Cinnamon Rolls

The idea for Spring Goals #1 (bake some bread) came to me when I was reorganizing my pantry and realized that I have 24 packets of yeast that have to be used up before they expire. I have a few bread ideas in mind and the first on the list is cinnamon rolls.

I used Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls recipe this time around.

The last couple times I used yeast, I was disappointed to find that my dough didn't rise very well so I was a little reluctant to try it again. But the expiry date is approaching and I either had to make the breads now, or let the yeast go to waste. 

I decided to suck it up and make the bread.

I mixed the dough and set it aside to let the dough rise while I put Caleb to bed. Caleb decided to take much longer than the 1 hour specified by the instructions, to fall asleep. When I got back, I found the dough had overflowed over the sides of my pot. I couldn't decide whether to be overjoyed that the dough actually rose, or to be annoyed that I had a huge mess to clean up, not to mention I lost some dough.

I decided to be happy with a successfully proved dough and used that to motivate me to finish making the cinnamon buns. Did I mention that it was 11pm when I finally got back into the kitchen?

I rolled the dough out (so glad for large counter top space) and a rolling pin.

Spread on the butter.

And the sugar.

And the cinnamon.

I'd like to add that in the interest of eating healthier *ahem*, I reduced the amount of butter, sugar and cinnamon in my version of the cinnamon rolls.

Then I carefully rolled the dough up and cut them into slices.

I placed them in the pan to rise again, as per the instructions. I was pessimistic that it would rise again because I had left the dough for so long and also because it didn't rise last time. But it did rise and by now I was clapping for joy (inside my head of course, because I would have looked like a crazy person clapping to myself).

I popped them in the oven and made some cream cheese frosting to drizzle on top. (Cream cheese frosting is my favourite!)

Then I had myself a midnight snack, because by then, it really was midnight.

And for those of you who are reluctant to use yeast like I was, here's something I learned about using yeast: too much heat kills the yeast! 

In all this time of baking and cooking, I've had it in my head that yeast needs boiling water to work. It turns out, all you need is room temperature, or warm water. So fear not, my friends. Go ahead and use the yeast; make some cinnamon buns and enjoy.