ah, those pregnancy cravings

Glazed cinnamon rolls...yum!

Dough rolled to 20"Lx12"W

Cinnamon and sugar spread over dough.

Rolls ready for second rise.

Fresh out of the oven.

My daughter is expecting her second child in August. She has a craving for cinnamon rolls. Of course, I came to the rescue and offered to make a batch for her. I checked Martha Stewart, Ina Garten and Ree Drummond’s website for possible recipes. I didn’t want something overly complicated. I also looked at food blogger, Deb Perleman’s website, Smitten Kitchen. I finally wound up looking at an old cook book from Jean Anderson called “The Grass Roots Cookbook.” In the section entitled, “The South,” there was a recipe by Mrs. Jake R. Hatfield for Cinnamon Rolls. Mrs. Hatfield stated her grandchildren demand her cinnamon rolls. Well, with an endorsement like that I chose her recipe.
 
The recipe was quite easy to make and took me about 4 hours. Don’t panic, the dough had two risings and a 10 minute rest before rolling out the dough. 

​You’ll need a package of active dry yeast, vegetable shortening (I used unsalted butter), sugar, an egg and approximately 41/2 cups of all purpose flour.  There is a bit of prep to get the yeast started and the combining of shortening, salt and sugar. However, once that’s done, the flour is incorporated into the wet ingredients. I used my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook attachment. After getting the dough to the right consistency and texture, it was time to cover and let it rise for the first time.
 
After two hours and a doubling in size, it was time to roll out the dough for cinnamon rolls. Fortunately for me, I have my grandmother’s very large wooden pasta board to roll out the dough. Once the rolls were formed it was into a buttered 9” cake pan for another 1-1/2 hours to rise. Lastly, the rolls are placed in a 425° oven to bake until golden brown.
 
Instead of a powdered sugar frosting, I opted for cream. I needed 2-1/2 oz. of softened cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of milk and 1-1/2 cup of powdered sugar.  Once the rolls were cool enough it was time to spread the frosting over the warm mounds of cinnamon goodness. The rolls were light and heavenly. The cream cheese frosting gave it a subtle sweetness and the roll wasn’t cloyingly sweet. My husband like them too, but would prefer less frosting and a stronger presence of cinnamon.
 
In reviewing other recipes, some added brown sugar along with the cinnamon sugar. Ms. Drummond’s recipe had sugar and a “generous sprinkling” of cinnamon. Quite a quandary, perhaps I’ll get my daughter’s opinion and compare her palate to her father’s. Either way, they were delicious. They were the right size too, several bites worth.  I brought my neighbors some to try. As my neighbor said, “Time to go back to work.” All this extra baking is not helping the waistline.