Monkey Pecan Sticky Cinnamon Rolls

I woke up at 5:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. I don't know why, I just couldn't.  For some reason I started thinking about cinnamon rolls.  Probably because I have no business eating anything like that until I lose 10 pounds.  I grabbed my phone and started surfing around looking at recipes, trying not to wake Lee.  I like pecan sticky buns, too.  Oh, and then I ended up looking at monkey bread recipes.  You know, the round balls of dough rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar and baked in a pan.  Then you pull off bits of buttery deliciousness and eat them with your fingers.

But I shouldn't be eating anything like that.  An neither should you.  At least until March.  Or April.

You know, I still have a few balls of frozen yeast rolls in the freezer.  I wonder if I could make something with cinnamon sugar and nuts using them.  That way I don't have to wait for the dough to rise twice.  And once again my semi-serious intention to stop eating baked items has bitten the dust.

But, think about this.  We are starting a B&B, as soon as the county decides to give us the final go ahead.  And I will be required to feed people delicious breakfasts.  So this is market research.  All prep work for that future business.  Due diligence, as it were.

Because I fused monkey bread, cinnamon rolls and pecan sticky buns together I had a hard time naming my concoction, and that is why I made....

 

Monkey Pecan Sticky Cinnamon Rolls

Frozen yeast rolls
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
6 Tablespoons butter, divided use
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

I had 9 rolls left, so that is how many I made.  You should be able to make an even dozen using the amounts I have written.

 

Spray a plate with Pam.  Place the frozen dough balls on it and spray them.  Spray some plastic wrap and cover the dough.  Go away for 2 hours.

When the balls are thawed, but haven't risen, you can turn on the oven to 350°.  Spray a muffin tin with Pam.  Set it aside.

 

Chop up the pecans.  I counted out about 4 pecan halves for each dough ball and chopped them up.  You may want to do a bit more if you are making more than the 9 I made.

 

Place the pecans in a cast iron pan over medium  and let them toast for a few minutes.  Add 4 Tablespoons of butter, or half a stick into the pan.  When that melts add 1/4 cup brown sugar and the corn syrup.  Cook for another minute, until everything is melty and bubbly. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. It will bubble up a bit, but just stir it in.

 

Spoon about 1 Tablespoon of the nutty syrup into the bottom of the muffin tins.  Then set up your assembly line.

 

Melt the last two Tablespoons of butter in the microwave.  Cover the bowl with a paper towel to avoid splattering.  Place 1/3 cup of sugar and the cinnamon in another bowl and mix well.  Uncover the softened dough balls and get a very clean pair of scissors.

 

Snip a dough ball in half and then each half gets snipped until you have four even lumps.  Dip them in the butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.  Place four lumps in each muffin tin.  Do all the dough balls this way.

 

I ended up with some extra cinnamon sugar.  I sprinkled some on top of the rolls and then tossed the rest, but I bet it would have been good in a cup of coffee!

Cook at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes until they start to brown.  It is hard to tell with all that cinnamony goodness.  I just did it for 20 minutes. Let them cool for 10 to 15 minutes...if you can wait that long.

 

Now, how to get them out.  At first I used a thin rubber spatula and kind of scooped out the whole thing onto a plate.  I wanted to invert the whole pan over a plate, but my dinner plates were too small, so I scooped out another one and then inverted.

It will take a minute or so for all the pecan nuttiness to ooze onto the rolls.  I ended up helping a bit with the same rubber spatula.  You don't want to leave any of that in the pan!

 

Use a fork or your fingers to pull off a bite sized chunk.  Make sure you get your fair share of the pecans.  Let your husband know he can stop work and have a treat. 

Realize that you have to try them after they cool.  In order to make sure they are still good.  For the future guests, you understand. 

Place one on a plate and heat for 10 seconds in the microwave to recreate the gooey texture of the nuts.  Moan just a wee bit and place the others in a covered plastic container so that you might forget they are still in your house.

