The Best Cinnamon Rolls Ever; The Worst Recipe Ever

I took a break from blogging this fall to blog on my design and photography blog instead. I managed to say blog 3 times in one sentence just now, didn't I?

It's 12:04am on CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Christmas, and I love Christmas Eve even more :).

And a new tradition I started a few years ago is making home made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, or in this case, for Christmas Eve morning.

But it wasn't all sugar and spice.

I found a recipe a while back on www.allrecipes.com that turned out to be a great recipe, a no-fail recipe of sorts. I started the process at 9:04pm, after asking my hubby if he was planning on staying up late based on all the caffeine he'd had today. His reply prompted me to proceed with my late night baking project.

I gathered my ingredients which started with 4 cups of flour, one package yellow cake mix (called for 18.25oz but my boxed mix was only 15.25oz...hmm...first blunder of the evening), then add the yeast and water. This all went smoothly until Alan and I got to chatting which in the kitchen together, and I got side tracked at added 4 1/4 C water instead of 2 1/4 water.

OOPS!!! Soggy, wet mess of dough that wouldn't mix!!!

Quick! Add more flour and cake mix!

But we have no more cake mix...??

Well then add more flour!

Alan was quick to think to look up what's in a boxed cake mix to duplicate some of it, so we also added 2 teaspoons baking powder and about a 1/4 C sugar to the dough (um...ok, so I just threw a handful of sugar in, and as I type this, Alan admits to it being a HEAPING tsp of baking powder and nearly a cup of sugar).

We laughed as I tried mixing it, constantly asking for more flour, more flour, MORE FLOUR!!! SERIOUSLY, just pour the flour in already!! Alan kept getting frustrated and telling me it was too much flour.

After kneading the dough for...eh...forever at this point, we then decided to follow-through and try to at least see if they would rise. Forty minutes later....and yeah, not quite so much. As they were rising I freaked out realizing I didn't add extra yeast in any way after I put in too much water, to which Alan replied, "Yes, but a little bit of yeast leavens the whole batch!"

Even though the dough didn't quite rise, I proceeded to go ahead and punch down and knead the dough, and found it quite doughy. I added more flour, again, and started rolling it out with a teeny-tiny rolling pin (our real one broke last year), but then THANKFULLY realized I had borrowed one from a friend and have yet to return it ;). It's a sweet one too ;).

Nervously I put the first batch in, and 15 minutes later stood in front of the oven checking to see if they were done and getting slightly frustrated that I had, at this point, been on my feet for over 2 hours and should have been done with a cleaned kitchen.

I took a bite, and what to my wondering mouth did I taste? Well...it wasn't too shabby. But I couldn't decide if they were ok or not, and if I should proceed or not to bake the rest. I gave the plate to Alan to take a little bite, which he did. And then another. And another, and another, and another until it was all gone! I thought he was mocking me, but he looked up and said, "Hun {insert laugh}, those are the BEST cinnamon rolls you've EVER made!!!!"

We had been joking all night that 'watch, this will be the best ever'. And they were.

And we created a Christmas memory with our traditional Christmas cinnamon rolls.