Thursday, March 4, 2010

Inducting the Kitchen Aid: a tale of cinnamon rolls (part 1)

note: this tale will continue throughout the day in various parts...
The Kitchen Aid--helper of domestic divas for ages--was a contentious item among me and my husband during our engagement. You see, I wanted one. I recall distinctly standing in the aisles of a department store, registry gun in hand, ready and willing to zap the tag of a cherry red mixer on the shelf. And then the fight began.

He thought they were too expensive. I thought every young bride needed one. And I lost the battle. Thus no Kitchen Aid for me.

That is, until my recent 30th birthday when I guess everyone in my family was tired of me telling my sad Kitchen-Aid-registry story and just decided to all chip in and buy me one.

And so I have decided that today is the day to induct my new appliance into the family. And Cinnamon Rolls are the object of choice.
Now, I was planning on waking up around 6:00am to start these lovely rolls--because bakers rise early, you know. Alas, I knew even before I hit the pillow last night that no matter how delectable the gooey rolls may be, they didn't stand a chance of rousing me from bed that early.

And so it was later--much, much later--that I started to melt the butter and sugar in milk, and warm the eggs in a bowl.
While the ingredients were coming up to room temperature (apparently a prerequisite for tasty rolls), I was laying out the various appendages that come with a standard Kitchen Aid. Is it just me, or do they slightly resemble a collection of medieval torture devices?

Torture aside, the spiral dough hook is the one I needed, so I fastened it to the mixer and then tried to decipher the yeast-dissolving instructions from my recipe book. Using my meat thermometer (seriously--I really should get an appropriate temperature gauge) I tried to get the yeast-water mixture just right, all the while feeling very glad that I didn't attempt this chemistry with bleary eyes at 6AM.
And after some measuring and mixing, I gleefully watched as the dough gradually came together in my shiny new machine.

Now it is resting and rising in a sunny corner on my counter, waiting for the next step.

To be continued...

1 comment:

  1. You can tell your husband that EVERY LADY (not just a new bride) needs a kitchenaid! I inherited mine from my mother when I was in college (she wanted a different color . . . must be nice!) and I couldn't live without it! I even am looking at upgrading to the professional grade mixer now that I'm a big girl with big girl money! :)

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