Cinnamon Rolls. Just the smell alone is enough to make your mouth water, amiright? The warm, sticky, gooey first bite... I mean, let's get real here, every Sunday should feature lots of frosted cinnamon-y goodness. Or maybe every day? Inspired by my fabulously talented friend Vanessa at Wear Flats To Dinner who's always up to something new and exciting in the kitchen, I decided to go big with my culinary ambitions in the cinnamon roll department. Maybe too big. From scratch, fully glazed, with almond flour and honey in place of white flour and sugar. As a baking novice who doesn't know the difference between a sieve and a sifter, perhaps I was biting off a bit more sticky-sweetness than I could chew? Probably. But WFTD doesn't shy away from a challenge, so neither is CL. (uh-oh same acronym as Craigslist?)
I followed this recipe from the blog Urban Poser, so feel free to skip all my baking adventure nonsense below and click on over for the full ingredient list and directions (here). In the meantime, here goes nothing!
Starting things out strong with an ingredient line-up...
First step is to combine
almond flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl with eggs, honey, and coconut
oil in a second.
Next is
"kneading" the whole mixture together to form a smooth dough. Feeling
like a real pro at this point, the only skill needed here is a background in
play-doh. Experts, everyone one of us.
Now comes the most fun
part. After pouring honey onto the entire surface of the dough, you then spread
it out evenly with your hands. Using your hands instead of a spatula helps to
not tear the dough. Smoothing the sticky honey into every corner and crevice of
the dough's surface, I felt like some artisanal candle maker, hand-crafting
one-of-a-kind wax pieces in a small Italian shoppe. Trust me, try it and you
will feel the same way!
Next comes the innards.
The raisins/walnuts/pecans/etc that go into the center of the roll.
For me, the simpler the better, so all I sprinkled in was raisins and cinnamon.
But feel free to be much more adventurous and sprinkle in whatever you like. Is
it just me or is this starting to look like a giant Ants On a Log?
Into the oven they go.
Bake time: 10-15 minutes.
As my kitchen filled with
the wafts of warm cinnamon-y goodness, I turned my attention to the last and
most nerve-racking step: the icing. In my quest for as challenging a cinnamon
roll endeavor as possible, my original plan involved replacing the vanilla
extract called for in the recipe with actual vanilla beans from a vanilla bean
pod. Yes, vanilla bean pods exist. And they are sold in glass jars. Whole Foods is a
crazy place. Eyeing my two vanilla beans with trepidation, I wavered
momentarily on my initial commitment, but feeling confident enough coming off the
play-doh portion, I went for it.
Lo and behold, the pods
just look scary (and like giant spider legs). Scraping out the beans is easy
peasy.
Mixing the vanilla beans
into a bowl of coconut butter, honey and coconut milk... the frosting was
ready.
Once the rolls are cooled,
on go the finishing touches. A few more dashes of cinnamon for good measure,
and a smear of icing... Ta Da!
Challenge accepted and a success!
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