SUPER Yum

Now that I'm eating more healthfully, I'm passing on the super greasy hash browns and fried eggs for breakfast. I'm much more likely to have loaded oatmeal (brown sugar & apples) or loaded scrambled eggs (ham, green onions, red peppers, cheese). Lots of food, really tasty.

But sometimes it's nice to have a treat, a splurge. I bought Cook's Illustrated Best Light Recipe a few years ago, but never used it that much. Their recipe for Cinnamon Rolls looked really good, so I decided to give it a try this morning.

Quick Cinnamon Rolls with Buttermilk Icing

Filling:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp salt

Dough

• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
  
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  

Glaze

• 3 Tbsp light cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp buttermilk
  
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray an 8-inch-square baking pan and a wire rack with the vegetable oil spray; set aside.

2. For the filling: Mix all the ingredients together; set aside.

3. For the dough: Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter together. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until the liquid is absorbed (the dough will look very shaggy), about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and kneed until just smooth and no longer shaggy, about 30 seconds.

4. Pat the dough with your hands into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with the filling, leaving a 1/2-inch border of plain dough around the edges. Press the filling firmly into the dough. Using a bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen the dough from the work surface. Starting at the long side, roll the dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. Pinch the seam to seal. Roll the log seam-side down and cut it evenly into 9 pieces with dental floss. With your hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal the open edges and keep the filling in place.

5. Arrange the rolls in the prepared baking dish (3 rows of 3 rolls). Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for about 12 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the edges of the rolls are golden brown, 12-14 minutes longer.

6. Use an offset metal spatula to loosen the rolls from the pan. Wearing oven mitts, place the greased rack over the pan and flip the rolls onto the rack. Let the rolls cool for 5 minutes before icing.

7. To ice the rolls: While the rolls are cooling, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (for easy cleanup). Set the rack of cooling rolls over the baking sheet. Whisk the cream cheese and buttermilk together in a large nonreactive bowl until thick and smooth (the mixture will look like cottage cheese at first). Sift the confections' sugar over the mixture; whisk until a smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds. Spoons the glaze evenly over the rolls.

The lowdown on how it went:

• I don't have an 8" square pan, so I used a shallow oval baking dish.
• My cutting board is exactly 9x13, which helped with rolling out the dough to the perfect size.
  
• It is a very wet, "shaggy" dough, and I did need to use a fair bit of flour, on the board and on my hands, and it did still stick to the board a little, but not too bad.
  
• I also didn't really roll them up tightly enough, so they were a little loosey-goosey in the cutting (I didn't bother with the dental floss, and just used a butter knife). When I lifted them off the cutting board to put them in the pan, a fair bit of the filling did fall out. I took care of that be just pouring everything left on the board on top of the rolls in the pan.
  
• I didn't have tin foil, so I put a baking sheet on top for the first 12 minutes. They came out of the pan easily, and I separated them before drizzling the glaze over the top.
• They aren't super huge, but they aren't skimpy, either. It's actually a really nice portion.
  
• Total time was about an hour from when I walked into the kitchen to when I poured the glaze.
• 280 calories and 4.5 grams of fat.

WOW. So tasty, quick and easy. These are going into steady rotation around here. The kids went crazy for them, but Jeff isn't big on sweets in the morning, so he didn't have any. I only had one, and sent the leftovers to my Dad & Sharon with the kids.