Picky eater likes bread!

My aunt bakes amazing bread. AH-mazing! For Christmas, my mom and I both got bread makers and with my aunt's recipe in hand, we were ready! After some experimenting and emails to my aunt, we finally hit the jackpot and successfully made the AH-mazing bread. It is a sweet bread that is spread with icing. Uh-huh. That's right. Spread. With. ICING. Yummy!
After a few loaves with icing, we started to get creative and thought the recipe would make great hamburger buns (without the icing, of course). I have never been more right about anything in my life! Jackson had tasted the original loaves and liked, so I thought I could get him to actually eat a hamburger  if we used the recipe for the buns (the only hamburger he has ever eaten has been out of a Kids Cuisine box).
The day came for the great hamburger bun experiment. My mom and I slaved in the kitchen making our bread like we were Laura and Mrs. Ingalls. Not that we have ever needed anything to bond over (we are already pretty tight), but there is something about making homemade bread with your mother that feels very Little House on the Prairie (sans the high-tech bread-maker).
When I told Jackson that hamburgers were on the menu for dinner, he groaned. When I placed the meal in front of him, I reminded him how much he enjoyed the bread Mimi and I had made and that the bun housing the hamburger was that same bread. He looked intrigued. So, I told him to taste the bun and then take a bite out of the hamburger. The stars, apparently, were aligned and he took a bite and then smiled. Angels were heard singing, clouds parted and light beams streamed above his head. He proceed to eat 1/2 of a real hamburger (as opposed to the processed versions he had been accustomed to). So, my first successful tip to get a picky eater to eat: Serve a new food with something that you know they can't resist! Since he took that first bite, several more bites of new foods have followed.

More successful tips to come....

Shea

 Aunt Nancy's Sweet Bread Recipe: 

4 tbls water
1 c milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
1 stick butter (softened)
2 eggs (brought to room temp)
4 1/2 c bread flour (living in humid central Florida, we had to adjust the flour by reducing by 1/4 to avoid a very dense bread)
4 1/2 tsp yeast

Heat water and milk in glass measuring cup for 1 min in microwave and then pour into bread maker pan. Whip salt, softened butter and eggs with wire whip and add to bread maker pan. Add flour on top of the liquids. Make a well in the flour and add the yeast (be careful to not make the well too deep because the yeast cannot touch the liquid ingredients). Set machine on bread dough cycle (should be about 1 1/2 hours). When finished, take pan out immediately and place on lightly floured workspace. Divide dough in half and each half into thirds. Make a rope by gently rolling out each part into a log. Braid the three logs and then do the same with the other portion of dough. Cover with towel and let raise for at least an hour. Bake at 300 for 22 minutes. Cool on cooling racks using same towel until cool. Spray tops with PAM to soften crust. (To make hamburger buns, use the second half of dough and form small balls rather than braiding).

Icing:
1/3 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond
2-4 tbls hot water from tap.

Melt butter in glass bowl in microwave. Blend in sugar, vanilla, and almond with large wire whip. Gradually add the water a tablespoon at a time. Spread over warm bread...Trust me:)