Cinnamon rolls, pizza and bierocks, OH MY!

I got a breadmaker for Christmas and I'm really enjoying it.  I'm using it way more than I thought I would, and am making things I'd never attempt without it.  I thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipes of late.

CINNAMON ROLLS

These Cinnamon Rolls (click link) are wonderful.  I didn't modify the recipe any (besides using some whole-wheat flour instead of all white).  Walnuts and grated apples or raisins/craisins make a great addition to the filling.

PIZZA

Here is the pizza crust recipe I've been using most recently.  I typically use the 1.5 lb loaf for our 14 inch pan and that seems good.  You could always use a 2lb loaf if you wanted a little breadier crust or bigger pizza (just increase everything proportionately from 1.5 to 2).  But here is the recipe for the 1.5 lb loaf.

Add room temp. ingredients in this order to your bread machine:

• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups flour (whatever proportions of white, wheat, flax, or oat that you prefer)
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 cup water (I use warm from the tap)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• garlic powder
• Italian seasoning

Run your breadmaker on the "dough" cycle, pull the dough out when done (mine takes 1 1/2 hrs), press it onto your pizza pan (you may need a little flour as you work with the dough) and you're good!

For our pizzas we use a red (jar) sauce or a white (either jar or homemade cream cheese and ranch) sauce.  For the red pizzas, I typically do a supreme with hamburger, chicken, green pepper, onion, mushroom, pepperoni, sausage, spinach, just whatever sounds good at the time (but don't try squid it won't be tasty, take my word).  For the white sauce I use chicken, onion, mushroom, spinach and roma tomato sliced very thinly.  My MIL taught me to tear several pieces of string cheese in thirds and roll them in the edge for a stuffed-cheesey crust.  YUM!

Top with shredded Italian/mozzarella cheese and bake at 400 for 20 minutes, give or take.  ENJOY!

BIEROCKS

I've had several people ask what bierocks are.  I guess growing up in a small town with German heritage I just took it for granted that everyone ate them.  Heck, we even had them in our school lunches as kids!  But anyways, I will share since apparently they aren't as commonplace as I thought.  I again use my dough cycle on the breadmaker with this bread recipe:

• 1 cup water (warm)
• 2 tablespoons room temp butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cups white flour
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons dry milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Measure and add liquid ingredients.

Measure and add dry ingredients sans yeast.

Make well in dry ingredients and add yeast.

Run breadmaker on dough setting.

Whilst the dough is mixing/rising/etc.:
Saute 1 lb of hamburger, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper (just to your own personal taste-preference on the garlic, salt and pepper really) and about 1/2 head of finely chopped cabbage until done.  Set aside to cool in fridge.

Once the dough is done, split it in half and keep doing so until you have eight pieces.

Take a piece of dough and roll it out into a big square.  Sprinkle some shredded cheese (your preference, I use mozzarella) in the center.  Dump about 1/3ish cup of the meat mixture onto the center of the square, bring opposite corners up, pinch them together and then crease the open sides shut.  The meat should be enclosed and when you flip this over and round the edges you will have what should look like a dinner roll.  Repeat with the other seven dough balls.  Brush with an egg-wash if you'd like (it makes for a crispier end-product) and bake at 400 until golden brown (15 minutes give or take).  They bake well on a pizza pan or stone.  You can also bake them just until they are starting to turn and then pull them out and cool them on racks  (so they don't get soggy) and then in the fridge and finish them off in the oven when you're ready to eat them hot (this works well if you are making them up in advance)!  You can eat them plain or dip them in mustard or another sauce of your choosing.  They are TASTY!!