One fine Saturday morning I got the idea to make homemade
cinnamon rolls. The canned stuff just ain’t good enough for me. It’s too sweet,
trans-fatty, and artificial tasting. And too easy… I like a challenge.
Plus I had this amazing leftover cream cheese/whipped cream
frosting I used it to frost a cake, but it actually came out of a cinnamon roll
recipe from pinterest. So, that needed to get out of the fridge before I
started eating it with a spoon every time I opened the door.
When my alarm went off the only thing that got me out of bed
was the idea of making these. Quickly enough, those optimistic dreams quickly
went down the drain…
Recipe:
¾ cup milk
half stick butter
-
3 ¼ cups AP flour
¼ cup sugar
1 packet dry active yeast
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
1 egg
-
1 stick butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar (I didn’t have any, so I used white
sugar)
Heat the milk in a saucepan until it bubbles. Remove and
stir in butter. It will melt in the milk. Let cool slightly.
In bowl, combine 2 cups flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt.
Mix it up well.
Add milk mixture, water, and egg. Beat well.
Stir in the rest of the flour, about half a cup at a time.
Easy, right? Yeah well this is where it started to fail very
very fast.
Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead for about 5
minutes, or until smooth. No photo for these next couple steps due to being
elbow deep in sticky dough.
Place back in bowl and cover with a damp cloth to let the
dough “rest”.
Confession: I’ve never used yeast for anything and was very afraid.
I had no clue. Like the student I am, I just followed directions exactly.
Somewhere along the way I messed up, but guess what? It turned out alright.
Meanwhile, melt your stick of butter; mix in the tablespoon
of cinnamon and 1 cup of sugar (or brown sugar if you actually have what you’re
supposed to. I didn’t)
 |
| Mmmm |
Take the dough after about 10 minutes and roll out to a
rectangle type shape.
This wouldn’t work.
Dough was everywhere. Under my nails, stuck to the counter,
smeared on the cabinet, on Cessna’s fur.
And it was SO sticky.
And it wouldn’t flatten nice at all.
I wanted to cry.
Next, spread the butter cinnamon mixture over the dough. No
photo for this either because at this point, I thought this was a lost cause.
I attempted to roll the dough up like you’re supposed to,
but all it wanted to do was stick to the counter. Sigh.
Frustrated, I plopped the blob into my pan.
Shoot, I forgot to grease it.
Stick in the oven for 25 minutes.
Crap, I should take a picture.
Take it out when it looks like this:
Anxiously smell and poke. It seems okay? It’s just not in
roll form, but who cares, right?
Taste. It’s heavenly.
Cut a piece out. It’s like a hybrid of cinnamon roll, coffee
cake, and monkey bread. Yum.
Plop a nice spoonful of frosting on top. It will do that
sexy melt into all the cracks thing.
Smile because it wasn’t a failure.
So, while the end product wasn’t what I originally wanted,
it was SO GOOD. I recommend trying it.
