Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bites

 While walking through a crowded Houston airport anticipating a 3-hour layover between flights, I felt a hunger pain. I realized it had been over eleven hours since my last meal and I had a long way to go before I could make it home. Right about the time of the growl, I walked past a very popular soft pretzel restaurant chain that had married its pretzels with a very popular cinnamon roll franchise.  I found this to be a brilliant move on the part of the pretzel company, as they had many savoury bread offerings and the cinnamon bun company had a national following of avid bun grabbers...err...roll eaters. "Bun grabbers" sounds inappropriate. Looking at the menu I found some cinnamon pretzel bites that sounded promising.  Though they were pretty delicious served warm, as soon as they cooled down a bit, they became really chewy. I thought to myself, as I often do...,"I bet I can make these better and cheaper at home....and give them a heck-of-a-lot more awesomeness in the flavour universe!"

A few months ago, I ordered this Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil and instantly fell in love with the rich buttery flavour with remarkable orange notes. It was and is the perfect pairing for sweet pastries. Full disclosure, I loved it so much that I wrote an email to the owner of the company.  He generously sent me several more bottles of some of the finest olive oils on his website, including the Wild Groves Robust Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil (that recently won one of the most prestigious rewards in the country at the LA International EVOO Competition). It won Best in Show Northern Hemisphere in the domestics category! Woot! Way to go!

Anyway, I used the orange olive oil on my pretzel bites. It was a huge, sinful, blessed mistake. If something sinful can be blessed? Can it? Not sure.  I just know that the mistake is that they are freakishly addictive! Evil. Evil. Evil. Gooooooooood.

Enters...the Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bits of glory and honour. 

These little nuggets of love have all the flavour of an orange infused cinnamon roll without having to zest any oranges or make any cream cheese frosting. The dough is soft and slightly chewy, like a pretzel and made in the same way that most deli-style pretzels are made.  For an authentic pretzel flavour, I use an alkaline solution of baking soda and water. To save on the mess...I don't dip the dough into the solution. Instead, I lightly brush the pretzel ropes in the solution. To save time, instead of rolling the pretzel dough into a knot, they are cut into 1-inch bites. They're perfect for snacking, travelling, and enjoying warm or cool.

Orange Cinnamon Roll Pretzel Bites

1 1/2 cup Milk

1 Tbsp. Active Dry Yeast

1/4  cup Sugar

1/4 cup Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil

4 Cups Organic Grains Bread Flour

2 tsp salt, fine 

1/3 cup baking soda

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. Cinnamon or Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Blend

1/4 cup Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil

Directions: Combine the milk, yeast, sugar, Olive oil, bread flour and salt. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic on a lightly floured surface, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes. Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into an 18-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a long snake on a parchment lined baking pan one inch apart. 

Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip a pastry brush in the baking soda solution and paint each pretzel. Allow to dry slightly and "paint" again.  Cut the ropes into 1/2 inch segments using a pizza cutter/roller. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. 

Combine the cinnamon sugar mixture in a small bowl. 

Lightly brush the pretzel bites with the Wild Groves Blood Orange Olive Oil. 

Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll the parchment paper up and turn over the pretzels into a pile. 

Drizzle with additional orange infused oil and cinnamon sugar if desired.

 Serve warm. Serve them anywhere anytime. You'll be freakin' happy! 

There you go.

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Freezer -Friendly Cinnamon Roll Mix

Isn't it nice to have a convenient mix for something as evil as cinnamon rolls? Well. I'm sorry to have to be part of this plot to make your thighs bigger  life easier. This is the basic recipe I use for a batch of Freezer-Friendly Cinnamon roll mix. It's nice to be able to control the ingredients and make something fabulous.  I also make the mix for the sugar-spice smear to go inside the rolls. Yup. I shared it earlier this week in the post for the church-ladies' cooking class. That recipe included the directions on how much to buy for 240 rolls for a large group (see that here). However, I wanted to give it its own place-o-glory here on the blog so that it would be a little easier to access in the future for those who only want to make rolls for a few people instead. 

