Yammy Cinnamon Rolls

There’s nothing in life the Farmer’s Wife enjoys so much as a good Cinnamon Roll, and this, my friends is a very good one. It can be a dessert, a breakfast, an any-time-you-want-it, or of course, served alongside dinner as a vegetable.

Yes, you read that right. The Farmer’s Wife has managed to justify a Cinnamon Roll as a vegetable! First it was the Holiday Pie for breakfast and now this!

Oh, you’ve never heard the Holiday Pie for breakfast rational? It goes something like this: Well, it has Eggs, doesn’t it? And Milk, right? What can be more breakfasty than that? Oh, that crust? Just think of it as toast.

And with that reasoning, she has a big old slice, first thing in the morning.

But on to the Cinnamon Roll…

Because you see, it does have a vegetable in it, just as the Holiday Pie has both eggs and milk (or cream, rather). Therefore it may be consumed regularly in the name of good health.

And the vegetable is this: A Yam, several really.

The Farmer’s Wife takes a can of candied Yams (40oz can, remove the yams and put them in your mixer to = 29 oz. of yams. Save the liquid, you’ll use that in a bit), adds to it 2 tablespoons of melted butter and lets it mix and mix until all is smooth and pale orange. She warms 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid just a bit and to that adds 1 tablespoon dry yeast. She lets that sit a bit until it’s nice and foamy. Once it is, she adds it to the Yam/butter mixture and lets that mix a bit.

Now the Farmer’s Wife has one of those fancy kitchen mixers with a paddle and a dough hook, and really, that’s kind of needed for this. You can try it with your hands, but if you do, you’re on your own.

She switches from the paddle to the dough hook and adds 5 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour and 2 teaspoons salt and lets it mix until it forms a soft dough; about five minutes. This gets put in a lightly floured bowl, covered with a towel, and set in the oven with the light on for thirty minutes or so.

The Farmer’s Wife dusts her workspace lightly with flour and sets the dough in the middle. She rolls it out in a large rectangle–about 15 inches by 30. Two tablespoons melted butter is brushed on the dough and a 9 by 13 inch baking pan.

One half cup of brown sugar is lightly sprinkled over the dough on top of the butter and on top of that a generous dusting of cinnamon is applied. The Farmer’s Wife is keeping an eye on her blood sugar, and she’s heard cinnamon helps, so she uses quite a bit here–somewhere between one and two tablespoons.

Beginning with the side closest to her, the dough is tightly rolled until it resembles a long log. This log is cut in one inch segments with the resulting roll placed into the prepared pan, swirl side up. One of the secrets of a good cinnamon roll is a tender side, so pack them in there. The Farmer’s Wife can squeeze in twenty, so you should try to do the same. The pan is covered with a towel and put back in a lighted oven for another thirty minutes.

The pan is taken from the oven and towel removed and placed back in and then the oven is turned on–to 350 degrees. The rolls are baked for thirty minutes and set a side to cool. Slightly.

Now for the Frosting, you have a couple of choices. For the rolls as you see above, the Farmer’s Wife set out a package of cream cheese (8 oz.) and a stick of butter (1/2 cup) to get to room temperature, while the rolls were baking. Once all was softened up a bit, she creamed them in her mixer until smooth. To that was added a teaspoon of vanilla and a cup of sugar, the powdered type. This was blended until ready, and once it was, slathered over the warm rolls.

Or, for the Adults:

Melt one cup sugar in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Once it is melted, add six tablespoons butter. Again, stirring the whole time. It may sputter a bit, but it will come together, I promise. Keep stirring until it does–about 2 minutes. Add to this 1/3 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup good bourbon. It will go crazy bubbly, so take care for splatters. Keep on stirring for a minute or so, until it comes back to itself. Remove it from the heat and add one teaspoon salt, stirring well. Let cool a bit and add 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Let set until thick, and if there’s any left after you’ve finished your sampling, put it on a roll or two.

There. Now you’ve seen everything. And if anyone dares suggest that Cinnamon Rolls couldn’t possibly be a vegetable, I give you permission to refer them here, so they can stand corrected.