Inducting the Kitchen Aid: cream cheese frosting (part 3)

I promise that this is the last cinnamon roll post for today (note: I only said today. Be prepared for more gratuitous photos of gooey buns tomorrow!). I realize that maybe you are tired of hearing about cinnamon rolls, but when I got home from my lunch and errands, the wonderful smell of cinnamon and fresh bread filled the air, and I couldn't resist the urge to finish the process and frost some buns.

(note: a small, juvenile part of me just smiled at the phrase "frost some buns." Apparently the later in the day it gets, the more I resemble a 12-year-old-boy...)
Now, the recipe I was consulting for the rolls included a Caramel Glaze to pour over the top, but I knew that just wouldn't do. Because if I was going to put TWO sticks of butter and TWO cups of sugar into these babies, you can be sure that I wasn't going to cut corners with some lame "glaze."

Oh no--I was going out with a bang. What I mean is that these rolls needed Cream Cheese Frosting and nothing less. And so I set about concocting my own recipe. I did select, as you will note below, a few lower-fat options, probably to assuage my aforementioned butter/sugar guilt, but the result was just what I wanted.
Which is to say that I wanted a light, slightly tangy frosting. I realize that some of you readers out there might prefer to load a thick, buttery pile of ultra-sugary frosting on top of your bun, but I frankly can't handle all that sweetness. So I toned down the sugar (way down). You, of course, can add more if you want. After TWO sticks of butter, I hardly have room to judge.

And the final result? More on that tomorrow...

Inducting the Kitchen Aid: anatomy of a cinnamon roll (part 2)

First of all, my husband would like you all to know that some of these photos were taken by him. Normally I wouldn't indulge him in making this announcement, but since I had to rush out to lunch, leaving him to the task of watching the rolls rise and baking them, I figured I owed him.

Besides, normally his hands are so shaky that his photos turn out blurry, and he was very proud that these turned out sharp. I can only imagine how hard he was concentrating while shooting these...
Now onto part 2 of the rolls themselves. After my chemistry experiments with warm ingredients and yeast, the dough did actually rise as intended. I say this because often my breads have difficulty rising, so when they perform like they're supposed to, I feel rather elated.

This dough, as you can see above, actually rose right out of the bowl, pushing up the lid. What a little overachiever!
Next comes the guts. In case you're counting, there are 2--that's right, TWO--sticks of butter in these rolls. I was mentioning to my friends at lunch that everyone should be forced to bake these type of treats from scratch at least once because it makes you oh-so-keenly aware of how terribly bad they are for your arteries. Which is a fact you ignore when you just buy the roll at the bakery.

Buying them, after all, doesn't involve the process of actually unwrapping the two sticks of butter by hand and dumping them into the bowl. Along with 2 cups of sugar.

You get my point.
Of course none of that stopped me from carrying on with my baking. From this point it was time to roll the dough--a very hearty and satisfying exercise if you ask me personally. Kinda makes up for the butter & sugar guilt. A little.
Then comes the rolling part of the rolls. Yes, you have to get your hands dirty. Cinammon rolls aren't for the dainty.
Finally the rolls are ready to be sliced and set into their baking dishes so that they can rise yet again for another hour before they hit the oven.

But more on that last part later...

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...