Cinnamon Pull-Apart Breakfast Rolls

To deflect questions about what Ginny was about to tell Harry, Percy (man, he has a guilty conscience!) asks for the breakfast rolls.  But Ginny was about to tell Harry something much, much more important…good thing Percy interrupted, or she would’ve spoiled the plot (see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

We wanted to make something sweet for breakfast.  So we thought we would make these pull apart rolls.  Mom got up extra early to make these and I really was not awake.  So it was kind of neat to wake up to fresh baking stuff. 

We didn't  take a picture of all of the ingredients, because it really is in three parts, the dough, the filling and the frosting. 

As always mix together all of the wet and then all of the dry.

Let the yeast ferment. Then mix it all together.

Let the dough rise until it is doubled. I think at this point I went back to bed to get some more sleep. 

Roll the dough out to a long flat rectangle so that you can roll it into a long tube shape.  I didn’t add extra butter at this point to cover the dough before sprinkling on the sugar and cinnamon, but looking back I think I will on the next batch. 

We had two pans so we used a special tool for cutting up the rolled dough into equal pieces.  I have heard that you can do a lot better with dental floss and then the dough doesn’t get squished. 

Even though you use the cutter or a knife you have to let them rise again and that takes care of any flattening that happens in the cutting.

Once baked you should let them cool before frosting them, or the frosting will just slide right off and then you will have a pool of it on your plate and none on the rolls.

We let them cool, then put them on a plate to frost them.  They look SO good!

Though it did take hours to make them, the smells in the kitchen really made it feel like home.  I just had a small one to start with, but it was really very good. I just had images of Ron hogging the whole plate to eat one after the other.

Chicken and Sprouts

     Hermione knows she can’t help the house-elves by starving herself to death, but she can go to the library.  That’s her mantra: when in doubt, go the library.  She stuffs her mouth as fast as she can with lamb chops, potatoes, and sprouts so she can use the remaining lunch period to read up on elf rights. 

     Harry is happy to bring Sirius chicken legs to eat – poor Sirius has been subsisting on rats while hiding out – but his not happy to see Sirius.  He’s worried Sirius will get caught by the Ministry, which believes Sirius is a vicious murderer. 

     This weekend we did two recipes, my best friend, Ivory, and fellow student (Ravenclaw house) came over and she helped prep and cook the meals.  So we made a main dish of Lightly Seasoned Broiled Chicken Drumsticks and Brussels Sprouts with Béchamel Sauce.  Now since my mom and I are Vegan we opted for using boneless chicken breasts without the skin.  Ivory had not had Sprouts since she was a kid and she remembers that she hated them, she is also Lactose intolerant and the recipe calls for whole milk.  So she said she would try at least one in the spirit of things. 

First we gathered all of the ingredients.  Since we are going to be cooking two things at once, mom said we should prep it all.  

    Next we mixed together what was needed for the chicken while the Sprouts were steaming in the pan of water.

     There is not a lot on the chick, it really is lightly seasoned.

     We placed the chicken on a non-stick baking sheet.  It really is looking good and now I am glad that we went for the boneless and skinless breasts. 

     Just 15 minutes later, the sprouts were done and ready to take off the heat.  I could just eat them now with butter and Parmesan cheese, but mom is making us stick with the recipe.  But they are so bright green and smell so good.

     We took out the chicken and turned them once to get a good broil on both sides.  Then they were ready and still juicy looking. 

      We mixed up the cream sauce while the chicken rested for a few minutes.  I have to say the first thing that popped in my mind was Gollum saying.. “Nooooo. You ruins it! Stupid Hobbitses.” 

     Ok, time to plate it.  We will have to work on the fine art of plating.  The one piece of chicken looks so lonely and the few sprouts but I was not too sure about them so I didn’t want a heap of them.

     So after the first bite of chicken, Ivory declared them really good.  I tried a little bit but the Rosemary was just hard for me to eat around, it gets stuck between my teeth so I really don’t like it all that much.  But the chicken was juicy inside and lightly crisp on the outside.  Next we tried the sprouts.  I guess I am a creature of habit, I like them best with garlic butter.  They were good with the cream, just not the best way for me to like them.  Ivory was really quite surprised.  She loved them.  Even though they were made with whole milk for the sauce, she got another spoonful to have.  She also got the rest of my chicken and I had some of the left over sprouts with butter and garlic.  I can’t wait until she can come over again for the weekend and we make something new.  We had a great time laughing and talking about going to college in a few months.  

Hot Chocolate

    After Harry‘s been spirited away and Mr. Weasley’s Ford Anglia to the Burrow, He enjoys the rest of summer vacation with Ron.  On the last night before start of term, with desert and hot chocolate.

