Oh-So-Delicious Cinnamon Rolls

When I was a teenager, we lived in a small town with a village restaurant.  This particular restaurant had the most enormous cinnamon rolls, and they tasted even better than they looked!  It was always a treat to get one, although it was difficult to eat a whole one by yourself.  They were just too big.

Earlier this summer, after reminiscing about some childhood memories, I became obsessed with finding the recipe for these delicious rolls.  Further inquiry revealed that the rolls were made by a local Amish woman, and no one really knew the recipe.  I was disappointed, but not deterred.  I knew that somewhere in the wide world, the recipe lurked, just waiting to be discovered.  I searched the internet, perused dozens of recipe archives, and came up with nothing similar.  It seemed that the more elusive the recipe, the more obsessed I became with finding it!

One day after several weeks of searching, I found, quite by accident a recipe that I thought might just work.  I tweaked it a little, and was very pleased with the results.  I will share my much-sought-after recipe with you, since it is getting to be that time of year when we all like to bake things  warm and yummy and scentalicious (I think I just made up a new word).

 

Cinnamon Rolls

Prep time: About 2 hours rising (unattended) 40 Min attended
Cook time: 25 min
Serves: 8+
Yield: 12 rolls

Dough
1 cup + 1TB warm buttermilk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)  You can also use regular milk, but I got better results using buttermilk
2 eggs
5 TB melted butter
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Filling
1 cup brown sugar
2 TB ground cinnamon
4 TB softened butter

Glaze
4 TB melted butter
4 TB cream cheese, softened
2 TB warm milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Dough:  Mix all wet ingredients together in a medium bowl, then add the dry ingredients, mixing until a soft dough is formed.  Knead until mixed well, then cover and allow to sit in a warm place for one hour, or until almost doubled in size.  Dough can also be mixed using a stand mixer with a dough hook.

After rising, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and let it rest while you prepare the filling.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and melt the butter in a separate bowl. 

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 12” wide and  24” long.  Spread the entire surface with melted butter, then sprinkle it with the filling mixture, leaving about 1” clear on the long side.  It should look something like this.

Begin rolling the dough from the long side, keeping edges even.  This can be a bit tricky, but the dough usually handles very well.

Pinch closed along the open edge, sealing the roll shut.

Once the dough is sealed, shape the ends a little, and cut into twelve rolls.  I have found that using dental floss to make the cuts results in a cleaner cut, and does not squash the shape.  I even used cinnamon floss to enhance the flavor! :)

Set the rolls, cut side up, in a lightly sprayed 13x9” dish, leaving space between them.  Cover and allow to rise for 30-45 minutes in a warm place. 

After rising, preheat the oven to 350.  The rolls will have grown in size and will look something like this.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.  While rolls are baking, mix up the glaze, adding more milk or sugar to achieve the proper consistency. 

Allow the rolls to cool slightly before adding the glaze.  I usually wait 15-20 minutes, then pour on the glaze.

The rolls are delicious right out of the oven, but I usually make them the night before and reheat them for breakfast the following morning.  (I do not relish the thought of getting up at 5 a.m. to have cinnamon rolls by breakfast time.)  They taste great no matter what you do, and your house will smell scentalicious and cinnamon-y.

Now, go make some!  I promise you won’t regret it!

Now We’re Cookin’!

Sometimes the toys that we have are much loved and often used.  Others are played with occasionally and ignored the majority of the time.  (These I try to eliminate as quickly as possible.)  I think the most popular toys we have owned are the play kitchen items.  My childhood kitchen items have been passed down to my children, and along the way we have added more food items, dishes, and miscellaneous junque. All of the kids have loved playing kitchen since they were tiny.  They frequently bring down new dishes for us to “eat.”

Thus, when my old tin stove crumbled into disrepair, it was a hard blow for the girls especially. The decal stickers had already begun to come off, the plastic window in the oven door popped out and was stepped on, the knobs fell off, and in general, it looked pretty ratty.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the oven door hinge that broke, causing it to hang open perpetually. 

My husband had pity on the girls who could now only “cook” on the stovetop.  He found a plan for a little stove and, out of scrap lumber leftover from other projects, he made them a new one.  Alright, everybody say, “Awwww!”

I don’t know that any father has gotten so much pleasure out of making and giving a wooden stove to his girls as my husband did.  The girls were thrilled!  The little knobs turn and the oven door opens and closes with a magnetic latch.  Now we can once again have all the delicious baked plastic food that we can eat!

Here they are in their PJs, exulting over their new appliance!  Random thought: Did anyone else notice that Esther looks like a giant pink frog in this photo?  :) 

Fun with Cupcakes

My two older children had a church activity last week, leaving the younger two sitting at home despondantly.  I had a motherly moment of “Awww… They need to have something special to do while their siblings are bowling and eating pizza.”  I landed on the idea of making cupcakes.  I would allow them to decorate the cupcakes (shudder)  and eat some. 

