Sweet Rolls-o-Rama... recipe ideas

I've been getting back into baking rolls again - something about this time of year - I think it's because it's so cold and gloomy and baking sweet things just livens up the senses and warms the house, too.

Today I'm baking Corn Rolls - yes corn rolls that you can eat. Not to be confused with corn rows. And I plan on stuffing them with a variety of fillings. Hot dogs and melty Cheddar as well as a more classic butter, sugar and spice filling - but not cinnamon - something hot like cayenne pepper. Really any filling that you like in your corn bread you can add to the corn rolls. 

I made corn bread last night in honor of my grandfather, his birthday anniversary just passed and I teach my children about people they may never meet in this life by celebrating their birthdays every year with a favorite meal of that person. 

I skyped with my Dad the other night and he reminded me that his Dad, my Grandfather loved good old comfort food from the Depression Era. And he was a southern boy. He liked Navy bean soup with ham hock, and corn bread. And he like green onions with salt. We skipped the green onions with salt - but we did eat one of his favorite desserts which was lemon meringue pie. It was my first time baking that - I actually did lemon meringue bars. They were so yummy. Meringue is way easier to make than I thought it would be. I'm totally going to make Lemon meringue sweet rolls in the future - cause it sounds so yummy to try.

Anyway, what I discovered with this corn bread recipe that I made last night is that my kids absolutely do not like anything chunky in their corn bread. As soon as they got to a piece of corn in the corn bread they were spitting everything out back onto their plates. I rolled my eyes. Gosh they are so picky. So, when I bake these rolls today, I will not use a chunky corn filling - 'cause I don't want a repeat of last night.

Lemon and Blueberry Sweet Rolls...
I think I could add lemon and blueberry to my Corn rolls with  great success.

So be looking for a few recipes to come - Corn Rolls - Sweet corn rolls, Lemon meringue rolls, and I'm just putting this out here too - I had this idea the other day - and I gotta try it out - Pumpkin Stracciatella Sweet Rolls... I gotta combine two of my all time favorite rolls :)

Related Posts:
Stracciatella Sweet Rolls
My Top 6 and Recipe Archives
Honey-nut Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Ideas and Inspiration

Root Beer, Ginger Ale and Eggnog Sweet Rolls

Root Beer & Cinnamon Sweet Rolls - Trial 1 (all purpose flour and whole wheat/rye blend)

So, soda! I've been experimenting with soda pop in my sweet rolls. I love it. Add a little bit of yeast to soda and it really bubbles up... fast!

First I tried Root Beer. I made them twice in a week. The first time I made them dark - with a whole wheat/rye blended flour and with molasses. The second time I kept them simple with all-purpose flour. I liked them better the second time. My husband like them better the first. But both times we said - we taste the cinnamon more than the Root Beer. So, I'm still in experimental stage with that one. I think I will order some Root Beer extract because I want that sasssafrass flavor to really stand out.

Today I popped open a can of ginger beer. This was not your standard Canada Dry Ginger Ale... this was ginger beer from Jamaica. And you can really taste the ginger in this soda brand. So I didn't add too much ginger in the filling - and in the end, it was a sweet roll with not a lot of flavor. So, I still want to experiment with that as well. I'm thinking I'll combine it with pineapple. It needs something fruity I think... because just ginger is kind of boring... maybe. I could try it a few more times with some changes... we'll see.

Root Beer & Cinnamon Sweet Rolls - Trial 2 (all-purpose flour)

I'm excited about baking with soda. The texture and elasticity of the dough is just spot on! I'm going to try some other flavors out, too - not this month - probably in January. I'm thinking Wild Cherry Pepsi - and leaning towards my favorite European soda: Cassis! Yum.

I've also been working on a Holiday Eggnog Sweet Roll with a Struesel Topping... that one also turned out a bit bland. Needs more rum flavoring and perhaps some raisins and nuts to give it something more. We loved the struesel topping though - definitely keeping that!

Holiday Eggnog Sweet Rolls with Struesel Topping - Trial 1

Lots of baking going on over here... and trying to decide what kind of roll to bake for Christmas (or rather 2e Kerstdag).

Mark's vote is something orange-y. So, I'll probably try those orange-sticky cinnabuns recommended by 17&Baking.

