Monday, May 13, 2013

Mother's Day Breakfast (Sausage & Veggie Hash + Homemade Cinnamon Buns)

I hope everyone had a very Happy Mother's Day! This year, I treated my mom to a deliciously simple, homemade breakfast. We started off with Sausage & Veggie Hash with eggs and finished things off with Homemade Cinnamon Buns. First up, the hash.


Recipe yields 4 large servings

Ingredients
5 medium red potatoes
4 sweet Italian sausage
1 small red pepper
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 medium yellow onion
1 large clove garlic
1-2 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
8 large eggs (2 per person)
 

Start off by preparing all your vegetables. Finely dice the carrot, celery, pepper and onion. Mince the garlic and cut the potatoes into a small dice.


Coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with canola oil and heat on high. Add your vegetables and stir to cover in oil. Remove the casing from the sausage and crumble it in the pan with the vegetables.


Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until potatoes are tender.


Prepare your eggs however you like them, I did sunny side up. Plate the hash and top with your eggs.


Next up is the recipe for a batch of delicious cinnamon buns. This recipe was lightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction. Check out her website for many other delicious treats.

Recipe yields 15 cinnamon buns

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large egg

Pan Preparation:
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp brown sugar

Filling:
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk


In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Combine ingredients using the paddle attachment.



In a separate bowl, add the water, milk and butter and heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot.


Change to the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and add in the liquid ingredients. Mix on low speed and increase speed as ingredients become incorporated. Add in the egg and continue to mix. Now you have the option of removing your dough and kneading on a well floured surface, or you can leave it in your mixer and increase the speed to medium for 3 minutes. The mixer will knead your dough for you - now isn't that easy.


Remove your dough to a greased bowl and allow to rest for 10 minutes or so. Really all we are doing here is letting the yeast work its magic. In the meantime, you can prepare your baking dish. I chose to use a round dish, but you can use a baking sheet as well if you want to double the recipe and have more room. I greased the bottom and sides of my dish with the butter and then sprinkled it with the brown sugar. This gives the bottoms a little extra sweetness!

During your wait, you can also mix together the sugar and cinnamon for your filling.


Now it is time to roll out the dough. Make sure your work surface is well floured and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle. Mine was about 9 inches wide and 14 inches long and it gave me 15 perfect sized buns.


Next, you want to take your softened butter and spread it all over the surface of your dough in an even layer. Make sure to get every last inch covered.


Now you can sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the butter in an even layer.


Starting at one of the long edges, tightly begin to roll your dough into a long tube. Roll it nice and tight.


Once it is all rolled together, it is time to slice the tube into little buns. The best trick for this is to use a piece of unscented dental floss. It will make a perfect edge without squishing down the roll. Make the buns about 1 inch wide each. Arrange in your dish and lightly cover with tin foil.


Now we have to wait for our buns to rise, about 1 hour and 15 minutes should do it. I know, I know its grueling and painful when all you want to do is eat them. To keep my mind busy, I prepared my dough early in the morning and cooked the rest of my breakfast while I was waiting. The buns went into the oven once we were finished eating our eggs. With about 20 minutes to go, preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Once ready, pop the buns in the oven and bake for 28-30 minutes. While in the oven, whip together your sugar glaze by combining all ingredients with a hand mixer or a whisk.


Once the buns are ready, drizzle with a generous amount of glaze and serve warm. I hope you enjoy these delicious treats!

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