My Culinary Trial Room

There are days when we like to indulge ourselves and then there are days when we like to go all healthy with only salads for lunch and guacamole with baked tortilla chips for snack. It was one of those days last Saturday. And by evening we wanted something sweet, something rich, something buttery and something delicious. The huss suggested cinnamon rolls. The suggestion was taken into consideration but I made my own changes.

I love the tang that cream cheese gives to frosting the favorite combo being with carrot cake. I had bought a pack of cream cheese promising the huss that I would make him a low fat version sometime soon. But as they say promises are meant to be broken and the day never came. Finally when he said cinnamon rolls, something else struck a chord in me and I took out the cream cheese block with a blurred image of how my rolls should look. I was not sure of the rolls, how to fill it nor how to call it, all I knew was that this instinct was pushing me hard.

I like more filling to dough with every bite and so I rolled the dough thin to accumulate more filling. But this is totally upto you. I got 8 rolls on the whole for the below recipe which was perfect for dinner and breakfast. Yeah, you heard that right we had dessert for dinner ~ 2 rolls each, a cup of milk and the job was done. I didn't frost the ones that we had for dinner but I totally regretted it when I took a bite of the frosted rolls in the morning. The frosting takes these rolls up a notch which is what you will want when you need to indulge in something rich and sugary.

~*What U Need*~
For the dough:
All purpose flour - 1 1/4 - 1/2 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Instant dry yeast - 1 teaspoon
Water - 1/4 cup
Whole milk - 1/8 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Egg yolk - 1 or 1/2 of an egg

Filling:
Strawberry preserve - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3 tbsps
Cream cheese - 2 oz, softened to room temperature

How I made it:
Set the 1/2 cup flour aside. In a food processor, add the remaining flour and salt and give it a pulse. Heat the water, milk, sugar and butter together in the microwave until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot to touch. Add the yeast and set aside for 10 mins till frothy. Now add this to the flour along with the egg and pulse till combined. Add enough flour till you get a smooth dough. I added only 1/3 cup so it depends on your place. Give it a couple of more pulses till you get a smooth elastic dough. Place in a greased bowl and allow to double in size in a warm place, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the sugar and the cream cheese till smooth. Bring the strawberry preserve to room temperature. I used fresh homemade strawberry preserve by cooking 1 cup of strawberries with 3 tbsps of sugar till it reached a jam consistency. You could use store bought too.

Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and roll out till you get the desired thickness depending on the number of rolls needed. Spread the cream cheese evenly followed by the strawberry preserve. Roll tightly and cut into 8 rolls. Place this in a greased pie dish. I placed 6 rolls in a 6-inch pie dish and the remaining 2 rolls in a mini loaf tin. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another half an hour. After the rolls have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 375F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned. To make the glaze dissolve 3 tbsps confectioner's sugar with 1 tbsp of cream cheese and desired amount of milk till you get a glaze of desired consistency and drizzle over rolls. This is purely optional but I would recommend you not to skip it.