We always make my Grama’s famous buns when family is going to be home. They are a special treat and the smell brings me right back to my childhood. We always do a knot for these buns. But I thought it would be fun to change it up and try something new for Spring.
There were a couple of different “styles” of bunny buns that were circulating throughout Pinterest that caught my eye. One type simply rolled the dough into a ball. Then you snipped two ears in the top of the bun. This was done with some scissors and the you added two eyes with skewers.
The other method was rolling the dough into a long strip and then folding it over itself and then twisting to make the ears, and adding a little ball of dough for the tail.
We decided to go with the roll and twist for our bunny buns this time. It took a little time to get into the swing of things and get the shape just right. It proved a little trickier than we thought. Needless to say, some of the bunny buns were beautiful and perfectly smooth bunnies and others were well bumpy, lumpy, lopsided bunnies!
At the end of the day, the house was filled with the wonderful scent of homemade buns and even though some were not perfect looking they all tasted delicious!
What do you do with a bunch of stale croissants that you couldn’t eat fast enough? Well of course, you look up on Pinterest what to make. I was quite surprised to find that there are actually several things you can do with them. Bread puddings, croutons, French toast, and the list goes on.
We decided on French toast. I landed on Dinner then Dessert’s recipe called Croissant French Toast Bake. This was an easy to follow recipe and I had all the ingredients that I needed on hand. I altered the recipe slightly by adding in some frozen mixed berries.
This smelled delicious while it cooked in the oven and made the perfect weekend lunch with a dusting of icing sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup! Yum!
A little glimpse of our Christmas cookie baking and decorating. A few years ago my daughter and I went to a cookie decorating evening with my work. My co-workers’ mom had her own cookie business and she ran a little evening workshop. We learned tips and techniques to create the perfect cookie.
I am usually pretty good at trying new things and on my first attempts I did not do very well. This is so much harder than it looks. You need a steady hand and a lot of patience. I honestly don’t know how these small business’ crank out hundreds of intricately decorated cookies.
As a family we decided to try cookie decorating at home. My adult kids loved it so much that we now do it as a yearly Christmas activity. Our skill levels are all over, and sometimes one cookie turns out amazing and the next is a flop. We continue have our yearly cookie decorating evening and there are always lots of laughs.
Also as an insider tip – sprinkles fix everything!
On Thanksgiving weekend, we attempted to make ‘pumpkin buns’ by modifying our regular ‘Grama Buns’ recipe. We usually shape the buns into a ‘knot,’ and instead, we used butcher twine to create pumpkin-like ribs. (Fun fact: each of a pumpkin’s ‘ribs’ correspond to a set of seeds inside the pumpkin!)
After mixing the dough and kneading it, we let the dough rise (1st rise), then we measured it out into individual buns. Next, we shaped them with the twine, and let them rise again (2nd rise). We then baked them with the twine on. After cooling, the twine was removed, leaving behind some adorable pumpkins.
This process looked super cute, but removing the twine was definitely tricky. Perhaps next time, soaking the twine would have helped it remove a little easier. Regardless of this small hiccup with the twine, they were cute and tasted yummy!
I love to watch the Magnolia Network’s show Zoe Bakes. It is a lovely curly haired lady who bakes delicious recipes in her magnificent kitchen. She is down to earth, funny and uses ingredients that you would have in a well stocked pantry.
The local blueberries this season were so delicious. They were full of flavour and sweet. My daughter and I wanted to bake something with our extra berries and came across the Zoe Bakes’ recipe for blueberry bars.
This recipe was a little more complicated than I normally attempt; however, my daughter was on hand to supervise me. She prepped the ingredients and gave hints and tips as I went along and we made a pretty good team.
The bottom crust was a shortbread cookie crust and we added fresh thyme from the garden. The middle was a homemade blueberry filling, and the top was a lattice top crust made out of cream cheese dough. I have never made any type of pie dough, but it was much easier than I thought. The trick to having the lattice top be manageable was to freeze it once you had woven it and then it was much easier to handle.
When we pulled the final product out of the oven it smelled so good. The blueberry filling was gooey and bubbling. The next time I make it, I think I will leave it in the oven for a tiny bit longer so that the middle was more golden brown. As we sliced into our homemade treat and cut it into bars, it sliced perfectly.
