Cinnamon buns.

Cinnamon buns recipe:
From Smitten Kitchen

For the dough:
1 cup milk
3 tbs unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
7g packet dry, instant yeast
1 tsp salt

Place the milk and butter into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter has melted and milk is warm.
Pour into a big mixing bowl and add 1 cup of the flour, sugar, egg, yeast and salt.
Beat on low speed for 3 minutes.
Add the remaining flour and beat until incorporated and the dough is sticky (You might have to do this with a wooden spoon, rather than a hand mixer). The dough should be sticky, but not too sticky.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface to knead.
If you find that the dough is sticking to your hands, sprinkle the dough with flour and keep kneading until the dough is smooth and almost elastic, about 8 minutes.
Form the dough into a nice ball and place into a large, lightly oiled bowl.
Cover with cling wrap and a clean tea towel and place in a warm, draught-free place until the dough has doubled in size, about 2 hours.


For the cinnamon filling:
3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sultanas

While the dough is rising, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

Tip the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.
Roll the dough out to a 15by11 inch rectangle.
Pour the melted butter over the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and sultanas.
Starting at the long side, roll the dough up towards you into a tight log.
Seam side down, slice the cinnamon log into 18-20 small slices.
Place the slices into 2 greased tins (I found that a 20cm springform tin was easier to get out, but a square tin is fine too), cut side up.
Cover each tin with cling wrap and a clean tea-towel and place in a warm, draught-free spot to rise for 40-45 mins.
Pre-heat oven to 190C, and stick the trays in the oven.
Bake the rolls for 20 mins, until the tops are golden.
Take the trays from the oven and flip the buns out onto a wire rack to cool.
Glaze buns when cool.


For the orange glaze (optional):
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
juice and zest of half an orange

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. If the icing is a bit thick, add more juice until it's runny enough to pour onto the buns.

An odd combination.

No. That isn't dirt on my strawberry. It's pepper.

I can't remember who told me that you should put pepper on your strawberries instead of icing sugar, but they were right. It seems like an odd combination, and when I first heard I thought it was wrong. But the ground pepper enhances the sweetness of the strawberries without overpowering the strawberry flavour. I'm not exactly sure why this is. I tried to google it, but no one could tell me (if you know why, I'd love for you to share!). You can't taste the pepper, exactly, it just does something amazing to the strawberries that you wouldn't expect.

So next time you've got some strawberries on hand, add a sprinkling of ground black pepper, instead of icing sugar or cream, and see the difference it makes. Go on, I dare you.
Oh, if you want a list of other (somewhat) suprising food combinations, you could check out this list that someone has put together on Listverse.

Vanilla Chai Granola.

I dreamt about this granola last night. I saw the recipe just before I went to bed and all night I dreamt that I was searching through cupboards to find the right spices. As soon as I woke up, I looked up the recipe again and got all the spices out of the cupboard. 8:00 am and there I am, measuring out spices, oats, and sultanas.

It's official. I've finally become one of those people that makes their own cereal. Do they still call those people housewives? Or just hippies? Either way, I'm not ashamed. I'll say it loud and proud. I make my own cereal. From scratch!

Unfortunately, I burnt some of my granola. I got sidetracked, and all of a sudden, I smell this amazing mix of sweet, aromatic spices, and burning toast. The tray that didn't burn was packed full of oaty, spicy goodness, but the other tray was a little scant, so just remember that when making your granola.

The spices in this make it more like a chai tea than a chai latte, so don't go expecting a sickly sweet taste, full of fake spices and flavourings.

If there are too many oats and not enough 'other stuff' in this granola to satisfy your breakfast taste buds, feel free to add wheatgerm (1/2 cup), pepitas or sunflower seeds (1/4 cup), shredded coconut (1/4 cup) or whatever else you like to eat. The only reason I didn't add these, was because it was early when I made this and I didn't want to walk to the shop.
While this is baking, my house filled with the scent of spices, like taking a big whiff from a box of chai tea, until I burnt it, that is.
But definitely try this. It's completely rewarding making your own granola. I feel like a wholesome, self-sufficient house fairy. I think that's a pretty good way to start the day, don't you?
Now, off to feed the chickens...

Recipe:
Adapted from Simple Bites

If you use whole spices (cloves, cardamom), remember to take them out of the honey mixture before you mix it into the oats, otherwise you might crunch a whole clove or cadamom pod and that would just ruin your breakfast. Ruin it. I'd definately recommmend to just use ground spices. And remember that this is not a heavily spiced granola. If you'd like it to be more spicey, you could use heaped tsps, but don't up the spices more than that, or it gets a bit much.

Oven 200C

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cardamom or 3 or 4 whole pods
1/4 tsp ground cloves, or 3 or 4 whole cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 a vanilla bean, sliced with seeds scraped into the honey, or 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup slivered or whole, chopped almonds
1/2 cup LSA mix
1 cup sultanas

In a small saucepan, mix together everything from the honey to the pepper.
Heat until dissolved and mixed, don't bring to the boil.
In a big bowl, mix the remaining ingredients.
Add the spice mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
Split between 2 lined baking trays, flattening the mix as you go.
Bake at 200C for 15 mins. Reduce heat to 170C and rotate trays, turning the granola as you go.
Bake for another 15 mins.
Leave the granola until cool.
Store in an airtight container.