Cinnamon....Pillows

Here's the deal. (Settle in, it's a story)

I've never tried anything involving dough before. It's too intimidating. But after a rash of recipe successes, and after finding an awesome new food blog, Baked Bree, I decided to give it a shot. Cinnamon rolls! They're delicious! They have icing! I could eat them for breakfast all week long!

That's what I thought to myself. But the thing is, right after I took my ingredients picture, I realized my milk was bad. So I substituted watered-down heavy cream, because everything I found said that was okay.

The thing is, I'm not sure that it was okay.

I first started to get worried when I rolled out my dough after letting it rise for 2 hours and it was still totally sticky and blob-y. Rolling it out and rolling it up was a nightmare. I started to panic, but for some reason kept taking pictures like everything was going fine.

It wasn't. I almost cried when they came out of the oven. Along with my determination to stick to the recipe EXACTLY (a rule which I had already broken with great trepidation), I also feel like a giant failure if my result does not look like the picture.

And this did NOT look like the picture, if you head over to Baked Bree you will agree with me. However, I've been convincing myself that I haven't failed this recipe, I've created a new one. Cinnamon Bread Pillows.

Look at this guy. He's totally sleep-able.

Tell your friends. And maybe the next time you see me, if you see me, you could tell me I'm not a failure.

 

Your Ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Cinnamon, Yeast, Eggs, Cream Cheese, Milk, Butter, Brown Sugar, and Vanilla

First, put your yeast into the warm milk and let it dissolve. Let it sit for 5 minutes, it will start to foam.

In a mixer, mix together your butter, eggs, sugar and salt. I was super excited to use my dough hook attachment for the first time! Too bad it didn't turn out exactly... awesome.

Put in the milk/yeast mix, and then the flour, 2 cups at a time. Put in enough flour that it doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl.

Put your dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size

In a bowl, mix together your cinnamon glaze ingredients, mash them together with a fork until they're a paste.

Uh, roll out your dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle and hope that it looks a little better than this. Spread the cinnamon glaze over it, and then roll it up.

Cut it into 1 1/2 inch pieces and put them in a greased baking pan. If yours turn out pillow-style, you might need to use 2 pans. Or you can shove them all into 1 pan and see what happens. Who knows at this point. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the frosting (which I actually didn't fail at), cream together your butter and cream cheese. Add the salt, then the powdered sugar a little at a time, then the vanilla. Yum.

Did I lick the frosting spoon to make myself feel better? You bet I did.

And well... here it is. It's certainly not a roll, but you can definitely sleep on it. And have cinnamon dreams. Good luck.

Cinnamon...Pillows

Attempted from Baked Bree

Pillows:

1 package yeast

1 cup warm milk (microwave for about 50 seconds)

1/3 cup butter, softened

4-5 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

Cinnamon Glaze:

1 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 tbs. cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened and cut into chunks

1 tbsp flour

Icing:

8 tbs. butter

1/4 cup cream cheese

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

For the dough:

Let the yeast dissolve in the warm milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes, it will start to foam.

In an electric mixer, cream together your butter, sugar, salt and eggs. Add the yeast/milk, slowly add in the flour 2 cups at a time. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl, you can use up to 5 cups of flour to get this result.

Put the dough in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size.

For the cinnamon glaze:

In a small bowl, put your cinnamon glaze ingredients together- mash with a fork until it starts to form a thick paste.

Roll out your dough into a 16x21 rectangle. Spread the cinnamon glaze over the dough. Roll the dough until it forms a log. Cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces, then transfer to a greased baking pan. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise for another hour.

Cook at 400° for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

For the icing:

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, the salt, and then the vanilla until well-mixed.

Let the rolls cool completely before icing. Makes several...pillows.