New Recipe, Week 16 - Cinnamon Rolls!

Oh man, I have been looking forward to this one - homemade cinnamon rolls! After Andy made them for us a couple of years ago, I realized that there is absolutely no substitute for made-from-scratch breakfast delights like these. Given my reluctance to work with yeast, though, I had mostly held out hope that he would make them again, and I would just be the recipient of his generosity.

Then, of course, came this year's resolution and the breakthrough discovery that yeast is not, in fact, all that complicated. When I came across the recipe on the NY Times website, I saved it and knew I just needed to find the time to put these into the rotation! Time is the key piece - this was a two day endeavor, so I was determined to make it worth it!

I had hoped to make them over a weekend, but had struggled with finding one with the right cadence of events that would allow the time to get through all of the steps. Being snowed in made it a pretty easy answer, so last weekend I got to work!

You know, I'm beginning to realize, most baking recipes pretty much have the same stuff in them. Which makes it even more remarkable to me that even slight differences in measurements or treatment of the ingredients or any other nuance turns out so many different foods. Baking can feel magical sometimes!

Nothing magical about putting it all together, though I did hit a snag with the rising of the dough. As in, it didn't really rise. I followed the recipe's instructions, but after reading some of the commentary afterward, I realized that the milk was probably too hot and I probably killed the yeast. Which is exactly why I have always been so hesitant to bake with it - because I figured I would screw it up! In all of my efforts this year, though, I've also come to a point where I figure even if something doesn't work out exactly right at each step, unless it appears to be a total loss, I just keep driving on.

After a few hours of waiting and hoping the dough would rise, and finally conceding that it wouldn't, I just moved on to the next step of rolling it out and adding the filling.

Like Shauna said when encouraging me about the dough not rising, if you add enough butter, sugar and cinnamon, how bad can they be, right? She was totally right! Look, they appear to be REAL cinnamon rolls!!

The two day process included putting these in the refrigerator overnight; day one efforts complete.

The next morning, it was time to get them ready to bake, and then to make the glaze for when they were hot out of the oven!

Can't get much more simple than sugar and milk! Super easy frosting, done in a snap. When the rolls came out of the oven, they were golden brown, smelled heavenly, and I had made up my mind that even if they were as dense as hockey pucks, they would surely be edible. Scrumptious, even. I mean, look at these - before and after the glaze - you can't tell me you wouldn't want to try one!!

As is usually the case, Shauna was toooootally right. Enough cinnamon, sugar and butter, and these were excellent!!! Definitely on the sweet side - once again, after reading the comments, I might have made a different choice in the glaze, but I like to follow the recipe as written the first time around.

That's right! The first time around. I plan for there to be a second! And when there is, I will manage the yeast differently in hopes that the dough actually rises, because I think a lighter, flakier version of these would be absolutely incredible. I think I will also modify the glaze, going toward a cream cheese version of frosting rather than an almost-mouth-puckering sweetness from the confectioners sugar.

What a delight to bake something my family enjoyed so much, and what better opportunity to do so than when stuck at home, snow coming down, but savoring a hot cinnamon roll and steaming cup of coffee. There's a silver lining in anything, I suppose, if we look hard enough.