Sweet Potato Pie Rolls

I've been wanting to try these for a while but I thought there were several obstacles. First, Dezzie Dough will not rise and yield the fluffy texture of some of my favorite cinnamon rolls. Second, the dough is crazy sticky so I'd have to add flour to make it workable so maybe that would make it taste bad. If there were any testament to the versatility of Dezzie Dough, this recipe would be it. I added 50% flour to this dough and it STILL worked. It was STILL delicious. And although not first prize in the beauty pageant, these rolls are to die for. Actually, as I write this, these are all gone and I'm kind of sad about that. Anyway, on to how YOU can have them, too. By the way, my husband and I agree, these are better without the icing.

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups Dezzie Dough
1 cup flour

Filling:
1/3 cup butter, melted or softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice (or ground ginger)
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Icing (optional):
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 and spray a baking dish with non-stick spray. You can use a square dish, rectangular, or circle, whatever. Mix together all the dry ingredients for the filling in a bowl. Combine the Dezzie Dough and flour until flour is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface, flour your hands and roll the dough out into a rectangle. You want it to be about 1/8 inch thick. Spread the softened (or brush the melted) butter all over the dough. Sprinkle the dry filling ingredients evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up from the short end. Cut into 1-inch sections and place (touching) in the baking dish. If you're thinking they're awfully teeny, remember that good things sometimes come in small packages. Try to get them as crowded as possible because they won't expand much at all and if the sides are touching each other or the pan, they are less likely to dry out. You can lightly brush melted butter on any sides that are exposed or on the tops to keep them moist. Bake for about 20 minutes. I did the toothpick test and simply inserted it into the doughiest part I could find somewhere in the middle. While they're in the oven, make the icing. You can beat or simply mix up the ingredients with a fork. You can heat the cream cheese (a little!) to make it softer. You can add a little warm water if it's too thick for you. Pour or spread over warm rolls. Unbelievably delicious.

Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Muffins

When I'm trying new things with Dezzie Dough, I end up making different forms of the same thing. Meet Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Muffins - the fraternal twin of Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Bars. They share much of the same DNA but look a little different. These use almost the same recipe for pecan streusel topping as the bars, but they're in muffin form. AND, there's a surprise layer of goodness in the middle of these babies! This recipe makes 12 muffins.


Ingredients:

For the topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
3.5 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter
Heaping 1/2 cup of pecans, chopped coarsely

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Melt the butter in the microwave then add to the dry mixture and stir until evenly moistened. Reserve half of this and stir pecans into the other half. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray. Squeeze a little bit of Dezzie Dough into each muffin cup, just until it's about 1/4 full. Sprinkle some of the brown sugar mixture without the nuts on top. Then squeeze more Dezzie Dough on top of this at about the same thickness as the first squeeze. Use a spoon to guide the dough to the edges of the cup so you can't see the brown sugar mixture underneath. Top with brown sugar/pecan mixture until you can't see the dough underneath. Bake for about 20 minutes but check after 15 with a toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean, they're done! Allow to cool, pop out of their cups, and serve.

Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Bars

I imagine these bars served alongside dainty cups of tea and coffee on a Sunday :) Moist cake topped with a somewhat crunchy mixture of pecans and brown sugar...Dezzie Dough was made for this. All you do is mix up the topping, spread some dough in the bottom of a pan, sprinkle on the topping, and bake! Because I'm experimenting, I used a loaf pan and got about eight 2-inch squares but you could use a larger pan for more goodness! The following recipe is as if you are using a loaf pan, so I would double up for a larger batch.

Ingredients:

For the topping:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter
Heaping 1/2 cup of pecans, chopped coarsely

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Melt butter in microwave and add to mixture, stirring until evenly moistened. Stir in pecans. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Squeeze Dezzie Dough into bottom of pan and spread around to coat evenly. You're going for about 1/4 inch thickness. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the Dezzie Dough. I don't know if you will, but I had the urge to press the topping down into the dough so I did this for half the pan. It turned out ugly and didn't do anything special to the final product, so I wouldn't recommend it. Also, I didn't use every bit of my topping. I stopped when I couldn't see the dough underneath anymore. This turned out to be a good ratio, in my opinion. Bake on the middle rack for about 20 minutes but check after 15 with a toothpick inserted in the center. When toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven, allow to cool, cut into squares, and enjoy!

