As a child I remember my mother making us whole wheat bread. If we were lucky she took some of that dough, rolled it out, spread melted butter on it, sprinkled it with white sugar and cinnamon, rolled them up, sliced them with thread from her sewing box, and let them rise. After they were baked she drizzled them with a simple powdered sugar glaze. I loved those whole wheat treats!
Fast forward 20 or 30 years from childhood to motherhood. I'd been successfully working with yeasted dough for a few years, including making pretty average cinnamon rolls, when my (ex) husband bought me a massive cookbook; Americas Test Kitchen Best Recipes. That book enthralled me. I loved that before each recipe they explained the science and the process. I didn't do much with the first 600 pages, but I sure devoured the baking sections.
Muffins, cookies, pies, pizza, and cinnamon rolls. The people in my neighborhood loved me. One of my love languages is "words of affirmation." I was like Mike Milligan and His Stream Shovel, one of our favorite old children's books. When people came to watch Mike Milligan and his stream shovel, Marianne, they dug faster and better. The more people who came the faster and better he dug! What? You LOVE my blueberry muffins? They'll be even better next time!
I was baking almost every day; breakfast muffins for my family, bread for toast and sandwiches, cookies for lunch treats on field trip days, even bagels and crackers when I needed a creative outlet. The first batch of cinnamon rolls I made with the recipe from the new cookbook blew us all away. Little did we know that it was a beginning; the tip of a life altering iceberg.
I've altered that original recipe at least a half dozen times, sometimes by accident. I made them by memory for years then one day needed to send the recipe to a friend and realized I'd been doing the eggs wrong for who knows how long. I'm a recipe tweaker by nature and this recipe has been altered and adjusted to the point where I can confidently say that it is my own unique recipe. The rolls are soft, melt-in-your-mouth bundles of heaven. Each roll is given a butter shower before being crowned with a cream cheese frosting.
Mom, thank you for our childhood treats. Thank you for baking for your family in the age when it is not the societal norm and I mean no disrespect when I say, these rolls are not your mama's cinnamon rolls!
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