A Day In The Life Of A Cat

Christmas Kitchen

My Mom always made cinnamon rolls from scratch at Christmas....a huge batch of them. I will always remember those, they were so good. I also have a lot of memories of baking with my sisters during the holidays when we all lived at home. We'd be in the kitchen together mixing up 2 or 3 different kinds of cookies and baking them....it was great fun. I was just telling Greg the other day how much I miss those days. He thinks I should bake cookies to get myself into the Christmas spirit, but standing around in the kitchen baking cookies is nothing like when I baked with my sisters...it's not the actual baking that has any meaning. So why not reunite in my Mom's kitchen and bake cookies, you ask? Well, I don't know....I just don't think there's a chance it'll happen....heck, I don't even speak to one of my sisters! *Sigh*

Okay, anyway....you all should do some holiday baking! I have just the recipe to share with you...

Cinnabon Clones

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start. *See below if you don't have a bread machine.

2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

4. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

5. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

*You can just mix it all up yourself with a mixer or buy the frozen bread dough and skip all steps that have anything to do with making the dough!