Food bloggie

I love reading food blogs almost as much as I love reading cookbooks.  Maybe more.  Today I am going to pretend that I am a food blogger for a minute.  I thought I'd share one of my recent successes and a very recent failure.  I don't pretend to be a food photographer however, so bear with me.

First, the success.  I saw a version of this pull-apart bread on Joy the Baker and I just had to give it a try.  It was so simple, so easy, so perfectly perfect.  I just used my regular favorite bread recipe.  Use whatever one you like the best.  I divided into fourths.  I made regular bread loaves out of three of them.  I took the fourth bread blob and rolled it flat into a rectangle.  I slathered it with softened butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar.  Next time I would use a little heavier hand on the cinnamon and sugar. Now instead of rolling it up like a jellyroll (like you would for cinnamon rolls), you slice it into four long equal strips.  Stack the strips on top of each other and cut them into six smaller squares.  Now stack those dough squares up and place them in a bread pan.  That's it!  Cover loosely with a towel and let it rise.  Bake as usual.  They turned out super yummy.  We all agreed that they would be even better with icing, so we drizzled a vanilla glaze on top.  Serve with a big glass of milk!

And for the failure.  I have been wanting to make rice krispie treats with homemade marshmallows for a long time.  I decided that today was the day.  It seemed logical to me that you could use the marshmallow fluff immediately after whipping before it solidified.  It seemed like a waste of time to make the marshmallows, let them set overnight, melt them down again and make the krispie treats.  So I made the syrup and poured it over the gelatin and began whipping.  I couldn't decide how critical the butter was to the overall taste of the treat.  Was it just a medium to help melt the marshmallows?  Was it essential for flavor and texture?  So, I threw some butter into the mixing bowl with the gelatin before I poured in the syrup.  I think that is where I went wrong.  The butter reacted somehow with the rest of it and prevented the marshmallows from whipping properly.  They had no volume whatsoever.  I gave up whipping it after a while.  How bad could it be?  Sugar syrup, butter, vanilla?  I just decided to throw in the rice krispies and see what would happen.  The result?  Not great.  I'm going to have to try this again.  I'm still curious to see if I can add the marshmallow fluff to the krispies right after it's been whipped to it's full fluffiness.  All of the recipes that I have seen on line, make the marshmallows, pour them into a pan, and let them set overnight.  Then they remelt them with some butter and proceed with the recipe as usual.  Stay tuned.  Maybe I will try again tomorrow.