Note: The first time I made this, I did it with 1 Tablespoon of butter in the topping and it turned out kind of dry on top. HOWEVER, when they sat overnight in an airtight container, the topping soaked up some of the moisture from the cake layer and became moist and delicious. Thus, you could use less butter if you're going to make them for the next day and store them stacked in an airtight. Or, you could follow the recipe as is but then don't stack them on top of each other to store them. Either way, they're going to be good, I promise you.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Nothing says Saturday morning like pancakes. For many people, this means some sort of boxed mix made with white flour. How about pancakes made from sweet potatoes? Um...yes, please. This recipe makes four large pancakes. Serves one very hungry person or two moderately hungry people.

What you'll need:

1 cup Dezzie Dough
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs

What you do:

Put the Dezzie Dough in a bowl and whisk in the milk. Beat the whites of two eggs until peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, pour in quarter cup portions onto a hot griddle. When edges are dry-ish and bubbles form on the surface, flip those babies over and cook the other side. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Note: You could skip the egg whites if you're going for fast and easy, but your pancakes will be dense and flat. Still mouthwatering, just not fluffy. Beaten egg whites = fluffy.

Think of the possibilities. You could add blueberries. Pecans. Or, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg for some serious sweet potato pie pancakes!

Dezzie Dough PB&J

Ah, the ultimate comfort food. Peanut butter, jam, and bread. Deeeelicious. Why not on a sweet potato bun? You could use buns made in muffin tins, on baking sheets as directed in July's post on Mini Sweet Potato Sausage Biscuits, or from the microwave which is what I did. It's not rocket science - spread a little peanut butter and jam on there and eat it up. Trust me, this is soooooo good. I had organic natural crunchy peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam and it was like gourmet.

Microwave Dezzie Dough? WHAT?!

That's right. I had some time to kill and thought, 'You never know,' and 60 seconds later, I had a Dezzie Dough bun from the microwave. Let's say you don't have 12-15 minutes to use the oven, or you only want one bun, or your oven's broken, or whatever. Take a ramekin or small bowl, spray a little non-stick spray in there (just a little, you don't want the end product to be soggy), squeeze in about 1/3 cup of Dezzie Dough and pop in the micro for 50-60 seconds (when it's done, it may still look a little wet on the top). Take a butter knife, run it around the edges, gently lift up the bottom, pop that sucker right out of there and VOILA! It's not exactly pretty and it's a teensie bit drier than usual but this dough is pretty moist to begin with so it can handle that. These are still quite good and so fast.

Sweet Potato Marble Brownies

Well, it was only a matter of time before chocolate got involved. Yes sir, Dezzie Dough brownies and they...are...GOOD. And super easy! They're also really colorful and would be a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving dinner, Halloween parties, or anytime in the fall when things like sweet potatoes and the color orange become more popular. However, we're smack dab in the middle of summer and these things were delicious so no need to wait.

What you'll need:

One box of brownie mix (look for words like decadent or extreme chocolate)
About 3/4 cup to 1 cup Dezzie Dough

So simple: Preheat the oven, mix the brownie batter as directed, pour half the batter into a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Squeeze some Dezzie Dough on top of that - you're going for about 3/4 cup to 1 cup Dezzie Dough. It doesn't have to be perfect, just make some lines or a big squiggly. Pour the rest of the brownie batter on top of that (it's OK if it's thick and you just have a bunch of globs). Use a butter knife to for the marble effect. Drag the knife through the batter in figure eights. Then turn the pan 90 degrees and do the same thing. Do this just a few times (you don't want the dough and batter to actually mix together). Bake according to the brownie box directions and allow to cool before cutting.