Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Early Bird Gets the Cinnamon Roll

I woke up at 0530 this morning.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  I got up, played Sims on Facebook, watched a DVR'd episode of  Extreme Home Makeover and then decided I had time to make a really great Sunday Brunch.  I got out my bread machine and made coffee while the appliance kneaded my dough.  I made quite a few modifications to an existing recipe that I need to record them so I can make these again.  They are really, really good.

I started with this recipe.
I then made the following modifications:
  • I subbed out 1 1/2 cups of white flour  and used whole wheat instead.
  • I mixed the sugar, butter, and brown sugar together to make a paste.  I added about 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the mixture.*
  • I sprinkled a few cinnamon flakes* and finely chopped pecans over the bun dough before rolling up.
  • I was out of cream cheese so I blended a mixture of soft margarine (three tablespoons?  I didn't measure), the juice and zest of half an orange, a splash of vanilla extract and enough icing sugar to make it spreadable (2? 3? cups) to glaze the warm rolls.
 *I found xanthan gum and cinnamon flakes at my local health food store.  I am sure the cinnamon flakes are not crucial to the success of the buns, but I felt like there was not quite enough filling so I added them since they were in my cupboard already.  The xanthan gum is a food thickener that worked really well to keep the filling from melting out of the buns during the baking process.