Ideas and Inspiration

Where do I turn to for ideas and inspiration? Like every other foodie I read a lot of food blogs. I get ideas from cupcake bloggers and also smoothie/ice cream bloggers. Any combination they come up with - I think - I could do that, too.

I recently came across this site: kblog in which it lists a whole bunch of herb combos for juicing. And I think to myself - those are some interesting combinations... could possibly work for a sweet roll, too. 

Just check out this list of herb combos:

-basil and lime

-thyme and lemon

-grapefruit and tarragon

-fig and black pepper

-pear and mint

-cucumber and rosemary

-spinach and chive

-strawberry and chili pepper

-peach and cayenne

Okay, some of those don't really sound so good for sweet rolls - like cucumber and rosemary... i don't think so. But it is a very big trend right now to use unusual ingredients in baked goods and in cooking in general. We foodies want to experiment with everything new we come across. Many of us visit farmers' markets and other places to find that unique ingredient and then we want to try something fun with it.

I recently found a can of jackfruit at my local Xenos (I'm trying to think of what store to compare that to in the U.S. hmm... it's like similar to a Pier 1 or something) Anyways, I was thinking - I'll buy that and turn it into some kind of sweet roll. I haven't used it yet, but I've learned all about jackfruit - in my google searches - and I find that kind of thing interesting. Has anyone else cooked with jackfruit before? I've read that it tastes best fresh... we'll see how it is from a can... another day.

Of course, I don't just look to other bloggers for inspiration and ideas... I use my head, too. I just sit down with a paper and pen and write out all my ideas for anything that sounds yummy. Here is a few items from my list:

-salty sweet

-pina colada

-marshmallow fun

-pink passion (grapefruit, raspberries, passion fruit)

-watermelon, strawberries and vanilla

-creamy orange-creamsicle

-mango lassi

-hazelnut choco-cinnamon

-wheat free + coconut, white chocolate and mango (for a friend that loves this combo)

-with Lebanese twist: fig, rosewater, pistachio

-rooibos vanilla

-20 kruiden thee

and my list goes on... but that is just a sample of what I've thought of.

Also from the kblog - here is a list of trendy ingredients: Acai, Aloe, Apricots, Basil, Blackberries, Blood Oranges, Cacao Nibs, Cherimoya, Chia Seeds, Exotic salts: pink, grey, smoked; Goji berries, Hemp products, Jalapeno, Papaya, Wheatgrass, Yacon Powder, Yuzu... to name a few.

You know, I never even knew that salt could come in pink. Does it taste the same? Does anyone know?

And then with fall right around the corner, I'm craving all those wonderful fall things - cooler weather, red, orange and golden leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving... pumpkins!!!  And even though I see before me a list of trendy ingredients... I lean toward pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg, butternut squash, apple cider, maple syrup and so forth.

Today I am 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant... and I'm really hoping that this little baby comes quickly... because I'm experiencing all those things that come with being almost full term, like muscle cramps and just an enormously huge belly that is hard to walk around with... and a huge desire to hold this little baby and kiss it a thousand times....

And I think that by October, I will be recovered and ready for baking sweet rolls... and I betcha that I will be leaning toward those wonderful autumn smells in my kitchen... I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Time Savers

So, I have a lot of ideas floating through my head - all the time... maybe combine a bit of this with a bit of that. Do I make each and every sweet roll from beginning to end all the way all the time? No. Too time consuming and I don't want to throw too much product away. So, here is an easy way to come up with different flavor combinations, or at least, this is how I do it. I take some bread - usually a white bread roll - something similar to a sweet roll - and I spread it with whatever I'm thinking of. This really only works for possible filling combinations or toppings. Take for example my lunch. Today I had some whole wheat seedy bread - very yummy with soup - but I used it to try some different combinations:

The combination on the bottom is marshmallow fluff with shaved chocolate sprinkles. Looks the yummiest right? The marshmallow fluff could have been better - with real chocolate perhaps and maybe some cinnamon :)


The middle one is cream cheese with forest fruits sprinkles. It was alright tasting, perhaps cream cheese and jam or fresh fruits would be the way to go.
 
The top and far yummiest, in my opinion, is hazelnut and chocolate spread with anise sprinkles. Who would have thought that chocolate-nut spread would go so well with anise? Well, it's good. And that means, I'm going to do something with that combination... in the near future. Anise really reminds me of Halloween so I think I'm going to use that combination around Halloween time for some very special Halloween sweet rolls.