Micro-Cake

I may have discovered one of the greatest things. You know when you want dessert, maybe some cookies or cake but you don't want to take the time or energy to make it? Maybe that's just me...but I saw a bunch of recipes for desserts made in the microwave, in a mug, and they have become my latest obsession. I found a million different recipes for different versions and I want to try them all. (Disclaimer: realistically I found more like 13, but I still want to try them all.) So far the only two that I have actually tried are the chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Here is my documentation of tonight's rendezvous:

I opted for the peanut butter cookie version.

Grab a mug and add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of peanut butter. (For the chocolate chip one the directions are going to be exactly the same minus the peanut butter) Put this in the microwave for about 14 seconds or until the butter has melted, then mix it up to combine the two.

Next add a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of white sugar, a pinch of salt and a couple drops of vanilla. Stir these together.

Add an egg YOLK only. Then stir this up, it'll be pretty soupy.

Finally, add 3 tablespoons of flour and mix it all together. It should form a ball of dough in the bottom of the mug. At this point you would add chocolate chips if you were going that route.

I added some chopped peanuts on top of mine for a gourmet touch...because this is obviously one of the most gourmet cookies I've ever made.

Stick it in the microwave for 35-45 seconds. The closer to 45 seconds you get the more dried out it will become. I opted for about 37 seconds because I like mine to be pretty soft and doughy on the inside. This is a personal preference for sure. If you're making chocolate chip it stays in for 45-60 seconds. I'm not sure why there is a difference but I would guess it has something to do with the peanut butter. Again, I like mine on the softer side so I go about 46 seconds.

It's not even close to complete unless there is a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And there is one of the fastest, easiest, most awesome desserts in the world. One of the best parts about it is that the only dish left to clean up are the mug and spoon, or fork, or spork. Next up on my list of recipes to try is the microwave apple crisp or coffee cake. I'm telling you, the possibilities are endless...

Unlike my peanut butter cookie.

Soft and Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

Here we are halfway through September and its still 90 degrees outside...no exaggeration. Yesterday I was looking at the weather section of the newspaper and it seems like the only other places in the world that are still this hot are Cairo and Dubai. I am in denial about the weather and therefore I dress like its 70 degrees out. Then I spend the day sweating and complaining that its too hot. In addition to my clothing, I've been cooking as if summer is long gone. Nothing says fall like waking up to homemade cinnamon rolls, which are my latest endeavor.

I got this recipe from my mom, who got it off of Allrecipes. You can find that recipe here. I've made them twice already this week, once as a morning birthday breakfast and once again as a midnight snack/breakfast for Kyle, who is the king of all things cinnamon-y. My favorite thing about this recipe is that it makes a couple dozen, and you can assemble them and keep them in the fridge for the night (or  bake half) then bake the rest off in the morning. If you're like me, you'll enjoy them at 1 in the morning and again at 1 in the afternoon for breakfast. Lets get started. 

Here are my ingredients for the dough. You'll notice the box of instant vanilla pudding. That's the secret ingredient, which really isn't very secretive at all anymore. Throw all of this in the bread machine (or Kitchenaid if you're cool enough to own one) and let it do its thing on the dough setting.

After about an hour and a half it comes out looking like this. This is probably some of my favorite dough I've ever worked with. I mean, I'm not any kind of dough connoisseur and I've only worked with a couple in my life but this one definitely tops the list. Its really soft and, doesn't stick to everything and it rolls out very easy. 

  

Here it is all rolled out. You'll notice another hunk of dough in the background. That's because I like to cut it in half and roll out one at a time...mostly because I don't have a surface big enough to roll out the entire thing. You'll want to roll it into a rectangle, and I'm still not sure I have the length and width proportions right. If its not wide enough you'll end up with tons of little tiny rolls in the end rather than big ones. I guess that's kind of a personal preference thing though. 

 

 The next step is to lather on the cinnamon filling. It's made up of butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and tastes like...something so good I can't even come up with words to describe it. Maybe I should try spreading that on some toast? I like to put on a nice thick coating so that it doesn't all disappear once they've been baked. 

Like I said earlier, I can't quite figure out my length/width proportions. As you can see, I have a rather long skinny roll. The only thing that is going to affect is the size of the roll - no taste is compromised. 

Measure about 1 inch wide pieces to cut off of the roll. This picture turned out blurrier than I thought. It was after midnight when I made these so I guess my eye sight started to go. 

 

Arrange them in a greased pan like this. Its okay if they are pretty close together. They'll bake into each other but that just makes them more gooey and less dried out, which is the way I like it. They should sit out like this for at least another half hour before they go in the oven to give the dough a chance to rise up again. Or into the refrigerator for a slow rise over night. They bake at 350 for 15-20 minute. 

Hot out of the oven, apply the icing (powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and butter) which will melt all over the top of these. They are extra soft and gooey. I really don't like the word gooey at all except to describe cinnamon rolls and even then I don't particularly like it, but it seems to be the only word that gets my point across. And there you have it: the best, and only, cinnamon rolls I've ever made from scratch!