a little and a lot

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Third Time's a Charm

I have broken the Curse of the Great Cinnamon Roll Debacle of 2007.  

It all started with my grand plans to make homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.  Late Christmas Eve, I stood in my kitchen (post-Herb Roasted Turkey, I must add, which turned out wonderfully tender and juicy), and I sleepily mixed the dough for the rolls.  Little did I know that when I was adding 4 1/2 cups of bread flour, I was using a 1/2 cup to do it instead of a full cup.  Needless to say, the rolls ended up stickier than a fly trap.  I tried to bake them anyways (hey, I don't mind improvising!) but they came out of the oven a gooey sticky mass of liquid dough, cinnamon, and butter.  (Briefly considered 
spooning over ice cream in order to not be wasteful...?  Ick, on second thought, no way...)

Christmas Morning: Take 2.  I figured, "Why not give it a shot, eh?"  This time in my early morning sleepiness, I forgot to add the yeast until after the dough was completely kneaded.  Bummer.  Well, I'll just mix it in and everything will work out fine, I thought.  No go.  Those cinnamon rolls were rock hard.  But I still put icing on them and Nick and I each choked one down.  The leftovers were most likely enjoyed by the neighborhood stray cats, Merry Christmas to them.

We had a Quarterly All-Staff Training today at AGAPE, and everyone was signing up ahead of time to bring food.  In a moment of sheer audaciousness, I signed up to bring Fruit Salsa (a standard fave) and...wait for it...Homemade Cinnamon Rolls.  What compelled me to get back on the horse/bike/wagon, I have no idea...

To avoid leaving you in suspense, I'll just come right out and say it:  I FINALLY DID IT!  These rolls turned out so yummy.  I am so relieved to have received my baking mojo back once again!  
And without further ado...

(Note: I had every intention of taking a picture of the real deal this morning when they came out of the oven and basked in their icing perfection.  Unfortunately, it was 8:15am and my mind does not function properly until 10.  Thanks to Cinnabon for letting me rip off their image.)

HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS

1 cup warm milk
2 eggs, room temp
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast*

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (3oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

*I just use one package of yeast and follow the directions, mixing the bubbled part in with the other bread ingredients while my mixer is kneading the dough.

1. Place first set of ingredients (for dough) in electric mixer with dough hook and start it on low to knead everything together.  Place bowl on top of or in (turned off) oven with dishcloth covering the top.  (The real directions say to place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Select dough cycle; press Start.)

2. After the dough has doubled in size (30 min?) turn it out onto a lightly floured 
surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle.  Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls.  Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan.  Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.  While rolls are baking, beat together last set of ingredients.  Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.  

FRUIT SALSA
(passed down by my fabulous mother, Lee Maddox)

2 kiwis, peeled, diced
2 Golden Delicious apples, diced
8 oz raspberries
1 lb strawberries, sliced
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp fruit preserves

To save you from dicing, just peel the kiwis, slice the apples, and then individually throw each item into the food processor and give it a good whir.  Put each ingredient into a bowl and then mix when everything has been diced.  Stir in sugars and preserves.  Voila. 

Serve with cinnamon pita chips. 
(Or on top of angel food or pound cake.  Or ice cream.  Or...cinnamon rolls?)

Although they were worth it, after all that hard work for homemade cinnamon rolls, I feel a little like Owens did last night (yes, that's his tongue hanging out of his mouth...):

9 comments:

Blessed said...

YUM!

I should work with you. The cinnamon rolls sound fantastic and I KNOW your fruit salsa is the BEST!

Kristin said...

OK, I made your fruit salsa a couple of months ago and it was kind of liquid, not so chunky. What should the consistency be for the fruit salsa?

Unknown said...

Kristin, to answer your question because I made the same mistake, I think the trick is taking OUT each ingredient from the food processor, and processing them one at a time to the right consistency and THEN mixing them together. Am I right, Jesse? Great post, by the way.

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

this is great! cinamon rolls are a true fave for me! glad you conquered the great roll ;)

Amanda's News said...

Delicious!!! My mouth is watering just looking at that picture. I'm glad you overcame and won the battle:)

kristen said...

Now that you have your mojo back, try this recipe. Different from regular cinnamon rolls because they have a biscuit-like texture, but I thought they were a knockout success.
There's no yeast to mess around with, and while your instinct would tell you NOT to knead biscuit dough, these offer happy results. Also, I added in the walnuts, but feel free to ix-nay them and scatter raisins inside the rolls with the cinnamon-sugar.

For dough:
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c shortening
2/3 cup, plus more as needed
2 T melted butter/marg
For filling:
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 c raisins, opt.
1/2 c crushed walnuts
For icing:
1 1/4 c sifted powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla
1 1/2 T milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 8-inch round pan or muffin tin.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry cutter or two knives until mixture resembles course meal. Add milk sparingly, and mix only until dough comes together. Remove with your hands onto a floured work surface and gently knead for a minute or so. Roll out into a rectangle of about 8 x 10 inches, 1/4-inch thick. Mix cinnamon and sugar to comine. Spread with melted butter, and then with cinnamon-sugar. Sprinkle with raisins, if using. Roll up like a jelly roll, and with a serrated knife, cut into 6-8 pieces (mine made 8 smallish rolls) Set them, pinwheel-side-up, around the edge of the round pan or individually in the muffin cups, and sprinkle crushed walnuts over the tops, if desired. Press to adhere.
Bake 18-20 minutes, or until firm, and let cool slightly on the counter.
Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to make the icing, thinning with more milk as desired, and drizzle over the top of the rolls while they are still hot. Serve warm.

Jesse Faris said...

YUM, Kristen G--thanks for the new recipe. I will have to give it a whirl. The yeast part of the process gives me fits, so I'm super excited about your recipe. :)

Leslie, I think you're probably right. Kristin N, just pulse the ingredients one at a time and then transfer them to your big bowl. I think otherwise it gets too mashed up. (Esp b/c the ingredients are fragile--raspberries, kiwis, strawberries...they get pretty mushy if you chop them too much.)

Thanks for the encouragement, friends! Practice makes kind of almost perfect!

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

are you still alive in there? hello? jesse? can you hear me!?

Im reading kite runner next, btw. im currently reading pillars of the earth. not sure what to think of this soap opera set in the middle ages...ok lata.

ashley said...

happy birthday!


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