Extra Dough: Cinnamon Rolls

 As I said, I always use the remaining part of the dough from my homemade pizzas for something: small loaves of bread, rolls of some sort, bread bowls someday when I get brave enough to try that now that I have a pan sized for it.

Sidenote.  You really should check out my savory rolls that I made last week.  They were delicious, they taste rich and filling like they have meat in them without having meat in them.  Crazy, but true.

Anyway I won't burden you with the dough recipe for the umpteenth time, but for reference it is the remaining half of the white/wheat dough that I made the bacon pineapple pizza with.  That, btw, was one of the most delicious pizzas I have had in a while, if I do say so myself. 

So I turned the rest of the dough out onto my floured kitchen island that has taken a beating every day since I bought it.  Best.  Purchase. Ever. If it was on casters it would also make a great serving cart/food cart thing for parties, but let's face it this apartment is too small for large parties and too small to need things on wheels haha.

ANYWAY, back to the cinnamon rolls.  I stretched and mashed the dough out thin and then put a heavy coat of cinnamon on it.  Next I went with a lighter coat of cinnamon sugar mixed (think 2/3 the amount of the regular cinnamon), followed it with ginger (think about 1/5th of the amount of regular cinnamon), some brown sugar (about 1/3 the amount of the first round of cinnamon), and finished it with a very light sprinkle of nutmeg.

The next thing I did you will skip.  I put maple syrup over that, as you can see in the picture.  Now, flavor wise, this is great.  Messing up the pan and making the bottoms of the cinnamon rolls get really cripsy...it was annoying.  I also put maple in the cream cheese icing, which was super yummy. 

I rolled mine in from the long way over, to make small two-three bite cinnamon rolls.  Big ones would have been super fun too.  I greased the bottom of my dark nonstick with butter and cut 1 inch sections off of the roll.  I baked them at 375 for 22 minutes.

The maple cream cheese consisted of 1/2 pack of reduced fat cream cheese, 3 TB warmed up maple syrup, about 1/2 C of powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla.  You could add more or less of any of these ingredients to get the flavor and consistency you want, they are not set in stone.

All in all, a viable first run at cinnamon rolls with room for improvement.  Things I will consider for next time is knocking the temp back to 350 and baking longer, which is where I prefer to bake.  I did 375 on these because of the fact that I was making sausage balls with them as well.  I will for sure leave out the maple on the inside and just include it in the icing.

Happy crafting!

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