HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS AND MELT IN YOUR MOUTH DANISH

As seen on Heidi's appearance on WBTV, Saturday morning Dec 26, 2009

For the dough:
1 cup sour cream
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. Salt
½ cup melted butter
½ cup warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 eggs
4 cups unbleached flour
For the cinnamon roll filling:
melted butter
cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar
For the Danish filling:
1 6 ox block cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
Your favorite jam or fruit spread

For the dough: Dissolve yeast in warm water with one teaspoon of the sugar. Stir and when a foam forms on the surface it is ready. If no foam appears within five minutes, then either your water wa too hat or your yeast was old. Start again with cooler water and another package of yeast.
Once the yeast starts to foam or proof, combine it with the other dough ingredients to form a soft but sticky dough.
Let rise 1 hour. Turn out onto a floured worksurface. Knead until smooth then roll dough out into a large rectangle about ¼ inch thick.
For cinnamon rolls: generously spread the dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with sugars and cinnamon. Roll up like a jelly roll. Cut the log of dough into 1 ½ inch thick slices. Place the slices in a buttered pan, cut side up. Drizzle with additional melted butter
Cover with a dish towel and let rise an additional 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 23-30 minutes.
For Danish: combine cream cheese, egg and ugar and beat until smooth. Spread the filling down the center of the dough rectangle. Top with your favorite jam or fruit spread. Cut small slits along either side of the dough so that the dough on either side of the filling will resemble fringe. Starting from one end, fold the “fringe” pieces up and over the filling to encase the cream cheese and jam.
Place the finished Danish on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with a dish towel and let rise an additional 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 23-30 minutes.

Potato Pancakes or Latkes

Recipe from Heidi Billotto
hlnc@carolina.rr.com
http://www.HeidiBillottoBlogsRetaurants.blogspot.com

As seen on Saturday morning Dec 12, 2009 on WBTV Morning News Show

10 medium potatoes – russet potatoes work the best
2 medium onions (optional)
2-3 large eggs
¼ cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
canola oil for frying

Peel the potatoes and keep them in cold water. Alternately grate the onions and potatoes into a big bowl (this is easily done in the processor and is a lot easier on the fingertips!) Blend the potato mixture with the flour and eggs, salt and pepper.
Heat one inch of oil in the bottom of a large frying pan. Drop one to two tablespoons of the potato mix into the hot fat and fry until golden brown, turning once. Drain on several thicknesses of paper towels. Serve warm topped with applesauce, sour cream or smoked salmon.

Variations on the theme –
• Use sweet potatoes instead of Russet potatoes
• For a great hors d’oeuvre any time of the year: Shape potatoes into fingers – fry until browned, drain, wrap with bacon and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until bacon until crisp and browned.