Episode 4: Homemade Snack Croissants

Tonight will be our first time attending an FRG (Family Readiness Group) meeting.  These meetings are for spouses, family members, and close acquaintances of soldiers.  The meeting is to promote unit and army support of the families and to create a network of family members to support each other during deployments.  Over the years FRG has developed a reputation for a place where wives (or husbands) try and wear their spouses rank and belittle or boss other spouses around.  Lucky for me, I do wear the same rank as my wife.  :)  For the meeting tonight my wife asked me to make croissant snack rolls so I chose to make smores croissant.  Heres to using food to manipulate the other spouses (insert evil laugh)

Recipe: Smores Croissant

Yields around 50 rolls

Dough:
2 Packages active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups all-purpose flour

Start by dissolving the yeast in warm water.  Stir in sugar, salt, eggs and shortening.  Mix with a Kitchenaid mixer or by hand until smooth.  (Should begin to feel and look like croissant dough that you get from the store).  Knead dough, then cover and let it rise in a warm place for 1-1 1/2 hours (or until double in size).

Punch down dough.  Divide the dough in half, roll first half into 12 inch circle.  Cut into wedges using a pizza cutter.  Continue reading below for instructions to make them into smores!

Smores:
50 pieces of chocolate
6 graham crackers crushed
100 mini marshmallows

Take one wedge of dough and place a piece of chocolate in the middle.  Add one marshmallow on each side of the chocolate.  Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of graham crackers on top of chocolate.  Roll up croissant starting with the wide end.  Place smore croissant on baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.

After all croissants have been topped and rolled, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-15 or until golden brown.

Episode 3: Blueberry Crumb Bars

A little treat now and then doesn't hurt.  We have been successfully eating healthier by not eating out and by not eating foods that have preservatives in them.  So far our diet consists of a lot of fruits, veggies, homemade breads, made-from-scratch meals, and a lot of water.  Believe it or not, we were able to not spend as much on this months grocery bill by buying a majority of fruits and veggies.  We also bought a lot more fresh meats products then we normally do.  The combination of grocery savings and the savings from not eating out, will help out the bank account.  For brunch today I decided to make "Blueberry Crumb Bars".  I used frozen (not fresh) blueberries for the recipe.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during the process but the one picture that I have and that really counts is the final product picture!

Recipe:

Yields around 36 bars (9x13 in pan)
Dough
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest of lemon

Filling
Juice of one lemon
4 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix in medium bowl sugar, baking powder, and salt then add egg and butter.  Mix butter into bowl with a dough cutter.  Add lemon zest and mix.  Dough will be crumbly.

Take half of dough mixture and layer the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan.

In another medium bowl, squeeze the lemon juice over a mixture of sugar and cornstarch.  Stir.  Add blueberries and continue stirring until all the blueberries are covered in the sugary liquid.

Pour the blueberry mixture in the pan and spread evenly.  Take second half of dough mixture and spread out evenly on top of blueberries.

Place pan in oven and cook for 45 minutes or until top is slightly brown.  Let cool completely before cutting.

Mahalo!