Conquering My Fears

When I asked Matt what he wanted for his birthday he told me cinnamon rolls. I cringed on the inside. Cinnamon Rolls?

That involves yeast. Yeast is complicated and scary.
That involves time. I don’t have a lot of time.
He loves his mom’s cinnamon rolls. I can’t compete with that.
Cinnamon Rolls? Yuck

But, being the stellar wife I am, I cowboyed up and accepted the challenge. I’ve had some packages of yeast in my cabinets for a few months, but have just been too intimidated to try and use them. I did a little research and decided I could handle it.

Next was the search for a cinnamon roll recipe. I would have loved to use the recipe I saw on all the Daring Bakers Blogs from Peter Reinhardt's The Bread Baker's Apprentice, but there is that whole time thing again. I just don’t have much. So I searched allrecipes and found Cinnamon Roll recipe that requires a bread machine. The bread machine does all the hard work – perfect!

Since his birthday was yesterday, I prepared these Sunday night and stuck them in the fridge. We got up at 5 Monday morning to work out and I took them out of the fridge and let them come to room temp before poppin them in the oven (almost 2 hours.) I topped them with a cream cheese frosting.

The results? Well, I don’t like cinnamon rolls, but Matt ate three of them so I take that as a good thing. I made a dozen and asked if he was going to take some to work. He told me he planned on eating them every day for breakast. He had two this morning. I think he likes them. This recipe got excellent reviews on allrecipes, a few people said this was a lighter cinnamon roll. I tried a small one and thought “meh, it’s a cinnamon roll”.

Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted From: Allrecipes
(I used cinnamon rolls II for the dough and clone of a cinnabon for the filling and frosting )

note: originally I didn't put that much frosting on them. The husband insisted I use all the frosting and drown the cinnamon rolls in that sticky, yummy goodness

Dough:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1 eggs

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
This made way more filling than I needed. I put the cinnamon/sugar mixture in a container and will make another batch of cinnamon rolls with it soon

Frosting:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt



In saucepan, heat 1 cup milk, water, and 1/4 cup butter until very warm (butter doesn't need to be completely melted).

Place milk mixture, salt, flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Dough cycle. Press Start.

Once Dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the bread machine. Punch down.

On a floured surface, roll dough into a large rectangle. Smear rectangle with the softened butter. Combine cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle over the rectangles.

Roll the dough up into a log starting at the long side. Cut the log into 12 slices. Place the rolls cut side down into two 9x13 inch greased baking pans. (I used two pans - I didn't want pull-apart rolls) Cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled. (I covered the pans with saran wrap and stuck them in the fridge at this point. The next morning I set them out for about 2 hours before I baked them.

Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. While rolls are baking beat together cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Spread frosting on warm cinnamon rolls before serving.


There's the birthday boy! I even pulled out the Special Plate for him. Apparently I can't take clear pictures early in the morning.