Chef Tess' Perfect Freezer Friendly Cinnamon Roll Mix

yield 2 dozen medium rolls

Cinnamon Roll Mix :

4 ½ cups  California's Best Bread Flour

1T tsp active dry yeast

2T sugar or granulated honey

1 ½ tsp salt

3T Whole Egg powder

To Prepare Dough You will Add:

1 ½ cups water (cool to the touch)

6T oil


Spiced Sugar Smear Mix: 

½ cup powdered butter 
 ½ cup sugar
 2T Cheftessbakeresse Wise Woman of the East Spice blend

To Prepare Smear you will add: 

 3T water to this mix and spread inside the cinnamon rolls


Directions: 

1. Combine everything in the dough mix in  one gallon size  bowl or mixer. I like that. Knead 5 minutes by hand or 3 minutes in a mixer on medium setting. This is a less developed dough as far as gluten is concerned. 
2. Form into a ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a lid for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 
3. Take out of the bowl and place on a floured table or counter top. On a lightly floured counter top, roll into a rectangle, 2 feet long by one foot wide. It will be about 1/2 inch thick. Make sure you lift the dough a couple times and dust underneath with more flour so it doesn't stick to the table. 
4. Prepare the smear by adding 3T water to the smear mixture. Spread the smear over the dough in a light coating. Leave about 1 inch on the ends and sides that doesn't have butter and/or sugar mixture. It will help the rolls seal better. 
5.  Now roll them up tightly. Pinch seam tightly. Slice the roll into 24 1 inch sliced pieces. 
6. Place 1 inches apart. 1 dozen in an oven safe freezer 9 by13 pan (with lid) that has been OILED so the rolls don't stick. 
7.  Now...lightly mist the tops of the rolls with oil and cover with a loose fitting piece of plastic wrap (or lid).You are going to have to raise the rolls completely, about 45 minutes to an hour. 
8. Then instead of baking, place in freezer and freeze solid. Now you can keep these up to one month! When frozen and ready to bake you take these out of the freezer and place oven safe pan on a sheet pan (it must be supported in the oven) bake at 375 degrees 20-25 minutes.

For large rolls that are 2 inches thick, this will only make one dozen rolls. Bake those 25-30 minutes.


 Get the Printable Recipe
There you go! Make fat thighs more cinnamon rolls. 


Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

How to Plan Quiche and Cinnamon Rolls for 220 People ( The Upcoming Using Food Storage Class)

One of the things I really love to do is teach people how to be prepared for anything. I do mean anything. Recently a dear lady named Claudia Reed invited me to teach a large group of ladies from our church how to cook with their food storage and also prepare food for large groups.  That event is coming up on Saturday!   In my former life I did work as an assistant banquet chef. Large groups just happened. Planning a menu for food storage has been a cool project.  The result was a menu for this gathering of gals that would include the quiche and cinnamon rolls along with a fresh fruit display and some instruction on how to make quiche, cinnamon rolls and cut large amounts of fruit efficiently. This is the first of a series of posts around this event...because today was the day we got together for about an hour and put together the quiche mixes and cinnamon roll mixes. 

We made the mixes that would be given to different ladies in the congregation who had volunteered to cook or bake and then bring them to the church the day of the event. What we wanted was a way to distribute the  food in such a way that we would have something delicious and educational. 

The quiche is made out of 100% shelf stable dry ingredients, but tastes amazing. It has real cheese, asparagus, mushrooms, eggs, and  sausage and chicken flavored textured vegetable protein. Frankly, TVP has come a long way since the 70's and I have to say I love the results we achieved with this quiche. It's tasty! 

Quiche Shopping list for 220 people:

28 prepared froze pie crusts (with pans)

1 #10 can dehydrated green onion

1 #10 can Sausage flavored TVP 

1#10  chicken flavored TVP 

2 #10 cans Freeze Dried Mushrooms

2#10 cans Freeze Dried Asparagus

1#10 Ova Easy Egg Crystals (equals six dozen eggs!)

