The Drawing

One Sunday during our regular church meeting Kailea drew this family in the park - it's got kids on the swing set dressed like mini Zwarte Piets and on the left side a picknick featuring sweet rolls!


Ah ha - I thought it was so creative of her to just come up with something like that. Plus, I know you all can't see the progress she's made, but there is progress in her drawings, for example, these figures have shoulders! No more stick figures and she's only 5 1/2! My children are such artists!

Spoonflower sweet rolls designs

In the month of December, I did something different. Yes, I did bake some sweet rolls, and when I have the time I may or may not publish those here...


What I did was a designed some sweet roll designs for fabric and put them over at Spoonflower.com. I also entered some in a few contests.


See here:

Coordinates Sweet Rolls Design - pastel and kawaii, stripes and dots, garden border motif

Recipe Sweet Rolls Contest

It was fun to do... I don't know if I will continue with sweet roll designs or sweet roll recipes for that matter... because I'm doing something totally new and different for 2012... I'm completely redesigning - myself!


And I'm so happy to finally be taking the plunge... here's to a healthy more energetic new year and new me!

Stracciatella Sweet Rolls

These are a 10, ten, Ten, TEN. They are good. Okay, maybe I'm a little too confident. My man rated them a 9 out of 10. And one of my best girlfriends rated them a 8.5 out of 10. That's a pretty good rating especially for two people who went to the higher level high schools here in the Netherlands. I'm told it's pretty much impossible to earn a 10. Unlike the United States where A's are given left and right. Just sayin' ...so in my opinion anything above 8 is pretty much the same thing as a 10.

Anyway, I was walking through the Aldi checking out new products when I come across Stracciatella boterham pasta - that's Dutch for sandwich spread. That's one of the sweet things about living in Europe... we don't just have Nutella - we have just about anything you can think of to spread on bread. So, I see it and grab a jar of it and try it out at home immediately... and to be honest, on bread it's a bit boring... but I know I can do something more with it. I try it sandwiched between to ginger cookies and I like it. 


Yeah so I figured it would be better as dessert, obviously.


I knew I would need to create a Stracciatella sweet roll that featured this spread. So, I did. But I didn't just smear it inside regular dough - I made the dough -  yes, but I sprinkled it and kneaded it throughout with chocolate pieces. Then I topped the baked rolls with more yummy delish stracciatella glaze - three times we have stracciatella and it works. It's just plain awesome. They are so good... and for once, I'll be making these for Thanksgiving dessert instead of pumpkin sweet rolls - which, let's admit - are a little overdone. Pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cinnamon rolls - I've had enough pumpkin... I'm having stracciatella!


I like to think of myself as trend setter - I'm just ahead of my time.


I go back to the Aldi, only about a week later, and this stuff is completely cleaned out... so I searched and I hoped and down under all the caramel sandwich spread, I find one lone jar of stracciatella spread - yes... it's mine, it's all mine!

• In a large glass bowl, combine 2 tablespoons warm milk and 1 package vanilla sugar plus 1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast. Let rest. 
• Add in 1/2 cup slightly warm milk, 1/4 cup caster sugar, and 1/4 cup light colored oil (vegetable oil) plus 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in 2 to 2 1/4 cups white all purpose flour. Knead until dough is not too sticky and then put into oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. 
• Let rise in warm place until doubled. After about one hour, punch down dough. Knead in about 2 tablespoons dark chocolate flavored flakes or finely chopped dark chocolate pieces. Let rest 10-20 minutes. 

• Roll out into rectangle. Spread with 1/4 to 1/3 cup Stracciatella sandwich spread and sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon gingerbread or pumpkin pie spice over that. Roll up and cut into 8 equal slices. Place into a buttered glass casserole or pie plate. Let rise again in warm place till doubled - about 30 minutes. 

• Bake in preheated oven 175-C for 10 minutes, then adjust the heat to 150-C and continue to bake 5-10 minutes till dough springs back lightly when touched. Remove from oven. Let cool slightly. 
• Prepare glaze: mix together 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon clear vanilla extract. Blend in 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dark chocolate flakes. Then stir in about 2 tablespoons stracciatella sandwich spread. Drizzle this mixture evenly over rolls. 

Makes 8 sweet rolls that rock - serve warm. Even yummy the next day - just warm them in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high power.