Sunday Morning, Coffee and a Cinnamon Roll

I miss my Sunday mornings.  Sleeping in late, letting my natural body rhythms determine when I was going to get out of bed-instead of the annoying alarm on my cell phone.  Being in the travel industry, normal week-ends don't exist.  My Sunday is my sweetie's Friday.  No more laying in bed and smelling the coffee he has brewing for me.  No gentle wake ups with a cinnamon roll fresh from Alki Bakery or a buttery croissant from Bakery Nouveau.  Those Sundays are gone but not forgotten.  My "Sunday" is spent alone but so is his...so tonight I'm turning the tables.  Tonight I'm pretending it's Sunday morning for the two of us.  Instead of dinner we will have freshly brewed coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls.  I have to work with what I have and while I miss those precious Sunday mornings of the normal world-our life is what we make it and tonight I'm making it Sunday morning.

The kitchen smells crazy incredible with fresh baked cinnamon rolls in the oven.  I bought a new bread book while in Portland ( yes I'm addicted to cookbooks).  It's "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"-Fabulous with a capital F.  Co-authored by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois, it's filled with one enticing recipe after another.  I've always loved bread baking but never seem to fit it into my schedule so I thought this would be perfect if it works and it does !  I used the Buttermilk Bread recipe for the base of the rolls and instead of making loaves like they suggested for what's called "Judy's Board of Directors' Cinnamon-Raisin Bread", I rolled the finished product like  a jelly roll and gently sliced them into rolls. I omitted the raisins and for the final touch I added a favorite cream cheese icing recipe.

I don't like to blog recipes from cookbooks unless they are already on the Internet and I found these two at a site called Simple Daily Recipes by Jill McKeever-nice website too!

This recipe makes three 1 1/2 pound loaves. It can be doubled or halved.
Buttermilk Bread
2 cups lukewarm water
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing the loaf pan-I lined a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment and spaced my rolls about 1-2 inches apart.

1.Mixing and storing the dough: Mix the yeast, salt, and sugar with water and buttermilk in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.
2.Mix in the flour without kneading, using a strong handled spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you're not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour..
3.Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top); approximately 2 hours.
4.The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is MUCH easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 7 days. Stop here if you are making the cinnamon bread or rolls ..follow the recipe for the Cinnamon bread listed below.
5.On baking day, lightly grease a 9 x 4 x 3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2 pound (cantaloupe-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Elongate the ball into an oval.
6.Drop the loaf into the prepared pan. You want to fill the pan slightly more than half-full.
7.Allow the dough to rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Flour the top of the loaf and slash, using the tip of a serrated bread knife. Brush the top with melted butter.
8.Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
9.Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.
10.Remove from the pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing or it will be nearly impossible to achieve reasonable sandwich slices.

Here is the Cinnamon Bread Recipe that I adapted to Cinnamon Rolls
Judy's Board of Directors' Cinnamon-Raisin Bread
1 1/2 pounds (cantaloupe-size portion) Buttermilk Bread dough
butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing the pan
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup raisins
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)

Lightly grease a 9 x 4 x 3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Set aside. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2 pound (cantaloupe-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to an 8 x 16-inch rectangle about 1/4-inch thick, dusting the board and rolling pin with flour as needed. You may need to use a metal dough scraper to loosen rolled dough from the board as you are working with it.
Use a pastry brush to cover the surface of the dough lightly with egg wash. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the dough. Evenly distribute the raisins. It helps to gently press the raisins into the dough before rolling into loaf shape.
And my favorite cream cheese icing:
4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter-softened
3 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 Tablespoon Milk (add more if you like to drizzle your icing-I like mine more like frosting !
Mix all the ingredients until well blended-medium speed on your mixer.  Place dollops of icing on the rolls while still hot in the pan.  Allow to cool and then .....

Pour yourself another cup of coffee ,pull out the Sunday paper and enjoy!

And here is another book to put on your wish list !