In the kitchen with Sharon this week is Tim Colliver, one of the reporters for The Times-Gazette. Tim is one of my favorite people. He always comes in every morning with a smile and you can hear him singing all through our offices. You don’t find many like Tim. He just is a great person, and plus he brings in the best food.
He came in last Friday and said, “There’s food in the hitchen.” That’s all it took and we ran back to see what he had made. Oh yes, cinnamon rolls, and they are homemade no less. I am not going to tell you how many I had — maybe two or maybe three — but who’s counting. Thank you so much Tim. They were delicious. Pour me a cup of the coffee.
If you have a recipe you would like to share I would love to put it in my column. Please send them to [email protected] or call 937-393-3456.
Happy Easter!
Editor’s note — The remainder of this column is from Tim Colliver:
If there’s one thing about this newspaper I like, it’s the folks here love to eat. I can’t tell you how many places I’ve worked at where everybody’s on a diet, they can’t eat gluten, they can’t eat this, they can’t eat that, they only eat low-calorie cooking. The list is endless.
Here at The Times-Gazette, a typical day starts out with “what story are you working on?” followed by “what did you bake for us this morning?”
Well, the other morning, the Timster was feeling homemade cinnamon rolls with a sweet homemade icing.
We tore into them at 9 a.m. and by early afternoon they were just about gone.
Homemade cinnamon
rolls with icing
You’ll need:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ Tablespoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup lard (oh yeah, got to have the “secret ingredient”)
½ to ¾ cup milk (You want this a bit on the moist side for a good rise)
2 cups sugar
1 stick real butter, either melted or so soft it can be brushed on with a pastry brush
Generous dusting of cinnamon
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the lard and mix in the milk. You don’t want the dough to be too dry, while at the same time you don’t want it so moist you can’t get it out of the bowl. Dust the counter top with flour and roll out the dough into a rough rectangular shape until it’s about one-quarter inch thick. Either pour or brush the butter onto the dough and cover with the sugar and then dust generously with cinnamon.
Carefully roll the dough up into a jelly-roll and pinch the ends. Use a sharp knife, like a fillet knife, cut the roll into roughly two-inch thick pastries and lay them side by side in a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Place into a 350-degree oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove when done and let cool.
For the icing, take two cups of powdered sugar, one teaspoon vanilla and three or four tablespoons of milk and beat in a mixer. You want the icing of a consistency so it can be drizzled over the top of your pastries — not so thick that it needs to be spread yet not so thin that it’s watery.
Let the icing firm somewhat and then slice your pastries and serve. They taste great with either a hot cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk.
Sharon Hughes is the advertising manager at The Times-Gazette. She is also a mother, grandmother and chef.