Cinnamon Rolls by Travis

 

 

    

 

I have not been keeping up with my blog very well.  The "kids" are visiting and I want to spend as much time with them as possible.  They are off to the movies, so I can catch up!  My hip is not fond of sitting at the movies.

If you do something once at our house, it becomes tradition.  Then you have to do it again for the rest of time.  One of those traditions is making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.  I usually buy the frozen bread loaves and thaw one in the fridge the day before.  I roll it out the night before and spread the butter, cinnamon and sugar in the middle.  Then I cut it into rounds, put them in a pan and cover them until the next morning when they finish rising and then I bake them.  Adult children do not get up at the crack of dawn for Christmas.  It makes for a less exciting yet and more relaxing morning.

I have cut way back on carbs, so I didn't want to buy a bunch of frozen bread logs.  I also wasn't sure the "kids" would want the cinnamon rolls.  But they did.  Travis is a very good cook.  He even helped pay his way through college by cooking for his housemates in the band house at UC Berkeley (Cal) when the chef was off.  He spent a few minutes on the computer looking for a recipe and made sure I had bought fresh yeast (I had). He jotted down the instructions, not near the printer, and then he set to work.

Cinnamon Rolls by Travis

4 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons butter
6 ounces milk
4 cups flour
1 package yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt



I have an aversion to throwing away egg whites, so I labeled a Ziploc bag and Travis dumped them in.  I put them into the freezer until such time as I make macaroons, where I only need the whites.  The search engine on this site rarely works, so if you want the recipe, Google coconut macaroons shenandoah and it should pop up.

   

I have a dough hook on my Kitchen Aid.  If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you will have to mix everything by hand and then knead the dough.  I would have proofed the yeast, but Travis says that a lot of the things we think we know about baking are wrong.  He is a Chemical  Engineer, a Mechanical Engineer and a good chef, so I just sat back and took pictures!

   

He didn't warm the milk.  I would have,  just to help dissolve the yeast.  He did melt the butter and then everything went into the mixer and he turned on the dough hook.  Soon the dough came together and he kept the hook turning until it had kneaded the dough for a few minutes. 

   

Place some flour on the counter and knead by hand a few times.  Cover the dough and let it rise for two hours.  Our house was cold and it took a long time to rise.  If yours is cold, put the dough in an unheated oven for the two hours.  Or turn the oven on to 150 and when it gets there, turn it off and put the dough in to rise.

   

Roll the dough out into a rectangle.  Spray a 9X13 baking dish with Pam.

   

Filling

1 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
pinch salt
2 Tablespoons softened butter

   

Now, I would have melted the butter, brushed it on and sprinkled the rest over the dough.  Travis just mixed it all together and spread it evenly over the rolled out dough.  His way made for a more even distribution of cinnamon and sugar.  Mine saves a dish.  No right or wrong way.  Make sure you don't spread the filling to the very edges or they won't stick.

   

Roll the dough up from the long side.  Pinch the end to the fat roll to secure the edges.  I like to cut the ends off to make them even.  The cut the rounds into 12 even pieces.  Place them cut side up in the pan, three in each row.  Cover with plastic wrap it you want to put it in the refrigerator for the morning.

   

If you did put it in the refrigerator, remember to take off the wrap while the dough is coming up to room temperature and while the oven is heating to about 150 degrees. Set the pan in the oven for 30 minutes so the dough can have a second rise.  Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 350.  When it is ready, return the pan to the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  Check to make sure the tops aren't getting too brown. I was in charge of baking and making oatmeal (and stocking filling) so they got a little too brown.

   

Make some cream cheese frosting.  Spread on the mostly cooled rolls and eat while examining your stockings.

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese (1/2 package)
3 Tablespoons milk
1 cup powdered sugar

Mix well and spread.  Or do what I did.  I had frosting left over from making the Red Velvet Crepe Cake and I used that.  Or cream cheese frosting from a can!