth it.

Amy began making them quietly, so I missed photographing the mixing part (it's so easy that even I enjoy making them). These are the little silicon pans that come in the mix (you can get a mix without pans, also). They are sprayed with Pam-like spray (but not Pam, which is artificial, the stuff we use is real). It looks like ordinary batter, doesn't it?

Right out of the oven, the cakes look like this.

They begin to crack a tiny bit as they cool
(but you have to eat them warm, if not hot).

Of course, Zorro (and Possum, who can't be seen here) has to help.

The first hot lava cake is overturned on a plate.

Lava cake unmolded.

Lava erupts!
Who can wait for whipped cream or
homemade raspberry sauce from this year's raspberries?

Technorati tags: King+Arthur+Flour lava+cake Zorro Amelia

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Amy Went To King Arthur Flour and Made Cinnamon Rolls

Yesterday, Amy took the King Arthur Flour cinnamon buns class and I get to enjoy the results. You can see that we have made a lot of progress on them. She made two kinds: Quick Sticky Buns (in back with the pecans) and Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls. The recipes that she brought home are below.

It seems that every cook in Vermont knows how to make cinnamon rolls. In fact, the cooks at school make them (from scratch) every Friday morning. Do you know what it is like to go to work and smell baking bread that sends a cinnmon and yeast aroma throughout the school? Amy's cinnamon rolls almost taste like the ones at school, except there was a hint of maple in them. She says there is no maple but I tasted it. The sticky buns were superb, also.

There were 11 people in her class. A couple of the students were men about my age. Amy says she was the youngest one there. That makes sense to me, because I was trying to schedule a class. They wore big white aprons, measured out their own ingredients and baked in huge ovens as big as refrigerators. There was one huge worktable in the room (I envisioned a big room with many tiny kitchens, like our home economics class in junior high school in the sixties.) There was always something to do, and no time to sit around having a Coke while their buns baked.

Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls

American sticky buns and cinnamon rolls derive from the German kuchen tradition of sweetened yeast breads, though there are British precedents as well. German and Dutch settlers used to serve similar coffee cakes when entertaining neighbors informally, in afternoon-tea fashion, and we think the gooey buns still make a better snack than a breakfast bread, side dish, or dessert.

Ingredients

For the dough
2 teraspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) warm water
1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk
1 egg
3 cups (12 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

For the filling
water to coat
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 to 5 tablespoons cream

Method

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Prepare the dough by combining the yeast, water, butter, sugar, salt, milk and egg.
• Stir in enough of the flour to create a shaggy mass (lumpy).
• turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed to create soft dough, about seven minutes.
• Lightly oil a medium bowl.
• Transfer the dough to the bowl and turn it to coat the dough with oil
• Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, 30 minutes to an hour.
• Roll the dough out on a floured board into a rectangle about 12x14-inches. Brush with water and sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the dough, leaving a small border free of filling.
• Roll up the dough from one of the rectangle's longer sides and pinch the seams together well.
• Using floss or a serrated knife, cut off slices about 1-inch wide. Place slices in an i-inch greased pan, placing one slice in the middle and other slices around it.
• Let the rolls rise until they fill the pan generously, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Bake in a 350°F. oven about 15 to 20 minutes. If rolls get too brown, cover with a piece of tin foil until the end of baking. Do not over bake rolls.
• Remove rolls immediately from pan by inverting onto a plate and then tip over onto another plate to right the rolls.
• To make icing, stir in enough cream into the icing ingredients to create a thick consistency.
• Spread over warm rolls as soon as they are placed on a plate, allowing the frosting to melt.

Quick Sticky Buns

Ingredients:
For the caramel topping
1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup (3 ounces) pecan pieces, optional

For the dough
3 cups (12 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspooon salt
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) fresh buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
Water to coat
1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar

Method:

For the caramel topping

• Melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the brown sugar.
• Stir until the sugar melts.
• Remove from eat and stir in corn syrup and pecans.
• Spray an 8-inch pan with vegetable spray and pour warm topping over the bottom.

For the dough

• Preheat overn to 400°F.
• To make the dough, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
• Whisk buttermilk and four tablespoons melted butter in measuring cup or small bowl.
• Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy) (Amy says shaggy means lumpy), about 30 seconds.
• Transfer dough to a floured surface an dknead just until smooth and no longer shaggy.
• Using plenty of flour, roll dough out into a 12x9-inch rectangle.
• Brush dough with water and sprinkle brown sugar over dough, leaving a small border free of filling.
• Roll up from one long side and pinch seams well. Filling may be messy, but that's okay.
• Using floss or a serrated knife (Amy used floss, like real dental floss) cut about 8 rolls (1 to 1 1/2 inches wide) and arrange in the pan on top of the topping, pretty side down.
• Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes.
• Cool about five minutes before inverting.

The instructor also made another roll with a pastry cream filling. I don't have the roll recipe but the cream filling recipe is here:

Pastry Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups (16 ounces) milk
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sugar
6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) cornstarch
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons (1 ounce) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

• Place 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Watch that mixture does not boil over.
• In a bowl, mix together the cornstarch and the remaining sugar. Slowly whisk in the remaining milk. Add the whole eggs and yolk and mix until very smooth.
• Temper the egg mixtures with the boiled milk/sugar and return to the saucepan. Bring back to a boil, constantly whisking to prevent scorching. Remove from the heat.
• Stir the butter and vanilla into the pastry cream, cool it an drefrigerate until needed.
• When ready to use, whisk the pastry cream until creamy. Fold in 1/2 cup whipped cream to make diplomat cream.

Enjoy and let me know how good these are! You can find more King Arthur recipes, ingredients, recipe books and kitchen equipment here. At the same site you can click th EDUCATION tab for classes in Norwich, VT, online classes and national classes.

Technorati tags: King+Arthur+Flour baking+class Pastry+Cream Quick+Sticky+Buns
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