The next part was to taste it! The first bite was amazing, not too sweet but so yummy and delicious. I would highly recommend trying these blueberry bars and adding the recipe to your collection. It is definitely a recipe I will make again!
While doing my usual perusing through Instagram and Pinterest this recipe for strawberry muffins caught my eye. The recipe is from Two Peas and Their Pod. The recipe was super simple to follow and I had all the ingredients that I needed on hand including fresh local strawberries.
I have to admit I have never made muffins with fresh strawberries before. The secret tip of combining the diced strawberries with a little bit of flour really worked well so that the strawberries don’t just mush into the batter. Another great tip I appreciated was to use two muffin trays and space out your muffins, six per tray so that the muffins have more space to bake. This was a brilliant tip and one that I will for sure use again. I have made muffins so many times and had them all spread into each other, not exactly pretty.
I also loved the sprinkle of turbinado sugar on top to add some crunch. My Dad always says muffins with a crunchy top are the best kind. I think these will be a winner in his books.
I have been saving these fancy parchment baking liners for a special recipe and I thought this was the perfect occasion to use them. I love when I go to a cafe or a bakery and they have these parchment liners. The muffins just seem so much fancier, and taste better.
Maybe you will try these yummy strawberry muffins in your kitchen. Enjoy!
While visiting the East Coast on a family road trip a few years ago I discovered the oat cake. It sounds so simple and it is so delicious. It tastes a little like an oatmeal cookie but with more bite and it just is amazing.
Many East Coast bakeries had oat cakes as part of their local offerings. I was even surprised to see that Tim Horton’s out East offered the oat cake on their menu. Oat cakes were enjoyed a lot while I was on vacation and I had always thought I would like to try to make them at home.
I decided to tackle this bake using The East Coast Kitchen recipe. It was a simple straight forward recipe and had some tips and tricks to having a successful bake. I gathered my ingredients and began.
As they were baking, the kitchen filled with the wonderful smell of baking cookies. I was so excited to see if I really could replicate the flavours at home. I was challenging myself to try something new and had my fingers crossed that they would taste as good as I remembered.
Once the edges were lightly browned I pulled them from the oven. They looked perfect! Now to let them cool. I’m not going to lie, I might have sneaked one from the cooling rack before they were completely cooled. Oops. After all I had made 25 from the recipe and really only 24 fit on the cooling rack…
My expectations were not disappointed. These cute little oat cakes were perfect circles of wonderfulness. I had such success, and have saved this recipe so that I can make it again and again. I shared some, ate some, ate some more, and shared a few more. Challenge accepted and achieved. Oat cakes made by mum with love!
Weekends are busy, but I have decided to try to make more time for doing things that I love. This weekend it was baking a batch of my Grama’s buns. Spending the afternoon in the kitchen baking something from scratch was wonderful.
I grew up eating these buns. My Grama made them, my Mom made them, my daughter made them, and now I am making them. My daughter is a baker and she learned from my Mom and perfected the Grama bun early on, and now I have learned from her.
Our bun shape of choice is ever so important and must be a knot, and nothing else will do. Why you ask, because it tastes better when it’s a knot and that is the simple truth.
That first bite just takes me back to being a little girl standing in my Mom’s kitchen. Something homemade has the ability to transport us right back, the smell, the taste, what a wonderful thing.
As we were sampling today’s buns my husband said, “your Grama would be proud, these are amazing.”
It is my wish that this post inspires you to make a family recipe. Something from your childhood that brings back as many wonderful memories as my ‘Grama Buns’ did for me today.
I love bagels.
To say they are my favorite food is an understatement. I could eat bagels for every meal; a sesame bagel with butter and coffee is my tried and true daily breakfast.
Both of my kids live in cities known for their bagels, Ottawa and Montreal. From Ottawa, my son brings home Kettleman’s bagels. From Montreal, my daughter brings St-Viateur’s.
Today I tackled my first ever bagels baked from scratch and if I do say so myself, they turned out pretty amazing! I used the Montreal bagel technique of par boiling the bagels in honeyed water before baking them. I twisted them into shape and love that they’re all unique.
I think next time I would add some maple syrup in the dough before the first rise, and I would have given them a longer second rise to make them a bit more toaster-sized.