2 #10 cans powdered sour cream

1 lb Ultra gel or cornstarch

1 jar Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning

2#10 cans Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese

Chef Tess' Food Storage Sausage Asparagus Mushroom Quiche (Printable here)

yield 2, 10 inch quiche (8 servings each) for a light brunch. 6 servings each for a heartier meal.

•2 prepared pie crust, ready to bake

Quiche ingredients:

1/3 cup dehydrated green onion

3/4 cup Sausage flavored TVP or *Freeze Dried Sausage (See safety note on FD real meats!)

¾ cup chicken flavored TVP or *Freeze Dried Chicken

1 cup Freeze Dried Mushrooms

1 cup Freeze Dried Asparagus

•2 T powdered butter

•Ova Easy Egg Crystals 1/3 cup plus 1T

•1 cup powdered sour cream

¼ cup ultra gel (or cornstarch)

•1 tsp Chef Tess All Purpose seasoning

•2 cup Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese

•Directions: Place all quiche ingredients in a gallon size ziploc bag (ONLY if you use TVP. *Real freeze dried meat must be in a glass jar or mylar bag with an oxygen absorber) This ziploc bag will be shelf stable 3-6 months if kept in a cool dry place. If in a half gallon glass jar with oxygen absorber it will be good 5-7 years. So, you can plan on quiche without a crust. The instructions were given out with the bag of ingredients and 2 pie crusts to 14 ladies for our event. They will each make 2 quiche. That will give us 224 slices of quiche. 

To prepare quiche. Combine ingredients with 4 cups water Allow to hydrate 10 minutes. 

Place ready pie crusts in the aluminum pans on a cookie sheet (this adds support to the pans and makes them easier to move). Pour quiche mixture into prepared pie crusts. Do not fill to top, as they will run over. .

 Bake until set, 325 degrees 50minutes. Do not over bake. May be stored in refrigerator after baking and heated for service.

We also made 10 mixes for cinnamon rolls. These included a packet of my sugar and spice-butter smear to go inside the rolls. These should give us about 240 medium sized cinnamon rolls.  Gallon size bags for the roll mix and sandwich size bags for the sugar/spice smear to go inside the rolls.

Shopping List for Cinnamon Roll ingredients:

50 lbs California's Best Bread Flour (We had some left over for other rolls later)

1 lb active dry yeast

1 lb salt

1 #10 can Whole Egg powder

5 lb sugar

1#10 can powdered butter

2 jars Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Spice Blend (yes, those are still not available online).

 These mixes were delivered to 10 ladies who are now going to bake the 2 dozen rolls for Saturday. We also provided them with the freezer safe Glad Ovenware .  Those pans are so handy!!  Grin. How's it going ladies?!  In case you're worried or have questions, I'm posting directions here on the blog. 

 Stephanie Petersen's Perfect Freezer Friendly Cinnamon Rolls (Printable here) yield 2 dozen medium rolls

1 1/2 c water (no hotter than 110 degrees)

1T active dry yeast

2 T sugar (1T honey)

4 1/2 California's Best Bread Flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 T oil

3T Whole Egg powder

Directions: Combine everything in one large bowl or mixer. I like that. Knead 5 minutes by hand or 3 minutes in a mixer on medium setting. You may need a little extra flour for kneading by hand. 




 This is a less developed dough as far as gluten is concerned. Form into a ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a lid for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 

Take out of the bowl and place on a floured table or counter top. On a lightly floured counter top, roll into a rectangle, 2 feet long by one foot wide. It will be about 1/2 inch thick. Make sure you lift the dough a couple times and dust underneath with more flour so it doesn't stick to the table.


 You will need 1/2 c Honeyville butter powder , ½ cup sugar , and 2 T Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Spice Blend  (This mix was provided for you) combined with 3T warm water until smooth.Spread the butter mixture over the dough in a light coating. You will probably not need all the mixture.  Leave about 1 inch on the ends and sides that doesn't have butter and/or sugar mixture. It will help the rolls seal better. 


 Now roll them up tightly. Pinch seam tightly.

