Yeast - free Cinnamon Rolls

This week, my Betrothed briefly graced me with his presence. He has been studying hard for exams at law school, and it was nice he took a break between exams to drive back and pay me a visit. We usually have our brunch on Sundays, but since he wasn't here this past weekend, we made up for it on Wednesday morning. At first I wanted to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls, but the pumpkin I had left over was a lot older than I thought (ew). So regular cinnamon rolls it was! But then after looking through different recipes, I saw that the preparation and bake time added up to about 3 hours... Hmmm...

Luckily, I found a quicker, yeast-free recipe here! The site I found also included a recipe with yeast, depending on how much time you have. Apparently these recipes are a combination of the best of several different other recipes, so I had some faith in this endeavor (since I've never made cinnamon rolls before!)

For the rolls:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus some extra for the counter
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 3/4 c packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 c white sugar
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1) Preheat the oven to 425. Spray a wire cooling rack and a 9" round pan with vegetable spray.
2) Make the filling, and mix all the ingredients together until it looks like wet sand.

3) In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

4) Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon until absorbed (about 30 seconds). The dough will look shaggy.

5) Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead until smooth (about 1 minute).

6) Press the dough into a 9x12- inch rectangle and brush the dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Then press the filling onto the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border on all sides.

7) Loosen the dough from the counter using a scraper or metal spatula and roll the dough tightly, starting on the long side. Pinch the seam together.

8) Slice the roll into 8 even pieces and place in the greased pan and brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Then bake for 20-25 minutes. Edges will be deliciously golden brown.

Turn the rolls over onto the greased cooling rack then turn them back over to cool for 10 minutes before frosting.

Oh yes!

For the cream cheese frosting, I whipped up the same recipe I've been using as of late, but the site had a similar recipe:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 c butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp milk

The frosting went very well with the rolls! So delicious! The rolls were pretty dense, but I was a fan of it. (I want to try the yeast recipe as well, though!)

Definitely not a low-fat recipe!

And, of course, Roger loved them.

 He's a great help in the kitchen. I wish him the best of luck on his exams! :)