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So I’ve been trying to be good diet wise. By good I mean avoiding foods I know my body doesn’t love even if I love them. Gluten is one of those things I know for sure that my body doesn’t enjoy no matter how much I try to convince it. People may think that gluten intolerance isn’t a thing and that’s cool. You do you. I know for me it does have effects.
Well, I say that I have been trying to be good but honestly I’m at the stage in pregnancy where the baby wants something, I see it, it gets it. I know it is horrible but… I don’t have a but, it is horrible and I know it. That means that the not so appealing, fake tasting, tiny, dry, store-bought cinnamon rolls in the plastic tub have caught my eye more than once this week at work. Curse the person who brought them!! (The soft gingerbread cookies were better but upset my stomach enough right away that I only had one.) This obviously means that the craving for cinnamon rolls was not satisfied and I shall not rest until it has been!
So cue Saturday morning! I woke up with one goal in mind… homemade cinnamon rolls. Now, I grew up making caramel rolls with my mom and/or grandma often. Every dinner we were invited to, caramel rolls. (Unless it was potluck at church, not sure why they got the baked beans instead?) It was the reason I think we were invited sometimes.
For those not from the Upper Midwest, caramel rolls are heaven. They’re like a sticky bun, but also not even in the same category. In my younger years they started out the same as cinnamon rolls with the only difference being the icing. Instead of the super sugary powder sugar icing poured on top there was a wonderful caramel mixture made using the magic of vanilla ice cream. I can’t tell you much about the recipe without looking it up except it requires one cup of vanilla ice cream. (Maybe that’s why we always had so many gallon ice cream pails?)
I digress… the point of bring up the caramel rolls is that I know how to roll these things out. Practiced it since I could manage a rolling pin. Later in life my mom slowed down on the caramel roll making but grandma found an easier way. We already used frozen bread dough, until bread machines became a thing, but she began to form it in the pan using more of a monkey bread style. Lumps of dough, butter, cinnamon, sugar, repeat. This formed bite sized bits of heaven but in more recent years she has actually retreated back to the ol’ rolled style.
Anyway, now that I’m dreaming of the caramel roll goodness, I decided Saturday morning would be THE morning. I would make a big pan of cinnamon rolls loaded with cinnamon and maybe the icing on the side as a dipping sauce. I’m not a huge fan of the icing glaze.
Now, for the dough. I know there are amazing recipes out there for cinnamon rolls and the dough takes a process of rising and kneading. I don’t have the patience to wait to thaw frozen dough, plus that’s a trip to the store, so I opted for my go to dinner roll recipe. One Hour Dinner Rolls are seriously so easy and so delicious. I wish I could take credit for them, but I can’t. So, it is easy to whip up a batch in the mixer, quick to rise, and instead of making them into round balls I just rolled them out.
Then, I melted some butter and used the good ol’ basting brush. I think we registered for this one as a wedding present but I can tell you it has been used more times in the kitchen than on the grill. Plus it is easy to clean! (in the dishwasher) It is my favorite for sure.
Two tablespoons of butter didn’t seem like enough so I added a third. After tasting the end result I think it could have used a bit more. Growing up we didn’t have such fancy brushes so we just softened some butter and spread it with a knife which would have provided a lot more than I used this time. On to the cinnamon and sugar!!!
That should about do it. No measuring needed, just go with the flow. The husband was awake by this point and not as excited about cinnamon rolls as I was so I opted to go lighter on the the cinnamon and sugar. He isn’t a huge sweets fan so I didn’t go as thick. Again, after tasting the end result I would have poured so much more on. In fact that was the husband’s first comment, “Needs more cinnamon and sugar.” Sometimes you can’t win…
So, I rolled them up and set them to rise. Once they were set aside for the prescribed rising time from the original recipe I realized that the dinner roll recipe probably didn’t plan on making this many cinnamon rolls and they were rolled way too thin. Probable should have decreased by rectangle by half to make them thicker layers. They did bake nicely and I added some quick glaze to half of the rolls. Again, not always a fan. But, in the end they were cinnamon rolls, they were better than the cheap ones from the store, they hit the spot, and they reminded me that sometimes you just need cinnamon deliciousness.
Side note: That gluten intolerance thing, yep… I’ve managed to pack on a good 7-8 lbs in the last week and a half. I’m guessing if I could stay away from the gluten for a solid four days I would drop about 5 of it just from the inflammation it causes.