Easy Overnight Caramel Pecan Rolls

 

 

I present for you an easy and scrumptious brunch recipe that will get you rave reviews and have you saying, "Oh this dish? It was nothing!" I present to you caramel pecan sticky rolls. As the holidays approach, time gets even more precious and schedules more hectic it seems like the last thing in the world you might have is time to make sticky buns. Trust me, these rolls are a cinch to put together. And the best part, they can be prepared in a snap the day before. 

 

 

These rolls start with frozen bread rolls. Hence, the easy part. There is no fussing around with yeast, and rise time, and curse words when it doesn't quite rise right. Come, on admit we have all been there. Just let the rolls thaw out, and bam! Place them on a bed of pecans.

 

Once the rolls are ready. It's time to prepare the caramel sauce that will get poured over them.  Nothing could be easier than this. It requires vanilla pudding and butterscotch pudding mixes. Just be careful, don't get the instant kind. It has to be the cook and serve kind. I have no scientific explanation as to why this is. But just get the cook and serve kind. You're welcome.  This sauce started to seize up on me a little. If this happens to you, just keep stirring. Just keep stirring. It will eventually smooth out. Once it is all smooth, go ahead and drizzle that scrumptious sauce over all those rolls. Cover, refrigerate. Sleep. Done.

The next day, take the rolls out and let them sit on the counter for a few minutes to come back to room temperature.  Let your oven pre-heat, and when your oven is ready these will be ready to be popped in.  Easy. Peasy. Lemon squeezy.

 
I'm telling you, these rolls are fluffy and insanely delicious.  And so you didn't make the dough from scratch. Who cares, don't hesitate to rake in all the compliments when you get them. And trust me, you will get them.

The hardest part of these rolls, trying to resist eating them all!  

Like, seriously look all that ooey, gooey caramel-ness going on in that picture.  I think it's time I go eat another one. Diet starts...tomorrow.

Easy Overnight Caramel Pecan Rolls
Adapted slightly from Sweet Anna's
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Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
24 frozen bread rolls (2 bags of 12 rolls each), thawed
1 1/4 cups butter
1 regular package vanilla pudding mix (cook, not instant!)
1 regular package butterscotch pudding mix (cook, not instant!)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk or cream
Directions:
Grease a 9×13″ or larger baking dish with lots of butter.  Sprinkle the chopped pecans into the bottom of the dish.  Place the rolls out evenly on top of the pecans, filling the pan evenly.
In a medium saucepan, melt together the butter and the pudding mixes.  Stir until smooth.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cinnamon, brown sugar and milk until smooth.  Pour the caramel mixture over the bread dough in the baking dish.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, remove the pan from the fridge to warm up to room temperature and raise a bit more while you preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Place the rolls into the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a piece taken out of the center and is cooked through and no longer doughy.
Place a large platter over the top of the baking dish and gently flip the caramel rolls out onto the platter so the caramel sauce and pecans can pour all over the buns.  Serve warm and enjoy!

Pumpkin and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

 It's that time of year where everything has turned pumpkin. Every corner you look it's pumpkin lattes, pumpkin muffins, heck why not then turn a macaroni and cheese pumpkin too?  In the Cinderalla movie, turning back into a pumpkin was a bad thing.  For macaroni and cheese, however, it is a beautiful Fall comfort food. 

What inspired this dish, was a science experiment that was going on in my classroom where students test which substance will help to preserve a pumpkin better. So that means for two weeks, my classroom is filled with rotting pumpkin pieces. Oh the joys of my job! For this experiment, this means I had to carve a pumpkin into small chunks for each group. This left me with a half of a very large pumpkin. Not one to waste food, I took it home, and continued to carve it into small chunks and roasted it in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees seasoned with fresh thyme. It roasted up so easily! I highly recommend going to the trouble of roasting fresh pumpkin. (Ok, yea I can hear you laughing). Go to the trouble if you want and happen to have spare time on your hands (spare time? What's that?!)  I normally don't have a spare minute, so please feel free to use canned pumpkin. 

The great thing about macaroni and cheese is its versatility. I, mean, what doesn't go with cheese and pasta? One thing that definitely goes well is bacon. Bacon just makes things better. God bless bacon. The bacon helped to balance out the sweetness of the pumpkin fall flavors and added that much loved smokiness to the dish.  I also used and a combination of smoked gouda and cheddar cheese. The smoked gouda cheese gave a wonderful flavor, so if you can get a hold of some it's worth the splurge.

