Autumn is my favorite time of year and I have noticed many pumpkin recipes popping up on various sites, as well as hearty soups and such. One in particular caught my attention, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. Always admitting I am not the baker in the family I decided to alter this recipe. I give credit to stephchows (foodbuzz name) for her beautiful picture of the batch she made that made me want my own basket full. You can check them out for yourself at:
http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/565496-pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls
The weather was nice on Monday, so I decided to spend my day off and journey to PA and visit a poet friend who had surgery and cheer him up with a cooking demonstration. Ha, I know, but it did cheer him up, and he asked me to come back! Well I printed the recipe from stephchows site and make my grocery list...
Large Can Pumpkin Puree
Pumpkin Pie Spice (I have on hand)
Dark Brown Sugar
Powder Sugar (both of these I do not keep on hand, I use Maple Syrup usually)
Buttermilk (I am not fond of drinking this, but my friend did)
Cream Cheese
Oh, and last but not least,
Pillsbury Ready Made Pizza dough in a can (Yes I did!)
If anyone really knows me, I am not much of a baker but will make my own dough, pie crusts and other things for baking. I also did not want to mess his kitchen up anymore than I had to, so give me a break, please.
Lay down wax paper, two sheets overlapped; then open the can of dough; stretch it out just a bit bigger, and if holes start to pop up, pinch it together.
In a medium bowl mix ¼ cup pumpkin with ½ cup brown sugar, and a heaping spoonful of pumpkin spice; blend well and spread onto dough with large spoon or spatula. Do this as evenly as you can and leave ¼ inch on edges for rolling.
Crush some walnuts and sprinkle all about puree mixture.
Gently start rolling the longest end up like a jelly roll or log, and cut ½ inch size spirals.
Spread these out in a non stick baking pan (original recipe recommends spraying, I did not have too). The original said to pat them down, and that they could touch, but I found keeping them apart about ¼ inch away after patting them down that they cook and look prettier.
Instructions for baking stated, 475 degree oven for 23-25 minutes- Due to his having a gas oven that got the kitchen so hot we had to open up the doors, I would recommend testing a few out in your oven first. I turned the oven to 375, and baked them for 15 minutes, and that worked for me. My oven is convection and it does not take long for things to cook in them either.
In a small bowl mix together 1 cup powder sugar, 1 Tablespoons cream cheese, 1 tablespoon buttermilk (I thought maple syrup would have been good too), and mix very well. If it looks runny add more powder sugar as needed.
Let the cinnamon rolls cool and drizzle the icing all over, and bon appetit!
I ended up making three batches to share with friends and they gave the thumbs up as well on these E'z cinnamon rolls, and hey, add your own filling!
Pictures of me making these are on http://www.myspace.com/cookappeal ; click on pics
