Guava Coconut and Cream Cheese Rolls

Whenever my friend visits Miami, I try to destroy her diet..er.. bake her a treat. It's usually brownies and once I made cookies but I am not the best cookie-baker. In the last several months, she has become quite the baker herself. So what do I make for someone who bakes? How do I one-up my previous treats and the ones that she has made? I really had no idea but then I remembered that I do make a decent bread and she doesn't make that. Yet. That thought led to these amazing guava, coconut and cream cheese rolls.

I made similar rolls back in 2012 when I took part in Willow Bird Baking's baking challenges. However, I used white chocolate cream cheese spread and no coconut. I don't see those cream cheese spreads in my supermarket anymore. But that's probably a good thing. They were extremely delicious and it was way too easy to eat way more than my fair share in one sitting. Goodness. Now I am craving that stuff. I need to check if other stores nearby carry them.

For these rolls, I adapted Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll dough. I added more flour and used less sugar and less yeast. It's a really sticky dough even with the additional flour so chilling it is a must. I chilled it after adding the filling and chilled it again before slicing. It's just less stressful (for me) that way. There's a stiffer dough that I have used to make rolls in the past but I wanted to try this one.

This recipe makes 24 rolls. If you don't want that many rolls, freeze half the dough and use it at a later date.

 

Guava Coconut and Cream Cheese Rolls

Recipe by: Kelster Adapted from: Dough adapted from Pioneer Woman

Yield: 24 rolls

Ingredients Dough 2 cups milk ½ cup oil ¼ cup sugar 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 4 ½ cups flour plus ½ cup 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder Flling 8 oz cream cheese 6 tablespoons butter or margarine 14 oz guava paste 2 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Directions Combine milk, oil and sugar in a large pot. Heat until bubbles just start to form around the edges (but before boiling) and turn off burner. Allow the mixture to cool for an hour. When the mixture is warm (approximately 110 degrees or lower), add the yeast and 4 ½ cups of flour. Stir mixture to thoroughly combine. Ensure that all of the flour is moistened. Cover and let sit for 1 to 2 hours or until mixture has doubled. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir thoroughly once more. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. Grease four 8-inch baking pans or two 9 x 13- inch pans. Cream the butter and cream cheese together. Slice or grate the guava paste into small pieces. Remove dough from fridge. On a floured surface, roll out half the dough to approximately 12 x 16 inches. With a 12 inch side facing you, spread half the cream cheese mixture over the dough, top with half of the guava paste and a cup of shredded coconut. Leave approximately half an inch of dough on the opposite 12 inch side without filling. Tightly roll up the dough then slice into 12 pieces. Place the slices into the prepared pans. Cover and let rise for approximately 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining half of the dough. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350 F. After rolls have risen/doubled, place in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove. Cool slightly, eat.

Notes If you don't wish to cream the butter and cream cheese, you can spread them on the dough individually. Guava paste is very sticky. If you find that it's hard to slice, you can always soften it slightly in the microwave. If at any point the dough becomes hard to work with, place it in the fridge for a few minutes. I don't add a glaze to this because I think there is already enough sugar here. However, feel free to add a cream cheese glaze/frosting.

Grapefruit & Wasabi Chicken

A few days ago I was sitting at my desk, listening to the storm that was raging outside.My phone was vibrating several times but I was lost in thought and did not feel like paying attention. Emails, I figured. Whatever it was, it could wait. The notifications persisted. I snapped out of daydream and reached for the phone. I did a double take as I peered at the Google alert in my notifications.

Tornado???

In Miami???


I headed to Twitter. And there I saw tweets from the National Weather Service urging people to take cover. I glanced outside again and froze for a moment. I know next to nothing about tornadoes. I can tell you all about the hurricanes that I have been in while in Jamaica and Miami. You know about approaching hurricanes days in advance. You can stock up on food and supplies. Barricade windows and doors. Move cars to secure locations. But tornadoes are a whole new world. There really isn't that much time between "TORNADO WARNING" and "RUN FOR COVER IMMEDIATELY!" And where do I run to?

Thankfully, this was a small tornado and did very little damage. My heart goes out to those affected by the tornadoes in Arkansas some weeks ago. I had only recently read the news article about the final text messages a man sent to his mother. Truly heartbreaking.

Are you prepared for potential disasters? Do you know what to do in case of hurricane, tornado, earthquake blizzard or even fire?

There is really no good segue from tornadoes to this chicken. It was just something that I had to get out. For the Crazy Ingredient Challenge this month, we are working with grapefruit and wasabi. I was pretty sure that I was going to make some form of wrap but somehow that evolved to this chicken. Good stuff. I will definitely make this with and without the wasabi. Be sure to scroll down to see what the other bloggers made below.

Grapefruit & Wasabi Chicken

  Ingredients

1 chicken breast (Mine weighed 325g)
salt & pepper

Coating
1/2 cup water
2 oz flour
1 oz cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg white
1 teaspoon oil
salt & pepper 
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs

Sauce

3/4 cup grapefruit juice
3/4 cup water or chicken stock
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 - 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Directions

Cut chicken into bite size pieces and season with salt and pepper. Combine the batter ingredients (except the breadcrumbs) and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F and grease a baking sheet.

Dip each chicken piece into the batter then into  the breadcrumbs and place on the prepared baking sheet. After all the pieces have been coated, bake for 15- 20 minutes or until completely cooked.

In a small saucepan, combine grapefruit juice, water, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger and garlic. Simmer and stir occasionally until all the sugar has melted. Let simmer for an additional 10 minutes so that it is reduced.Stir in 1-2 teaspoons of wasabi paste. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. In a separate bowl, make a cornstarch slurry by mixing the cornstarch with a tablespoon of water. Stir into the sauce. It should thicken. Turn off heat and coat the cooked chicken pieces with the sauce.

An InLinkz Link-up

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Flower Bread

I am not sure how I did not realise that Roxana Home Baking's Chocolate Party was a monthly affair. Me. A self-professed chocoholic missing out on a monthly chocolate baking/cooking event. Anyway, luckily an email from Roxana has me joining the party this month. This month, the secret ingredient is peanut butter.

I was never a big peanut butter fan. And I certainly never cared for the peanut butter and chocolate combination. I ate Reese's Pieces because there was chocolate involved and I was willing to "suffer" through the peanut butter for even a little taste of chocolate. Over the years I have started to eat more and more peanut butter - sometimes even with chocolate. It's still not my favourite but I am always bookmarking peanut butter and chocolate recipes for friends so it is almost inevitable that I will eventually appreciate it more.

In this flower bread (BlumenBrot), the combination was definitely a winner. This bread is easier to make than it looks. I was sure that I would mess it up and even though I made a wrong cut and did mess up the pattern a bit, it did not look horrible. I think I did very well for my first try. I can't wait to make this bread again with different fillings and of course to try other patterns.

I didn't take progress pics. I'm working on being able to snap pics while I work in the kitchen. It's hard. To help you remake this, I have linked to the video from which I adapted this (see the recipe below). Steve makes it easy for you to see how to shape the dough. That's a whole lot better than any progress pics that I could have taken.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Flower Bread

Recipe by:    Kelster  Adapted from: Steven’s Kitchen

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients Dough 450 g all purpose flour ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs, separated 30 g melted butter ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons milk Oil for coating dough Filling 1/2 cup peanut butter ½ cup chocolate chips Powdered sugar, to taste

Directions Combine all the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, egg yolks, butter and milk in a large bowl. Knead in a stand mixer on speed 2 for 5 to 7 mins or until the dough in smooth and satiny.  Shape dough into a ball and coat with a small amount of oil. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Allow dough to rest until doubled (~ 2 hours depending on temperature of room). When dough has risen, divide the dough into four equal pieces and flatten each piece into a disk. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. While dough rests, prepare filling. Warm the peanut butter in the microwave for approximately 15 seconds or until just melted. In a separate bowl, warm the chocolate chips for 15-20 seconds or until just starting to melt Stir the chips into the peanut butter until combined. Add powdered sugar, to taste, if you want a sweet filling. Place bowl with filling in a larger bowl of warm water so that the filling will stay melted while you roll out each piece of dough. Roll the first piece of dough into a ~9.5” circle. Use a dinner plate or the bottom of a springform pan to measure/mark the dough and trim any excess. Place your first circle on parchment paper or a baking mat. Spread a third of the filling evenly onto your first circle. Roll the next piece of dough. Measure and trim any excess then place on top of the filling-covered first circle. Cover with another third of filling. Repeat with third piece of dough. Roll the fourth piece of dough and place on top of your stack. Place a small cup or jar in the center of your dough. Slice dough into 16 even wedges. IMPORTANT: the cup or jar will be at the center of your dough so that you won’t cut through to the very center. Take two adjacent wedges and twist twice in the opposite direction. Repeat with the other wedges. Hold two adjacent wedges and twist so that the edges are perpendicular to the baking mat. Pinch together. Preheat oven to 350 F. Allow dough to rest for 20 minutes. Brush the dough with the egg whites. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool before eating.

Notes I used crunchy peanut butter which can be a little trickier to spread than creamy. If you use crunchy peanut butter, be careful not to tear the dough.