I have been obsessed with all things baked and delicious recently. Mostly having to do with the fact that I love love baked goods and I have plenty of time on my hands. There is something so satisfying about baking. and yes, the final product of eating is wonderful, but it's really the act of creating that gets me. When I am elbows deep in a bowl full of flour, yeast and water, kneading my little hands out, I reach a new form if Nirvana. I am completely at ease and zoned in. I can let go of all of my worries and thoughts about bills or my new house move and simply, knead. I love it. and recently I've had so much inspiration that the recipes piled up and begged to be tested. What could I do but put them out of their misery? The poor old things. First, I made mini cinnamon buns from a mix, if you can believe it. The Stonewall kitchen mix, to be exact generously supplied from my cousin Samantha who doesn't have anywhere near the sweet tooth and inclination towards sticky gooey baked goods that I have.
The only problem I had with these was that the amount of filling far exceeded the amount of dough and therefore exploded from the poor mini-cini's in a somewhat unappetizing shower of sweet brown filling. It tasted fabulous, don't get me wrong. But I probably would have put less in had I known. Fortunately there was so much butter involved that the caramelized goo pretty much pulled right off the mini muffin tin in one long corrugated strip. You have to love butter for it's greasing abilities. Luckily for me we had a dinner party that night and all the mini's left the premises settled comfortably in a new home, gently digesting away. Ah, the joys of baking.
