Saturday, February 26, 2011

Home Made Hamburger Buns

I found this idea here, my current favorite food blog.  I have only tried making bread about six times in the past couple of years.  I liked the Babka bread for something sweet, the Challah bread (a Jewish passover bread) for something new, and I wanted to see if these hamburger buns would live up to the hype on Annie's eats.  Well, they were very tasty and if you have the patience to make home made bread, this was oh so worth the wait!

Homemade Hamburger Buns:

3 tbsp warm milk
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. instant yeast
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp butter, softened

In a bowl with a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the water, milk, yeast, sugar, and egg.  Add the flours and mix well.  Mix in the butter (I had to slightly melt mine, because oops I forgot to take it out of the fridge earlier) Switch to the hook attachment and knead for 6-8 minutes.  I think I only did mine for about five.  Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and wait for at least 1-2 hours.  Once the wait is over, take the dough out, cut out 8 equal parts, and then gently roll into balls.  I just took the pieces and kind of folded it back until I formed a ball.  Her recipe calls for parchment paper or those lovely silicone baking mats, neither of which I had on hand..so I just sprayed the heck out of my baking sheet and sprinkled on corn meal.  Place the balls on the sheet, about 2-3 inches apart.  Gently cover with a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap and let raise another 1-2 hours.  I was running out of time, so mine only raised for about 45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400.  Place a metal cake pan filled with water on the bottom rack of your oven.  brush your buns (hee hee) with a egg wash..1 egg, 1 tbsp water whisked together.  Sprinkle on sesame seeds, which I didn't have, so I put poppy seeds on top.  Bake for 15 minutes, rotate your pan half way through cooking.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Verdict, I will be  making these again, in fact, I don't think I would want to go back to the buns bought at the store.  These held up pretty well, and let's face it, it tasted a lot better too.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

These little babies were inspired by two things: a new food blog I just found this week, found here Annie's Eats, and partly from my husband, who loves Cherry Limeades and was disappointed with the drink the last time we got one, which happened to be my oh so favorite holiday, Valentine's. (note the sarcasm here.) I decided to change up Annie's recipe.  I used my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe ever, which I found on this website.  (by the way, if you want an amazing experience with cupcakes, check that blog out.) I'll post the vanilla recipe on here sometime..

After waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I gathered my ingredients for the butter cream.  My idea was to make two different frosting's each with the unique flavor combo that makes up the Cherry Limeade drink.  So, off to mixing I went.  My favorite butter cream frosting is simply, two sticks of unsalted butter, powder sugar, and whatever flavor you want to add...I know, I need to try new things, but I like simple.  Added lime juice and zest to one part of the frosting, added food coloring, good old Wilton, and mixed until I got the desired consistency I was looking for.  I then made the cherry frosting.  I used the juice from the jar of maraschino cherries..which changes the consistency of your frosting..  I was a little disappointed with this half of the frosting, and am still kicking myself, because I should have just bought the cherry syrup when i saw it at the store earlier this week.  Anyway, my thoughts:

The lime frosting tended to over power the cherry frosting, it ended up tasting mainly like lime, I should just rename the cupcake to Lime Sublime after my favorite Jamba Juice smoothie..but, it still had a pleasing taste, I love lime.  My husband however informed that he was cupcaked out and that the frosting was overpowering.  Maybe I'll revisit this cupcake later and see if I can't revamp it to fit my style more!

A dedication of sorts

 So, welcome to Sugar Lane Eats..where I get to express my love of all things home made, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory and hopefully delicious.

This is just my little spot to jot down recipes I love and to write about why I love them.  One day I might make this place something more, but for now it's for me and any one who happens on by.