Homemade Butterbraid with Smart & Final #MyBaristaMoment

How many of us love the wonderful concoctions you can find at the local Coffee Shop or at the famous Seattle “Bucks” Cafe???

Do you know that Smart & Final carry an amazing selection of “Barista” ingredients?  They have the wonderful “Ambiance” product line!! You can make your own yummy coffee drinks at home!!  Let me show you what they have.

Of course there is Coffee, lots of choices here from the “Gourmet” flavors to the tried and true selection!

Then are the “fixins”! And even TEA!!!

Then there is all the “hardware” you might need to create your delish drink with!  From Coffee filters to an assortment of sprinkles!!  (I love sprinkles!! LOL!)

I love creating “Gourmet” Hot Chocolate drinks too!!  Look at these ultra MINI Marshmallows!!!  I love them!! Soo cute!!  I had to have them and they came home with me!!!  I purchased the cocoa sprinkle too!!

To view more of my shopping trip head over to my G+ story!!!

Living in Arizona we love a good “blended” drink or an Iced Mocha so here are a couple of my favorite recipes for these cocoa/coffee creations!!  You can leave the coffee out of the mocha for the kiddos or if you don’t drink coffee!!

Vanilla Iced Coffee

8 oz cold coffee

2 oz Vanilla Torani Syrup

Ice cubes

Pour coffee over ice add syrup and stir to blend!!

Easy Iced Mocha

6 oz Chocolate Milk

4 oz cold coffee (you can add more if  you like a stronger flavor)

Chocolate Syrup

Ice Cubes

Pour Coffee and Milk over Ice and blend,  add 2 t chocolate syrup and blend.  You can drizzle the side of your glass with the syrup for that coffee shop taste.

Now you can take this and put it in a blender for a blended drink!!!  Sprinkle with the sprinkles you like!!  I put the mini marshmallows and the cocoa sprinkles over the blended drink!!!!  YUMMM!!

Now you can’t have a delicious cup’o’joe without something absolutely yummy to eat with it!!  I recently purchased a treat called a “Butter Braid” it was divine.  It also cost a pretty penny.   Yup you guessed it I had to make one!!!!  Let me tell you this is not for the faint of heart and it was an all day process.  So sit down grab your coffee and let me show you how to make a Butter Braid!

Here is my tried and true recipe for delicious yeast rolls/bread there are only a few ingredients and most you have in your pantry!

Never Fail Yeast Rolls

 1 pkg. (1/4 oz or 2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water (110 -115 degrees)
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 pkg. (9 oz.) yellow or white cake mix (1/2 of a regular box of cake mix)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Melted butter or margarineIn a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Beat in the flour, dry cake mix and salt (do not knead). Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; divide in half. Roll each portion into a 12-inch circle cute each circle into 12 wedges. Roll up, beginning at the wide end; place point side down on greased baking sheets. Brush with butter.Cover and let rise until double, about 25 minutes.

Note: I use my bread machine set on the dough cycle.

Once the dough is done this is where it gets a bit long and drawn out.  I found this tutorial on You Tube and used the “folding ” process explained in the video.

Here are my photos of my process!!

At this point you will make the “Beurrage” which is the butter layer

1c. cold butter 1/4 c, flour beat until light and fluffy!

The butter will go on 2/3rd of the dough which was rolled out to 24″x12″.  Spread evenly.

Then the first fold is in 3rd,placing the unbuttered portion over the butter and then the third portion of the dough over the 2 layers.  This will then rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

When the dough has rested for 30 mins you will then roll it out and fold again.  To keep track of each fold you mark the dough by indenting with your fingers.  There are a total of 4 “folds” with a rest time of 30 mins between each “fold”.

You can use a multitude of things for the filling from savory to sweet.  Today I used a Canolli filling which uses Ricotta cheese and is mild and not too sweet.

Cannoli Filling

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir ricotta cheese with 1 cup confectioners’ sugar until combined.

I divided the final dough into thirds and spooned the filling down the middle.  Then cut diagonal strips in dough on either side of the filling.  Then you just overlap the dough alternating this makes the braid!

Brush top of braid with and egg  wash which is simply a beaten egg.  Bake in oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees for 35 to 40 mins until top of braid is golden brow.  While the braid bakes make your ganache which is chocolate and cream well I didn’t have any cream but I had some chocolate milk so I used that!Ha!

Chocolate ganache

2 T Cream or in my case Chocolate milk!

1/2 C good quality chocolate I used Nestle Chocolate Chips

Heat cream in microwave for 20 to 30 seconds.  Take out of microwave and place chocolate on top of hot cream and let the heat from the cream melt the chocolate.  When melted mix well!!

Take braid from the oven and let cool then drizzle with the Chocolate ganache!!  Eat!! YUMMMM!!

 Here is the finished product with a delicious cup of French Vanilla Ambiance Gourmet coffee!!  I loved being a part of the

#MyBaristaMoment and you can follow the hashtag on Twitter for more amazing recipes to go with you Ambiance coffee!!

First Prize (one grand prize per week, 3 total over the campaign): DeLonghi BCO264B Cafe Nero Combo Coffee/Espresso Maker, a $200 value!, or one of six $50 SmartCash cards (total of 6).

Also if you head over to  www.smartandfinal.com/Ambiance2012 will be able to vote for your  favorite Ambiance Coffee recipe (mine maybe??? “wink” “wink”)and everyone who votes will be entered for a chance to win $50 worth of Ambiance products! (6 winners total).

“This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #collectivebias #cbias as usual

“all opinions are my own.”