So although my classroom does not have lovely smells coming out of it, this macaroni and cheese filled up my kitchen with delicious Autumnal aromas. Oh and smells of bacon.


Pumpkin and Bacon Mac-n-Cheese
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Adapted from Rachael Ray

Note:  I used fresh roasted pumpkin for this recipe but feel free to use the canned stuff. Trust me, I won't judge you.  I normally would too but I just so happen to have half of a pumpkin sitting around from a science experiment. (No, really I did). As for the bacon, I found the original recipe just needed a balance from the sweet, earthy spiciness from the pumpkin, honey, and other spices.  And bacon always makes things better right? I also used half gouda and half cheddar. The gouda gave it great flavor, but use whatever cheese you have it on hand. Overall, this macaroni and cheese got great reviews from my tastetesters and every noodle was devoured.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pasta rigatoni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup pumpkin beer
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• 2 cups roasted  pumpkin, or pumpkin puree
• 6-7 strips bacon, crumbled
• 2 1/2 cups cheese (gouda and cheddar)
• couple pinche of cloves or allspice
• pinch of cayenne pepper and nutmeg
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
1.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt it and cook pasta to al dente. Drain and reserve. Preheat broiler.
2. Cook bacon according to package directions (I was lazy and did mine in the microwave!). Then on a cutting board, after the bacon has cooled, crumble the bacon into small pieces.

 3.  Melt butter in a medium saucepot over medium heat. Whisk in flour, cook for 1 minute, then raise heat a bit and add beer.

4. Reduce until almost evaporated then whisk in honey

5. Season with cloves or allspice, mustard, cayenne, a little freshly grated nutmeg, some salt and pepper. Thicken to coat spoon, a couple of minutes, then taste to adjust seasonings. 

6. Whisk in pumpkin puree then stir in about 2 cups grated cheese with a wooden spoon until melted. Combine pasta with sauce and arrange in a casserole or individual ramekins. Sprinkle remaining cheese and a light dusting of paprika. Broil to brown and bubble. Garnish with chopped parsley or chives.

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting

A couple of posts ago, you might remember I went apple picking and came back with ahhhhh-lot of apples. I decided some of the apples should go into cupcake form. And combined with salted caramel. I mean how could you go wrong? Yup, I'm right. You can't.

This was a easy cupcake recipe chock full of apples and fall spices. I made them miniature form to serve at a faculty meeting. I find that people cannot resist a cupcake in miniature form. And following Halloween and eating way too much candy, there is a less guilt that follows. The recipe made for me about 3 dozen mini cupcakes. If I had to guess, it would make about a dozen cupcakes, give or take a few. But that is only a guess, folks! If you make them in regular form let me know!

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
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Cupcake ingredients: (makes 10-12 regular-sized cupcakes, 36 mini cupcakes)

 4 Tbsp brown sugar

 1/2 C granulated sugar

 1/2 C applesauce

 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

 1/2 tsp vanilla

 2 egg

 1 C all purpose flour

 1 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp baking powder

 1/8 tsp salt

 1 tsp cinnamon

 1/4 tsp nutmeg

 Pinch of ground cloves

2 apples, chopped 

Buttercream frosting:

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened

 2 1/2 C powdered sugar

 1 tsp vanilla

 4 tablespoons caramel sauce

 2 Tbsp heavy cream 

pinch of salt

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix together sugars, applesauce and vegetable oil. Mix in eggs and vanilla, followed by remaining ingredients. 
3. Mix just into all ingredients are combined. Use a spoon or cookie scoop to divide mixture among prepared liners. 
4.  Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted only has a few moist crumbs. Cool on a wire rack.
5.  Prepare buttercream in a medium bowl or stand mixer. Cream butter and powdered sugar together. Mixture may become slightly crumbly, that's okay. Add vanilla, caramel syrup and heavy cream. Beat until smooth and spreadable consistency. Add additional heavy cream if needed.

6. When cupcakes have cooled completely. Use a knife or cupcake corer to remove the center of the cupcake. Fill with apple pie filling, leaving a 1/2-inch space at the top. Slice off the dome of the cored piece of cupcake, place over the apple pie filling.

7. Pipe or frost cupcakes as desired. Drizzle with additional caramel syrup. Serve immediately or store in a covered container.