Pumpkin Pie Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I've gotten back into sourdough bread. I love watching the starter bubble and grow. Lucky for me my mother is a sourdough fan and had wonderful, time-tested recipes that she shared with me a couple of years ago. I'll share with you the base recipe for these.


Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls:


*Dissolve 1 envelope (or 2 1/4 tsp) yeast into 1/2 cup warm water. Add 1 cup starter, 4 TB oil, 2 + cups self-rising flour, and a dash of salt.
*Mix & knead with extra flour. Shape & let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
*Divide into half. Roll into 2 rectangles.
*Mix 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Spread onto rectangles & drop on raisins.
*Roll lengthwise & slice.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Now, like I said, this was my base recipe. Here are some of my substitutions:

1) I use a mixture of 1/2 whole wheat & 1/2 unbleached white flour. Even in my starter. So these have more wheat oomph and are a little healthier. I also used 2 1/2 cups flour when I began, then extra flour for dusting when rolling.
2) I don't use self-rising flour. To make 2 cups of all-purpose flour into self-rising flour you need to mix in 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, & 1 tsp baking powder into the flour.
3) Instead of 1/2 cup warm water for the yeast I used 1/2 cup raw cream. I warmed it in the microwave - about 30 seconds.
4) To the dough mixture I added a little bit of homemade vanilla extract and also some organic maple syrup.
5) For the filling I used 1/2 of a 15 oz. can of pure canned pumpkin, 1/4 cup (give or take) homemade raw butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup organic raw sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning, roughly 1 TB organic maple syrup (this was eyeballed, not measured), and a good dash of homemade vanilla extract.
6) I don't necessarily use all of my filling. I spread it on there so that it looks properly covered. This left me about 1/4 cup filling leftover, maybe less (again, eyeballing it!). Read on to see what to do with it!

Fresh out of the oven & filling the house with an aroma that is far too tantalizing!

I've made Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls once before, and I made the mistake of not making icing to go with them. I don't think Justin has stopped sulking about it since, much less has he let me forget my horrible, horrible faux pas.
So it comes with no surprise that when I told him what I was going to make today his first question was "With icing?" I reassured him yes, with icing. "With cream cheese icing??" Yes, with cream cheese icing.
But this wasn't just cream cheese icing!

I got the base recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-roll-icing-276879 - but I'm going to go ahead and just give you how I did it.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Icing for Cinnamon Rolls:

*1 block cream cheese (do NOT go with anything other than regular .. aka "full-fat" cream cheese!! If you're going to indulge, do it properly damn it.)
*3+ TB raw milk butter (it does taste better & is better for you, but store bought is ok too. Best if you can find it from pastured cows though!)
*1/4 tsp vanilla (as usual, I used the homemade stuff. It's too easy not to make it yourself and so much better!)
*1 cup powdered sugar
*2 - 3 TB raw cream (actually, this was another eyeballed one. Use less for thicker icing, more for thinner)
*Remainder of filling
*Another splash or so of organic maple syrup

~Blend room temperature butter & cream cheese together. Add the rest of the ingredients. Attempt not to dig in with a spoon right then and there. MAKE SURE you are armed with a good wooden spoon to smack away your loved ones' hands as they attempt to eat the whole thing right then and there. -- Special note to single gals -- Want to be swarmed by men?? Make this up!! They'll swarm around you, trying to charm their way into the mixing bowl. And, no, I'm not being a pervert there. You don't even have to put on makeup, their eyes will likely not go that high. Unless you are shorter than the mixing bowl, and if that's the case, go for the make-up just in case.

Still warm, topped with icing (though they would get more before it was all over), and ready to be devoured.

Would you like more proof of how delicious these little babies are?? That above photo wasn't the first one I took of them "done." Here is the actual photo.

As I was trying to take the photo this little hand snuck in, giving me the thumbs-up! So .. there you go, Shannon's seal of approval!! ~ fyi .. Tristan was unavailable for comment at the time of the photos as he was still sleeping. But, when he got up he was very excited about getting "Ciddabon Rolls".

Be kind and share these with those living close enough to be tormented by the aroma!

Inside & Outside Cheeseburgers

My mother claims to not be a cook at all, but this is one of my earliest memories of her cooking. The earliest is cookies cooling on the chopping block in our kitchen - but what kid doesn't remember that first?? I think she made these about the time I was in first grade. They were awesome then, and they're just as awesome now.


the burger, ready for cheese

"Inside & Outside" Cheeseburgers:

We started with 1/4 lb (roughly) of hamburger per burger. Our meat comes from a local farm and is organically, pasture-raised. This is real meat.
For these burgers, I first mixed in some spices with the meat. For the kids and myself, I used some organic garlic powder (although some freshly roasted garlic, or just garlic cloves would've rocked even more). For Justin, I made one burger with chili powder, garlic powder, and chipotle pepper; and then the second one with garlic powder and some HOT! HOT!! Pepper Flakes.
The Inside: make a well in the center of the burger, and fill it with cheese. I used just some general marble, shredded cheese here. You could go fancy and use blue cheese, feta cheese, or grate yourself up some homemade raw milk cheese. But the general shredded stuff works well too. ~ For extra flavors: add some spices to the center with the cheese. I also added a little bit of ketchup to the boys' burgers.


filled with cheese, ready to be closed-up

Next: close-up the burger around the cheese. This really isn't that difficult at all. If you do have trouble at first, don't fret. By the second or third burger, you should easily have the hang of it.
Cook Em: We grilled ours on a nice hot grill outside. It's the essence of summer cooking isn't it?? No grill, don't worry, you can pan-cook these babies and still get delicious results. ~ Here's the trick to making sure they don't shrink up on you: before you put them on the grill, indent the center with your thumb a little bit. This is a little tricky because the cheese is inside, so make sure not to mess that up. Just a nice, small indention will do.
A second or two before you're ready to pull them off the grill, add a slice or two of cheese on top. American cheese is perfect because of how well it melts, but again, you can make it personal and use another type. Just beware that some cheeses don't melt so well.
Have your buns, extra toppings, and a big appetite ready. These are destined to be crowd pleasers, and are sure to be remembered!!

PS ~ thanks Mom!