Homemade Really is Better!

Several weeks ago a friend said she had made homemade cinnamon rolls. My interest was peaked. I've always been a fan of a good cinnamon roll, but I've also heard they take a lot of effort to make yourself. Nevertheless, this was a venture I have never explored. I decided that I just had to try it, if only once, so I could know for myself.

I woke up early this morning to make the dough and get a head start on the hour and a half it needed to rise, which actually worked out fine because I did yoga during the rising period:) By the time I was finished, the dough had beautifully doubled in size and was ready to be rolled out. I should tell you that rolling it into a cylinder and cutting twelve individual rolls was quite tricky since the dough was so sticky and thin, but I pressed on thinking, "I've come too far to give up now!". Once nicely in my baking dish, they were ready to go in the oven! I say nicely, but let's be honest, they looked like either a kid or a first timer rolled them :) Thankfully for me, once I pulled the heavenly smelling dish from the over, most of the imperfections were masked since they had more than doubled in size and looked incredibly delicious! In my opinion, these are best served with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee!

The outcome: wonderful and so worth the effort! Chris took his first bite, and said, "We are so making these for our kids someday!" followed by, "They just melt in my mouth!".

I adapted this recipe from the Whole Foods Cinnamon Sweet Rolls with Dates and Walnuts, but made these small changes:

*Instead of using walnuts I used pecans.
*I excluded the dates.
*I used 3/4 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/4 regular flour instead of vice versa.

Compare the picture of my finished product with the picture on Whole Foods website and be impressed with the resemblance:)



Notice how messy they look :(


But never fear, they came out way prettier than they went in!



Drizzle with some honey and chopped pecans. Bon Appetit!