As I made these, I sent updates and the instructional video to my sweet friend and guinea pig over at Sweat & Sequins. Her hubby, Invisible Dave's response to all of the teasers? "I'm so glad you are friends with her." While she is the recipe tester...Invisible Dave gets to be the taste-tester so for the sake of this post, we are nick-naming these cinnamon rolls "Invisible Dave Cinna-Rolls" in honor of his commitment to sacrificing his fab figure for the sake of The Barnyard Bistro.
My great-great-grandmother owned and operated a bakery so although I do have an incredible "from-scratch" cinnamon roll recipe, it is time consuming. As you guys know....life is pretty busy right now (Thank God for getting to chase my dreams) so I don't always have time for the traditional version and opt not to pop open a can of the pillsbury version for guests, and here lately I've been having surprise overnight guests pretty often. For such occasions, these are a simple and perfect way to give a warm welcome to the bellies of my favorite house guests.
Oh! I just realized that I didn't explain Invisible Dave's name...He somehow managed to avoid meeting me for the first 2 years of my friendship with his dear wife. We do live 10 hours away so I don't hold it against him but somehow he was always out of town or working when she and I scheduled our Nashville date nights. I started to believe he didn't exist, but alas...he appeared...and he is real and precious and you can see them in my Daddy Dance With Me video...they are the bride and groom, and yes, it is their real wedding, adorable crying dad and all!
Now go enjoy my easy squeezy, deliciousleezy cinnamon rolls! (yes...I made a word...Merriam-Webster, I'm comin' for ya)
The Rolls:
12 Rhodes white dinner roll dough balls (I buy them at Walmart in a 36-pack), lay out to thaw without touching one another.
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cups chopped walnuts
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
The Icing:
4oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 lb powdered sugar
1/2 stick margarine, room temperature
1 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
a few drops lemon extract
Combine the sugars, walnuts, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut each ball almost in half and then stretch out flat and roll until 1/4 inch thick. Brush with butter, generously spread brown sugar mixture, roll up, brushing a bit of butter at the end, and place in a pie dish coated with 1/4 cup of the melted butter (demonstrated in video). Don't be shy with the mixture - put more than the video shows...I was doing it one handed while videoing so I shorted that one a bit! (oh well!) Turn oven off and place the rolls onto the bottom rack of the oven with the door slightly opened. This will help the rolls to rise quickly. Remove from oven when they have doubled (about 15-20 minutes). Preheat oven again, this time to 325 degrees. Drizzle remaining butter over the top and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar mixture. Bake for 20 minutes, tops will be a beautiful golden brown. While baking, combine the ingredients for the icing in a bowl. Remove rolls from oven and slather with icing. Serve warm...and provide extra icing...you know you want more...
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| They have risen ::cue choir of angels:: |
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| I can't think of anything more beautiful right now |
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| This makes me happy...with a capital H |
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| Time to buy bigger britches... |
