Christmas Morning: Cinnamon Rolls

For the past month, I had been reading the Gluten-Free girls posts on her efforts to achieve the perfect cinnamon roll. She had multiple posts and pictures of her trial and error...and finally right before Christmas she posted her final recipe.

I had been looking for a good recipe for waffles, but was really unimpressed by what I was finding. So, when she posted the recipe on December 22nd... I was like this is fate. I must make these cinnamon rolls. It would be something out of the ordinary for my family to eat, so it would be different and special.

The one hang-up was that the recipe and instructions were four pages long! I mean 23 ingredients...yikes. But I wasn't going to let that get me down. It isn't the first time I've baked. I'm actually starting to get used to using multiple flours for everything that I make.

So, on Christmas morning, I was up bright and early at 6am (to take the dog out of course). Instead of heading back to bed I decided to get started on the rolls. In hindsight, I really had no concept of how long these suckers were going to take me to make.

Round 1 was making the dough. I found that the recipe called for too much water. If you decide to conquer this recipe as well, you should pour the 1 cup of yeast water in first prior to adding the extra 1/2 cup of water. That way your dough will get all the yeast, but you can manage the water content. After you make the dough, you need to let it sit for an hour. So I took that opportunity to nap for an hour. This was needed as Christmas eve (after family sushi dinner) entails multiple glasses of wine at my best friends parents annual party.

Round 2 was rolling out the dough and adding the sugar and cinnamon mixtures. The recipe makes 16 rolls, so you have to go through the process twice. After the rolls are cut and placed in the pie plates, you need to cover and let sit for another hour. This hiatus I showered and got ready for church.

Round 3 was baking and making the frosting. This part was painless. The frosting is a straight forward cream cheese frosting. Baking takes about 25 minutes and then you need to let rest for 10.

Round 4 was eating. Oh my god were they good. I can't remember the last time I had a cinnamon rolls... but I will tell you I won't be going years before having another. I highly recommend eating with a perfect cup of Peet's Coffee.

All in all, it took about 5 hours from start to finish (since you have 2 pie plates of rolls, you have 2 rounds of baking).

If you have a craving for cinnamon rolls and 5 hours to spare...I highly recommend this recipe. Since the recipe is 4 pages long, it's better if I just provide the link to Shauna's recipe:

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2009/12/gluten-free-cinnamon-rolls.html

Good luck.