     We gathered all of the ingredients.  We had to improvise a bit with some of the ingredients. Mom doesn’t really drink coffee so we really had no desire to buy a whole bottle of instant coffee.  So we got some Starbucks VIA instant coffee in vanilla.

    We started with mixing up the sugar, coffee, and coco powder.  

    Next was melting the chocolate.  That was really the part we loved and couldn’t wait for it.

    Once we added the milk it was one step closer.

    As we were trying to get it into the cup, we realized that we need to get a sauce pan with a pour spout.  GoodWill here we come.  

    Finally I get to have it.  The first sip was really good.  Then I took a second sip and the aftertaste of coffee hit and that was really over powering.  Now we did half the amount of coffee because we knew we would not like the coffee taste.  I was not able to get past the taste even after mixing in all of the whipped cream. 

    Mom took the rest of mine and drank half of it, but sadly since she drinks herbal tea mostly the caffeine was just too much for her and gave her an upset stomach for the next few hours.  We think it was the instant coffee.  We will try this again and leave out the coffee.   

English Farmhouse Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Gilderoy Lockhart can’t seem to stop embarrassing Harry, wither its before the start of term or the first day of classes, when eggs and bacon are served for breakfast in the Great Hall.   Poor Harry, the forced breakfast chef at the Dursley’s, also serves bacon and eggs on Dudley’s birthday after being warned he better not burn it.

    Keeping with the breakfast theme for now, we made one of the Wizard bacon and eggs recipes, since once again we had all of the ingredients in the house.  We really wanted to have some pumpkin juice with it but pumpkins are not in season for a few more months.  So it will have to wait a few months for the juice to go with breakfast.

    Since the bacon has a tendency to spit hot grease, mom is the one that is cooking and I was the one to read directions and pass ingredients. 

     It really was quite simple.  Cook bacon, add eggs and cook more.

     As it was cooking I did think about Harry in the first movie, so small, standing at the stove and dishing up the bacon.  How did he keep grease from splattering on his glasses?  

     Now the recipe did call for English Cheddar cheese which is just white cheddar, but that was not what we had on hand.  So it does have the wrong cheese on it, but it still looks really good.

      With my cat Moonpaw watching me I tried some.  Wow was that good.  I like bacon, but I am not crazy about eggs.  Mixing them like this was really great.  The eggs didn’t taste so… well… eggy.  The bacon was Maple bacon and it just smelled wonderful!  Hours later and the kitchen still smell a bit like Maple.  I wonder if the Great Hall has the lingering smells of breakfast later in the day when the kids are in there doing lessons or special activities.  

Breakfast

  

Cauldron Cakes

Disclaimer:  In the honor of not infringing on the copy rights of the book, I will not be posting images of the recipe, the ingredients or the steps to make the dishes.  I would highly suggest you purchase a copy of the book for yourself.  We got ours on Amazon after seeing a copy in JoAnn’s Fabric store (They have a magazine and book shelf and we first saw it there).  

    Harry sees them for the first time on the witch’s trolley on board the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  He generously shares with Ron, who finds his dry corned beef sandwich unappealing. 

    In reading the directions mom realized that these were Pancakes.  We thought we would start with Breakfast and this one we had all of the ingredients on hand.  Nothing special needed so it was the best one to start with. 

    We first stared out by gathering and measuring out all of the ingredients.  Some of them need to be at room temperature, so we had to wait an hour before cooking (We will prepare better the next time).

    We mixed together the wet and the dry, and then slowly mixed the two together to form the batter.  It will be lumpy and then it got fluffy.  There was a LOT of air in the batter.

    Once the griddle was hot, mom poured the batter on to it.  Now the recipe did call for an 8 inch skillet, we have one that is 12 inches and one that is 5, so we used the electric grille/griddle. Now the batter is really thin, so it spread out quickly.  Mom thought if we had used the skillet as it called for, they would have been a little thicker and fluffier.  We will try this again with the 5 inch skillet and see at a later date.  

    They browned up really well and even though we don’t have a spatula the size of them, they were rather flexible and didn’t rip all apart when mom went to flip them, I was worried about them just ripping apart.   It took a while to cook all of the batter, about 20 minutes, and in all that time the batter remained fluffy and light. 

    We figured there was enough butter in the recipe that they would not need any extra, so we just sprinkled them with powdered sugar as the recipe calls for, we really don’t like anything on our pancakes anyway.   

    At the first bite I realized why Harry liked these so much.  They are delicious!  Light, fluffy (though thin) with just a hint of lemon and sweet.  I was lost for a moment, closed my eyes and imagined that I was on the train heading to Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year with my classmates talking and laughing as we begin a new year.  I think I will ask to make these at the start of each quarter from now on as a way to welcome in new classes and new challenges.