Cinnamon Rolls - First Attempt

Learning to make homemade bread has been great, but it has also been a slippery slope. Why not try pizza dough? (Terrific and thick!). How about cinnamon rolls?

Today I took the next leap and explored making my own sweet bread rolls. Where was Barney during all of this? He's such a big boy now that I can leave him with the big dogs, sleeping happily in the sun, and I can move around the house with much more ease.

The cinnamon rolls start like bread. I warmed yeast and mixed flour with a few ingredients just like bread dough. I added more sugar than usual though, which makes sense for a sweet treat. After an hour long rise time, I rolled the dough out into a rectangle. Then I added chopped walnuts plus a sweet sticky concoction that I prepared in a sauce pan. It started getting messy.

Next I rolled the dough up into a log with the sweet part in the center. Flour was everywhere, and sweet stuff was trickling out the ends. Fun ! Finally when I had a nice log roll, I used a knife to cut it into slices. These slices were placed on a cookie sheet and left to rise for about 15 minutes. Here is what they looked like at this point:

All that was left to do was the baking - 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I watched carefully so that I didn't burn the bottoms. Once done, I tried adding a topping of heated maple syrup and cinnamon, but it just rolled off so I'll skip that next time. Why add more calores LOL.

Here is the final view:

Next time I think I'll add in some whole wheat flour, and look around for a thicker topping to add to some of them. Readers - let me know if you have a good recipe for a topping !