 Slice the roll into 24 1 inch sliced pieces. 

Place 1 inches apart.1 dozen in an oven safe freezer 9 by13 pan (with lid) that has been OILED so the rolls don't stick.

 Now...lightly mist the tops of the rolls with oil and cover with a loose fitting piece of plastic wrap (or lid).You are going to have to raise the rolls completely, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Then instead of baking, place in freezer and freeze solid. Now you can keep these up to one month! When frozen and ready to bake you take these out of the freezer and place oven safe pan on a sheet pan (it must be supported in the oven) bake at 375 degrees 20-25 minutes.
We will frost them at the church building so don't worry about that step. Let them cool about an hour and then cover them with the lid to the pan. 

In the future if you want to make the mix (provided):

4 ½ cups California's Best Bread Flour

1T active dry yeast

2T sugar or granulated honey

1 ½ tsp salt

3T Whole Egg powder

You will add:

1 ½ cups water (cool to the touch)

6T oil

sugar and spice mix (provided):

½ cup powdered butter, ½ cup sugar and 2T Chef Tess spice blend

Add 3T water to this mix and spread inside the cinnamon rolls

Follow baking directions (above)

For large rolls that are 2 inches thick, this will only make one dozen rolls. Bake those 25-30 minutes.

So, that's what I've been up to this week so far. I'll have to let you know how things go with our big event. 

If you're one of my baking or cooking ladies for the event, you know how to get a hold of me should you have further questions (my phone number was on the mix that  came to your house). I'm so excited about Saturday!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Pumpkin & Spiced Peach-Pecan Sticky Buns-o-Glory

I got a phone call from the morning producer on NBC 12 asking if I could come into the studio Monday morning and do some wicked  delicious recipes for Fall with Pumpkin. So...I called my buddy Michael down at Love Grows Farms to see how the pumpkins were coming along. He says they are amazing and that I need to come pick some up. I'll be on the farm tomorrow morning. Tonight I decided to really perfect my pumpkin sticky bun recipe for the show and whip out some of the Sweet Pumpkin Spice Tamales to bring in as well. I'll be making a lot with pumpkin in the next few days for that reason. However...I think I'm fair in adding some torture here with this picture...

I'm not going to lie. They are incredible. There's pumpkin in the dough...and peach preserves in the middle of the rolls to add some remarkably lightly tart and moist filling to the mix. Add an accent of the mixed spices of my blend with hints of orange, lemon, and some culinary rosepetal and lavender...Perfection. 

Don't beg. I'll share the recipe here...but you have to promise to make them.

Chef Stephanie Petersen's

Pumpkin & Spiced Peach Pecan Sticky Buns-o-Glory

1 cup warm milk (not too hot now)
2 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkg)
1 tsp salt
1 cup packed canned pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
4 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp almond extract

2T Chef Tess Wise Woman of The East Spice Blend

3/4 cup sugar free peach spread

Topping:

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

¼ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup honey (caramel honey sauce or peach amaretto honey are amazing here)

1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:
Put the milk, yeast, sugar, pumpkin in a mixer with a whisk and mix until smooth.

 Add remaining ingredients. Mix with a dough hook until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (by hand about 300 turns). Put dough in a covered bowl and raise about 1 hour until doubled. Lightly flour a counter top and roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness, 12 inches by 18 inches rectangle. Spread jam or honey over dough and sprinkle with spice blend. Roll tightly and pinch seam. Cut into 2 inch wedged

 Make the topping. In a 1-quart saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, and honey over low heat; stir until sugar and butter are melted.

 Pour mixture into a greased 9" x 13" pan and sprinkle pecans on top.

place one inch apart 

Allow to raise until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375°. 

 Imagine yourself just sitting in a hot tub of caramel pecan goo....and you would probably be just fine with my little friends.

Bake buns until golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

 Remove pan from oven and immediately invert onto a serving tray or baking dish. Let buns cool slightly and serve warm.

There you go. Make some sticky buns!  Get the printable recipe Here.
I want to see those buns! 


Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess