The Baker Chick's Cinnamon Rolls

As you may know, it's more or less freezing outside. Earlier this week instead of going to the gym I made cinnamon rolls. When it's super cold out you really should just throw on your favorite soft pants, crank the oven & bake something sweet.

After perusing the internet & recipes by Paula Deene & The Pioneer Woman I came upon a new (to me) blog, The Baker Chick.  I immediately loved this blog & decided that her 90-minute browned butter cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting recipe was the one for me.

My one word of advice would be to read the recipe all the way through & to plan for a pan that the recipe calls for. I did not follow this advice & found myself with cinnamon rolls popping out of my pans! Fortunately, the outcome was still delicious, in fact dangerously so. After Chris & I taste-tested the fresh rolls out of the oven we knew we couldn't keep them in our house. I packed up two to-go containers of rolls to share with our teams of coworkers in the morning. There was no way we could have been trusted at home with them alone. They wouldn't stand a chance, we would have eaten them all!  Luckily our coworkers took care of the leftovers :)

Read more for tons of photos & The Baker Chick's full recipe. Be sure to check out her other recipes like these blueberry cinnamon rolls on the-baker-chick.com, too.

Hot Cardamom Milk

I love the cardamom coffee at Hampton Chutney in Soho NYC.  This year I've resolved to lay off the caffeine for 2013 so the coffee part of this delish beverage is out but I can still have the yummy cardamom warm spices in a delicious drink all thanks to this recipe for milk with cardamom.
It's a great creamy hot drink for those really chilly days.

Ingredients

• Milk - 2 cups (unsweetened almond milk might be tasty too!)
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Cardamom - 1 pod,crushed

Make it!

1. Pour the milk,sugar and cardamom in a pan and simmer for 5 minutes,or till the milk boils.
2. Close with a lid and keep aside for another 5 minutes.
3. Just before serving,strain the milk and pour into individual cups.
4. Serve when it is still warm.

PS: it's caffeine-free so if you sip some at the end of the night you'll still be able to sleep!

Dairy-Free Chocolate Ice Cream

Chris loves chocolate ice cream. One night when I made these cakes I realized I didn't have any ice cream at all, but I did have frozen bananas & cocoa powder. Problem solved. I freeze my bananas right before they call to the fruit flies, that's right when they're nearly all black - that just means they're super sweet, I break them up & freeze them in food storage bags.  Then I add them to smoothies or make this dairy-free chocolate ice cream out of them by simply blending the frozen bananas with a tablespoon of cocoa powder together. Et voila, you've got a cold creamy chocolatey ice cream like treat. If you're feeling frisky add some peanut butter & thank me later.

This is a great option for vegans & those who suffer from dairy allergies or if you just want to try a lighter ice cream especially in these heat waves we've been having lately.

Happy Friday!