*le sigh* I know, I know. I’ve been neglecting you sweet, awesome Witchie-Poos and I’m sincerely sorry about that. My life has gone completely and utterly haywire the last few months. I’ve been trying to keep my head above water depression wise and I just haven’t had the energy to do anything. There. I was truthful with y’all.
So I start today trying to scratch my way to the proverbial surface and offer you a recipe tutorial for my favorite, super nummy cinnamon rolls. I was cranking these babies out right and left around Christmas time in my wonderful seasonal-induced mania. My family actually got tired of them… What the hoohay?! How can anyone get tired of these??!
I mean, c’mon?!
OK… You’re going to need flour, active dry yeast, milk, granulated sugar, butter or margarine, salt, eggs, brown sugar and ground cinnamon. That’s for the cinnamon roll recipe (recipe follows).
Throw 2 cups of flour and the yeast in your mixer bowl.
In a saucepan heat and stir the milk, butter (or margarine), sugar and salt until the temperature holds between 120F and 130F. Any hotter and you run the risk of killing the yeast. Any cooler and you run the risk of not activating the yeast.
125.6F BOOM! Sweet spot.
Add that to your flour/yeast mixture. Smell the yummy starting to form in that bowl. It smells so good.
Add your eggs. Blend on low for 30 seconds.
Blend on medium speed for 3 minutes. You can really start smelling the yeast now. GAH!
You end up with this wonderful bubbly mess.
Start adding the remaining flour a little at a time until you get something that looks like that.
Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and start kneading it. You want to knead it for about 5 minutes until it’s smooth and elastic.
And it looks like this!
Put it in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Set your oven at 375F and place the bowl close to the back of your stovetop so it can stay warm and cozy while it rises. Now you have to wait what seems like FOREVER for it to raise. It can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how warm your kitchen is.
And then forget to take a picture of the risen dough in the bowl before punching it down and taking it out… Like I did…
While you’re waiting you can go ahead and get your filling ready. Right now we’re doing cinnamon rolls, so combine your butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and mix it up all nimbly pimbly like.
Once your dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out on a floured surface.
Poke a belly button in your dough. Not sure why I did this. Probably because it looked funny.
Roll it out, roll it out and mark it with a B! Wait… Wait… Shoooo… Nevermind…
Just roll it out. It’s up to your discretion if you mark it with a B.
Spread out your filling.
Succumb to lower back pain and have your hubby roll up the cinnamon rolls.
He does do it better than I do.
Cut them into reasonable cinnamon roll sized portions.
Throw them in a pan! Cover it up with some of the greased plastic wrap that you used earlier and let them rise AGAIN. This time for 30 minutes.
At this time you can also get around to toasting up some pecans for your pecan sticky buns. Or don’t roast em. It’s up to you.
Then you make your sauce. (Recipe for this follows as well).
You mix it up.
You boil.
You layer the caramel sauce in with the roasted pecans and place your cinnamon rolls (with added pecans on the inside) and rise as normal.
Then you wait forever until you can put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
Invert the sticky buns on a platter.
Revel in their ooey-gooey goodness.
While the regular cinnamon rolls are cooling off slightly, you can start the frosting.
Throw butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a mixer with a wisk attachment and cream them up. Add your powdered sugar little by little. If the frosting is too thick for you, you can gradually add milk until you reach the consistency you desire. I like a good, full bodied frosting so I don’t add any milk.
Frost them puppies with all that unadulterated creamy goodness and revel in their awesomeness.
You know you want to.
Now here’s the recipe:
Awesome Cinnamon Rolls
4 to 41/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 pkg (1 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
1 c milk
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c all-purpose flour
In a large bowl combine two cups of the flour and the yeast. Set aside.
In a saucepan, combine and stir milk, granulated sugar and salt until warm. (120F-130F) add to flour mixture along with eggs. Beat with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape your bowl. Beat on high for another 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, add the remaining 2-21/2 cups flour.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead enough flour into dough to make a soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes). Put your dough in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Place dough in a warm place and let double in size- 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Punch your dough down. Place it on your work surface. Split dough in half and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes so it can rest.
Grease up your baking pans.
Roll out your dough into a rough rectangle that’s a pretty good size. You be the judge.
Stir together your brown sugar, 1/4 c flour and cinnamon with a fork or something. Spread out your filling. Roll up them rolls. Cut with a bench cutter or knife. Place in greased pan. Cover again with plastic wrap. Place in warm spot and let rise for 30 more minutes. When all hope is lost, uncover and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until gold and beautiful.
While cinnamon rolls are cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting:
In your mixing bowl (clean, yo!) combine 3 oz of cream cheese, 2 tbsp of softened butter or margarine and 1 tsp of vanilla. Gradually add 2 or so cups of powdered sugar until smooth. If wanted, add milk a tsp at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
Caramel Pecan Rolls:
Follow the directions up until the filling part. In a small pan, combine 2/3 c packed brown sugar, 1/4 c butter or margarine, and 2 tbsp light corn syrup. Stir over medium until combined.
Pour into prepared pecan-filled pan. Place cinnamon rolls with pecans inside the pan. Bake as before. Invert onto platter when it comes outta the oven. Try not to burn yourself when you can’t help but trying one. It’s ok. No judgments.
And maaaaaaaaaaaan it’s a stunna!
