English muffins (thanks to the Rusty Plow homestead)

(can be gluten and dairy free, see below for subsitutions)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of milk
• 3 TBSP butter
• 3 TBSP of honey
• 1 cup of warm water (105-110 degrees)
• 1/4 oz of yeast
• 2 TBSP cornmeal
• 5 cups + extra for sprinkling all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt

(To make gluten free, use a mix of rice flour instead of the ap flour, and use soy milk in place of the milk)

Directions
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, mix lightly and set aside for ten minutes to foam lightly.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter and honey until the butter is melted. Let cool lightly.
Combine the yeast mixture and milk mixtures gently.

In a large bowl, sift 3 cups of flour. Stir in the milk and yeast. Sift the remaining flour and salt. Stir until cohesive.

Flour and marble slab well and knead the dough for 3 minutes or til lightly elastic. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cover two cookie sheet with parchment and lightly sprinkle with cornmeal.
Flour the marble slab lightly and roll the dough out until it's a 1/2 inch thick. Air on the side of too thick okay.

Cut out circles (don't twirl your cutter, just cut). Gently place on the cookie sheets, sprinkle the tops with cornmeal

 and cover with a dry, light cloth. Let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes or til nearly doubled in size. It's more like 2/3. 45 minutes will definitely do though.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on medium low, don't grease it.
Gently place a muffin in your hand and shake lightly to remove some of the corn meal.
Gentleness is key in all of the handling. Place into the pan and repeat til the pan is full.
 Don't let them touch each other. Keep the heat on low. Cook for 8 minutes per side or until browned well,
 flip and cook again. Let cool lightly on a wire rack. Split and top with butter and honey, or with egg and sausage whichever your choosing.

Up to date's

A few new things going on around the homestead now that the temperatures have dropped. The garden is not really growing a whole lot. I have a bed of rhubarb planted along with some carrots, cabbage, kale, turnips, mustard greens and peas. We recently got a few shipments of plants in from a few different companies. We now have two cherry bushes planted where we pulled up some azaleas and planted three heritage raspberries in a bed by our chicken run.
The chickens are now in lock down, since Mr Houdini our escape artist of a rooster kept jumping over the fence some how, really I think he was climbing the pear tree. We are now up to 6 possibly seven blueberry bushes, the possibly seven is thanks to my six year old son who decided to play with a push lawnmower trying to push it around pretending he was mowing and ran over one of my bushes and broke the majority of a side of the plant off. I took the broken side and put rooting compound on it and put it into a pot on our deck and it seems to have taken. I don't think we will be getting a huge surplus of berries this spring but the thought is nice. In a few years though I am expecting a fruit bowl of sorts.

The pig is getting BIG, she is sucking up everything we give her. At first she would not eat whole corn, we think it might have hurt her teeth. We tried all kinds of things to try to get her to eat it and the only way we could get her to eat the whole corn was to cover it in molasses. But now she will eat it fine without anything added to it which is great because right now we can get corn for 7.50 for 50lbs at a time. She loves milk too and anything else. I think so far our decision to get a pig was the most economical of all decisions we have made for our homestead.

With all the cold we are barely getting any eggs surprisingly my silky chickens are still laying eggs. Well, two of the three hens are which is not bad since they are meant to be my little brooders. One of our Dominic mix hens just started laying after a long few months of now laying any eggs. If you don't know what it is like to have a egg in the nest box after waiting that long for an egg, well lets just say I did a little happy dance in the yard. 
Since it has been ridiculously cold here I have been staying inside a lot, baking and cooking and trying to get our house uncluttered. We have also been trying to think of what to use our old refrigerator for since we had to replace it :(. We don't want to do a smoker or a root cellar because of its size, really it is just too big. So send me your ideas tell me what you think would be a good idea to use it for?

Cinnamon Rolls worth its weight in dough

This recipe is supposedly originated at a certain mouse dominated corporation that will remain nameless. Regardless of it's origin it is a new favorite of mine for sure. The recipe caught my eye when I seen that it had something not generally associated with cinnamon rolls, vanilla pudding mix. I thought how weird? But tried it and it is the softest tastiest homemade cinnamon rolls I have come across, and they will definitely make you rethink purchasing those cans of pre-made rolls in the cold section. So start preheating that oven this time of the year is the perfect time to get baking for the family.

Cinnamon Rolls

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 box (small box) instant vanilla pudding
• 2 cups milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 cups (all purpose) flour

Mix yeast, water and sugar together and let sit for a few minutes or until it starts to bubble. While it is sitting mix together your milk and butter in a saucepan and warm just until all the butter is melted then turn off heat and slowly stir in the two eggs. Mix yeast mixture and milk mixture together with the box of vanilla pudding and then add salt and flour all at once.  once it is thoroughly mixed cover with seran wrap and a towel and let sit until doubled in volume and then punch down dough. Let rise again, and then punch down dough and roll out on floured surface. This recipe makes 16 giant cinnamon rolls so when you roll the dough out it will be huge. Here is a picture of how mine looked when it was rolled out.

 

 

Filling:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (melted)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon

Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. After butter is melted brush onto dough  and then sprinkle the sugar mixture onto the dough like in the picture above (you don't have to use all the butter I do not and it turns out great, I use some of the melted butter to brush the pans with so that the dough does not stick.)

 

After you are done putting the sugar over your dough, you simple start on the long side and start rolling the dough into a giant log. Make sure that you brush the flour off as you go along so that your dough will stick together. When you are done rolling and you have you super sized cinna-log, you can start cutting it into rolls. A serrated knife works best for cutting these 2 inch thick rolls. 

 

Now it is time for them to rise again but this time in the pan, when they are doubled put them into your oven at 350 for about twenty minutes or until golden on top. While the rolls are in the oven you can work on your frosting.

 

Before rising (roughly half sheet size pan)

After rising

 

 

Frosting:

 

• 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar

 

Simply mix all the ingredients together with a whisk attachment , the longer you beat the mixture the whiter and fluffier the frosting. If you find your frosting a little on the thick side you can add a tablespoon or so of milk but I like the frosting thick so it does not soak into the rolls too much. Make sure to apply the frosting liberally because it makes plenty. This recipe does not freezes fine but I will say that in my experience with it the yeast flavor in the dough is enhanced by freezing somehow so take this into consideration if you do decide to make these as a freezer meal. You can also freeze the frosting rather well in ziplocs or in vacuum bags like I did.  Happy HOMEsteading.