Wednesday, March 27, 2013

What's up Wednesday--cinnamon roll edition

So in case you didn't know, I am a very new band mom.  More about that here.   The band is having a fundraiser, and they are selling pies and cinnamon rolls to get money for new uniforms which they really need because they are still using the one's they had when I went to school there ages ago. So they were asking for volunteers to bake rolls and pies.  Pies kind of scare me.  I don't know why.  I think it is the crusts.  I don't have a 'go-to' pie crust recipe, and I need to find one, but I just don't make pies that often, so I don't have one.  If you have one, please share.  Anyway, so I volunteered to make cinnamon rolls.  Little did I know I would be making 6 dozen by end of this week.  Gulp!  I kind of panicked.  I don't really have a 'go-to' cinnamon roll recipe either, so I needed to find one.  I made a few batches earlier this week to see which ones would be best.  I didn't get pictures of all of them, but here is what we did. . .
These are Mel's Kitchen Cafe Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.  The recipe makes 2 dozen, but the problem was I didn't bake them long enough and they sunk in the middle and were really gooey and not done, but the outside edges and frosting were divine.  I would make them again and just bake them longer.  I will be making them again for my family, but not for the band.  It is kind of an expensive recipe to make times 6 (with a box of pudding, bar of cream cheese each), so I don't think I will make these for the band.

These are Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls.  They do not get as big as Mel's.  They use a powered sugar glaze icing (PW's icing uses coffee which I don't put in).  One batch makes 4 dozen cinnamon rolls (so I only have to make 1 1/2 batches instead of 3, perfect for band fundraising!) They taste really good, but the best part about these?  You can make the dough 3 days ahead of time and just keep it in the fridge.  When you are ready to make the rolls, just roll them out, cover with butter, sugar, cinnamon, slice, rise, and bake.  One thing about these, PW melts her butter to put inside, but I think that is too messy.  I just get my butter really soft so it spreads easily on top of the dough.  Way less messy than having the butter melted.  So, I already have a batch in my fridge, and I am going to make another batch of dough today, so tomorrow I will just be rolling out, cutting, baking, and frosting--6 dozen cinnamon rolls.  Sounds fun, huh?  What did I get myself into with this band thing???? Those new uniforms better be really nice. . .

3 comments:

  1. I have some vague memory of you making sweet rolls at BYU... am I right??

    And come over when you're in town next time. We'll spend an afternoon making pie crusts - I love them. :)

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  2. Hey Jen!
    It's Tessa. Just so you know...that dough recipe I use to make our pizza and artisan bread is also used to make caramel cinnamon rolls too. Its similar to the Pioneer Woman's idea with making a big batch of dough and taking out what you need to make a batch. But with our dough, you can make lots of other things besides cinnamon rolls. Remember, Mom has that Artisan bread book, so you can get the recipe from that. Try it out! But good luck with the baking fundraiser! Let us know how it goes. Love you!

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  3. Those look yummy! I'll have to try PW's recipe next time. This is my favorite pie crust recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pie-crust-recipe/index.html I hate baking crust and I don't even really like eating it, but that was one of the best crusts I've had. It is a pretty intense recipe but even cutting a lot of corners (I didn't have all the supplies needed at the ready), it still turned out tasty. My crusts are never beautiful but it tasted good.

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