The Cinammon Roll Of Your Dreams

The last time I really craved a hot cinammon roll covered with ooey gooey sugary glaze was sometime before my Celiac diagnosis in November 05. I remember being at a mall and stopping at one of those places because my husband wanted an oversized monsterous cinammon roll. The ones that are so big you need to eat them with a knife and fork. You know the ones I'm talking about. Haven't we all wanted one at one time or another?!?!?! I never dared allow myself to have one - too many calories! I would've loved one, but I just couldn't justify eating it.

Now, all bets are off. Fuggetabout the calories. As long as I can have gluten free cinammon rolls that taste like the ones I made this morning, I am not counting calories. Get me a fork and a knife - I'm eating the cinammon roll of my dreams! Not that I should't still be eating sensibly to maintain my girlish figure. It's just that I'm still in that post-diagnosis phase of thinking I should be able to eat anything I want, anytime. Oh, I realize it might catch up with me. But now, I'm concentrating on what I can eat and not on what I can't eat.

These are so friggin' good that you will think you are in heaven. You will think you are at the mall (I'm not suggesting that the mall is heaven, believe me) eating one of those huge monstrous cinammon rolls that always smell so good and becken and tempt you into buying one. Thanks to Jenn at the Celiac.com listserve, I followed this recipe and had the cinammon roll of my dreams. She got the recipe from The Gluten Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg. Go here for Jenn's detailed pictures.

Ladies and gentleman, start your engines. It's time for the ride of your life!

Cinammon Rolls
Serves 8 or 9

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons shortening (I used butter)
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup of milk, room temperature
1 packet yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup potato starch
1 cup corn starch (someone subbed arrowroot successfully)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

TO SPRINKLE ON BOARD COVERED WITH PLASTIC WRAP
1 - 2 tablespoons sugar

FILLING (*see Ellen's note at end of post)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped nuts - optional

GLAZE
¾ cup powdered or confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk to thicken (I used soymilk)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In medium bowl, combine shortening and sugar. Mix well. Measure warm milk and add yeast to milk. Whisk well to fully dissolve (**see Ellen’s note).

Add milk/yeast to sugar mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Mix very well, being sure to remove all lumps. Dough will be quite soft (***see Ellen’s note).

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it out so it covers a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square. Sprinkle sugar on the wrap. Lay ball of dough on top of that. Then pull out another sheet of wrap and gently lay over the dough. Pat the dough down into a roughly squarish pancake. Lift the top wrap up and then reposition it. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough in between the two layers of wrap. Occasionally you'll have to lift and reposition the wrap because it gets "stuck" under the edges. You might have to occasionally flip the whole thing over. Make sure that when you're done you've got ABOUT a 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" square of dough.

Remove top piece of wrap. Combine filling ingredients. Spread evenly across dough's surface. (Original recipe poster suggested leaving about a 1 1/2" sugar free edge because when you roll the dough all the sugar shifts and fills this in; otherwise all the sugar spills out).Use the bottom piece of wrap to lift the edge of the dough and start to roll it up forming a long cylinder. Start with the sugary edge, which will be the center of your roll and roll toward the sugarless edge. Cut off or trim up the irregular ends of your "log". Then cut into 8 or 9 slices of similar size, about 1 1/2" wide. Place rolls into a greased round glass pie pan.

Bake approximately 20 minutes, until tops are lightly browned.

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to make glaze. The amount of milk you use will depend on how thick you want the glaze to be. Stir until all lumps are dissolved. Drizzle over warm rolls if desired.

Person who wrote about this recipe included this note: These are lovely with coffee in the morning. They're very light and fluffy - not too heavy or dense. I've also discovered that you can make these the night before and stop short of baking them. Wrap them up in their pan or glass dish and leave them in the fridge for the night. The next morning you can take them out and bake them and they come out just the same! I've found that this is a great thing to bring to a friends house for brunch. I just pop them in their oven - and you've got a great GF contribution and you know there's no cross contamination!

Notes:
*I thought the rolls were a bit too sweet, so the next time I make them I will cut the amount of filling ingredients to about 2/3 of what the recipe calls for.
**It seems odd that the recipe doesn't call for proofing the yeast. I decided to cover the milk and yeast mixture with plastic wrap and allow it to at least begin proofing.
***The mixture is very, very soft - I was convinced that I'd made a mistake, but it ended up being fine.