What excitement reigned when I unveiled my surprise!  I gave them each some icing and sprinkles, and they set to work.

I had to remind Daniel not to lick the knife…

Esther was quite good at putting the icing on the cupcakes, but Daniel fretted over getting it on his hands, especially since he was not allowed to lick it off his fingers!

They were not the most artistic cupcakes I have ever seen, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

And they were quite tasty!

I love the fact that we had a fun time together.  One day, they will all be gone (sniff) and I guess Paul and I will have to make the cupcakes by ourselves! :)

Pie Season

I love fall for many reasons, but one of them is that it is pie season.  All the fruit is ripening, and being harvested, and all the crops are in from the garden.  Apples, peaches, cherries, pumpkin – you name it – it smells like pie to me!

While with Paul’s parents  a while back, his mom and I made several pies.  We made a few pumpkin and one delicious cherry pie! 

I don’t think I had ever made a cherry pie before, but I will definitely put it on my list of things to do again in the future!  Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream it was good enough to “make you want to slap your mama,” as they say.  none of us slapped anyone, but we did enjoy this pie!

Paul’s grandma came foe lunch on day and brought two of the best lemon merengue pies I have ever eaten!  They were not runny at all, and the lemon flavor was so clean and tangy.  Yum!  I have to get that recipe as well. 

What is your favorite kind of pie?  Mine is anything but pumpkin.

Happy New Year!

Okay - I am just going to say that I don’t like it when New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday.  I am a huge fan of parties, and staying up late on a Saturday night just doesn’t work since we have church the next day.  My kids need their sleep, and, as a matter of fact, so does my husband.  I could use a little here and there, myself! :)  I have become more of a social person  than ever before, and I dislike having to go to bed on New Year’s Eve without having partied just a little!  Oh well, there is always next year.  I know most of you are in the same dilemma… Here’s to staying home and snoring in the New Year! Huzzah!  Huzzah!  Huzzah! :)

My husband is going to be at an evangelists’ conference this week.  Unfortunately, the conference coincides with his birthday, so we will be apart for this milestone anniversary.  It’s a big one! Hee hee!  I decided to make his favorite confection in honor of his birthday – chocolate chip cookies.  These are not just any chocolate chip cookies, either – they are the best ever!  At least, that is what he told me.  This is not another brag session.  In fact, it started in a most humiliating way.  Years ago (cue the dreamy music), when we were first married, I made chocolate chip cookies for my husband.  He at them and, after polishing off the entire batch, told me they were not the best he’d ever eaten.  I was rather offended, in a new-bride-like way.  How dare he criticize my offering of love.  See if I ever made cookies for him again! Humph!  He then proceeded to tell me that the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies was the Nestle original recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag.  I was highly skeptical and reluctant to even try the recipe, since my recipe had been so maligned, but my sweet, docile temperament won out and I eventually made “his” recipe.  To my great surprise, they actually were better! (Yes, it did hurt to admit it at first.)

Now, eleven years later, I am still making those same CCC’s, as we call them.  The page in my recipe book is spotted and smeared with use, but it doesn’t change the outcome of the recipe.  And it doesn’t change the beatific  smile on his face whenever he tastes one hot out of the oven.  By the way, that is the only way to eat CCC’s!  My children love them, and now Abigail is almost able to make them by herself.  No wonder she is Daddy’s girl!  I have discovered that the type of pan on which you bake the cookies can affect the consistency.  The best pans are the round, gray, pizza pans.  The cookies do not spread too much or too thin (like they do on the airbake pans), and they maintain their soft, chewy texture.  Yum!  My resolution for today is not to eat too many of them! :)

Sing a Song of Sixpence…

A counter full of pies!  Four and twenty apples, baked in a pie.  When the pie was opened, the family began to sing…
“Can I have another piece?” 
True to my word, I baked some more apple pies last week.  This time, I had the aid of not only my trusty rolling pin and pastry blender, but my positively, absolutely, hot-diggety-dog, wonderful apple corer/peeler/slicer!  A gift from my oh-so thoughtful hubby, who knows that the apples are the hardest part of making the pie! 

With this baby, I can core, peel, and slice a large apple in less than ten seconds.  Eight, to be exact!  LOVE it! :)

There is no doubt that apple pies would be even fewer and farther between if I didn’t have this amazing invention!  (Thanks, Paul!) 
Below is my secret weapon for the best apple pie ever – a plain, everyday, brown grocery bag.  And no, I have never caught anything on fire by doing this.  It is perfectly safe.  You can see that the bag is touching nothing but the cookie sheet, and the added bonus is the pie never overflows into the oven!

While I still had problems with my crust ( I don’t know what is wrong. Perhaps my excessive bragging has caused the failure of my once-perfect pie crusts!), it tasted heavenly.  That last piece is calling… who will answer? :)