Tuesday, November 17, 2009

"Cinnamon Girl"

I had this incredible idea a couple of weeks ago, I was going to make some "homemade, yeasty, scrumptious, cinnamon rolls."  Now I know that there are "cheat-sheet" ways to make cinnamon rolls, I was in home-ec once upon a time.  You know the type, start with the Pillsbury guy "whomp biscuit" dough, roll it out..........you get the idea.  NO, I wanted some that were authentic, from the farm table, cinnamon rolls!

I obtained a remarkable recipe from a reputable person(on a blog herself), and went for the gusto.  Let's just say, we started this dough with 1 quart of milk, 2 packages of yeast, 9 cups of flour and I won't tell you how many pounds of butter I went through, you WON'T want to know.For the making of these "beauties" I had to clear an entire counter top, butter six pie tins and have buckets of flour, sugar, and cinnamon available at the ready.........along with butter.  Now I don't know about ya'll, but I haven't dappled in cinnamon dough in a few moons.  I got the rectangle rolled out, proud as could be that the dimensions were right on target.  Then I read the next portion of the recipe................"drizzle 1 1/2 -2 cups of melted butter over the dough."  SAY WHAT????  I re-read it again, I went back on-line to her frame by frame example on "her" blog, yup', sure enough, she was pooooouring butter over her dough.  Well, who am I to question this women's family recipe for cinnamon rolls, let alone her butter intake(lethal).  So I took the plunge and did it!!!!!  Let me remind you, this was just HALF THE DOUGH........ yeah, we still had another half to go with 1 1/2 -2 cups of butter drizzled(more like poured) over it.

I rolled the dough like "she-devil" told me to on her blog, towards me, with all the yummy, gooey, butter-sugar-cinnamon comin' at me like a damn tsunami!  It rolled right on out of that dough, onto my kitchen cabinets, floor, feet............!!!! Now what the h--l do ya do?  I thought to myself, "self, cut this into rolls, stuff those suckers in the pan and clean up."  But it dawned on me, I still had another HALF to roll out, along with the "ladled butter."

While those first "disasters" were rising nice and pretty in their lil' pans, I started on the next half.This time I out-witted "miss she-devil, homemade, my hinny."  This time when I rolled out the beautiful rectangle, I didn't immediately ladle butter on top.  This time, I waited until the butter started coagulating in the pyrex measuring cup, slowly poured it on the dough, let it coagulate a bit more, then sugared and cinnamoned the heck out of the dough.  I let it set awhile longer(No butter is going to outsmart me), then slowly rolled toward me...................worked like a champ!  No tsunami, no mess, perfect! By the way, I instantly took pen to my printed recipe and made LARGE notations about my discovery with the butter.

Next came the "nice ladies" Maple frosting recipe to top these beauties off........1 bag of powdered sugar, maple flavoring, coffee, BUTTER.  I stirred it in the pan until all ingredients were smooth, thick, but still pourable, frosting.  She said in the recipe, "don't skimp on the frosting, go CRAZY!!!!" Well hell, it made enough frosting for an entire table-top. 

Well let me tell ya, this lil' homespun idea I had was a memorable experience.  This recipe made six pans of cinnamon rolls.  I think I have a quart of maple frosting in the freezer left-over (for next time, yeah right!).As I pulled them out of the oven nice and warm, who walks in the door but "The Man" and his buddy from work.  The house smells like heaven, the rolls look beautiful, and I'm feeling just a bit ridiculous having SIX pans of cinnamon rolls sitting in front of me.  So what do I do, I give a dozen to Shane, I load "The Man" up with a dozen to take to the neighbors, I have a dozen for tomorrows wood-cutting and I've still got three left...I froze um'.  I'll pull um' out when the nephew arrives over Thanksgiving.

Now I will tell you this, you could get marriage proposals off sharing these babies, you'll have a man wrapped around every finger you possess with these lil' jewels, you will have people in love with you.  They are a labor of love with just a smidgen of BUTTER!!!!  Oh yeah, the "nice lil' lady" who has this recipe on her blog, I think her name is Ree, she say's she's a pioneer women, I think she's just a bit "crazy."

Bon Appetit!