Cream Cheese Filled Brioche Sweet Rolls

Baked, glazed and cooling on the range top.  These will be our dessert this evening.   Rather than make the maple butter to top them with, I made the glaze I use on other types of sweet rolls.  It's just powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

Cream Cheese Filled Brioche Sweet Rolls 

Serves: 18 rolls

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 package RED STAR PLATINUM YEAST
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ¾ cup softened butter
• 5 eggs
• 6 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

For Filling

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Maple Brown Butter

• ¼ cup butter
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1. Add warm water, yeast and sugar the bowl of an electric mixer and set aside for about 5 minutes or until yeast starts to bubble. Add ¾ cup softened butter and eggs and beat until combined. Add 1 cup of flour and mix until combined, at salt and continue adding flour until dough starts to pull away from sides of the bowl. Knead of 5 to 7 minutes until dough is smooth. Place on a floured surface and cover and set aside to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour.
2. Prepare the filling: add cream cheese, egg, sugar, flour and vanilla to a mixer and mix until smooth.
3. Punch down dough and divide in half.
4. Roll each piece of dough into about a 8" x 11" rectangle.
5. Spread half of filing onto each dough rectangle. Roll up from the long side and pinch seam together.
6. Cut into 1½ inch rolls and place into a greased pie plate or baking pan.
7. Cover and allow to rise 15 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
9. Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Add butter to a small pan and place over medium heat, stirring occasionally until brown bits form. Add maple syrup and brush over baked rolls.
11. Serve warm or at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate leftovers.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This is what I fixed for dinner tonight. 

 Winner, winner, chicken dinner--another "keeper" recipe. 

The only change I made was to chop the water chestnuts so they'd be in smaller pieces.

PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

A copycat recipe that you can easily make in just 20 minutes. And it tastes a million times better too!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha, optional
• 1 (8-ounce) can whole water chestnuts, drained and diced
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 head butter lettuce

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add ground chicken and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chicken as it cooks; drain excess fat.
2. Stir in garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and Sriracha until onions have become translucent, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Stir in chestnuts and green onions until tender, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
4. To serve, spoon several tablespoons of the chicken mixture into the center of a lettuce leaf, taco-style.