Saturday, January 7, 2012

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

As a youngster coming home from school, I was occasionally greeted by the scent of  banana bread before I even hit the steps leading up to the back door. Once inside I knew I'd find a couple loaves resting on the counter......because "there were some bananas turning black and I didn't want to waste them."  On another day I might see a pie cooling on a rack and be informed, "I had a little sour cream so I made a raisin pie." Short sentences or comments casually uttered years ago by one or the other of my parents surface every once in awhile, which I realize, still make a difference in my days. Remembering this makes me hope that I've provided my boys with useful snippets of conversation to take away for their futures, especially knowing how they squirm at the mention of a 'few suggestions', a 'talk' or worse yet a lecture. (I try hard not to............)

Remember last week when I made Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice Cream? Since the recipe only called for one cup of pumpkin puree, and since I only had a large can of it in the pantry, I ended up with a leftover bowl in the fridge. Not wanting to waste, I planned at some point to make muffins with the remainder. As I set out to do so yesterday morning....thinking that the scent would be kind of a nice thing for the two boys I still have at home to wake up to (not to mention the finished product.....the ones I make have chocolate chips in them....) I became side tracked by a memory of a recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls rattling around in my brain. Once it popped in there, I couldn't seem to let it and the fact that I want to become more successful with my yeast dough baking go, so I searched my cookbooks to find one. I finally chose one from AllRecipes.com.

Although it took a bit longer than muffins would have, I was more than happy with the finished product. The extra time I hadn't planned to spend baking was worth it. I didn't waste leftover ingredients. The scent of cinnamon, ginger and cloves that wafted up the stairs, may have been even more delicious and tempting than the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I intended to make. I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand (including a can of evaporated milk....which I normally wouldn't have around except for the recent holidays). Working with yeast dough, which has always been a little awkward for me, most likely due to my lack of practice, seemed a bit easier.......less awkward this time.

I remembered some things. I learned some things.

Here is a link to the recipe I used: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. My computer is in the shop (again), but I'll come back and post a couple of photos here on Monday. 

Some notes:
 - I made 'pumpkin pie spice' by mixing together the spices I would normally use when making two pies into a small bowl. Two tsp went into the dough, then enough cinnamon was added to what was left over to make two tbsp for the filling.
 - I baked the rolls for 30 minutes, but they could have used another five or maybe ten.
 - I didn't have cream cheese in the house, so made a buttercream frosting and added a bit of almond extract to it as well as the vanilla called for.

Wishing you a Wonderful Weekend!

Warmly, Margaret

PS. Have you noticed I've made a shift from Tues/Fri posts to Wed/Sat posts? I'm not even sure how or why that happened! Probably due to one extra-busy day during the holiday season......and then it seemed to stick. I'll still be posting twice a week on what ever combination of days that seem to work best this year. Thank you so much for reading and for checking in! XO

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those sound so good! I have sour cream, cream cheese and pumpkin. Any ideas? Hope your computer gets better (or replaced) soon. -- Michele

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