Saturday, February 09, 2008

Mama Time: Is that legal? (oh, and a recipe for sweet rolls)

I am so incredibly proud of myself my babe!
He went back to the sitter (and her two year old) yesterday- he cried for three minutes. Louder than the first time, because he saw me leave (and probably thought he could stop me with his bionic shrillness), but not a minute longer.

I am thinking: I could get comfortable with this 'having mama time' thing.

I still have a hard time focusing on a task while he is gone, as if I am expecting a call any minute, or perhaps I am just not accustomed to doing things uninterrupted any more.

I think next time, I might just have to make my new favorite thing: sweet rolls. I had never made sweet rolls before last week. I never wanted to make sweet rolls before last week.

But suddenly I did, and because I am incapable of following a recipe exactly, I came up with this:


Caramel Pecan Sweet Rolls

  • I like to use my bread machine on the dough setting, so this is the order in which I put the ingredients into the machine (dry, then wet). You can also use your kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook for this first step, but reverse the order of ingredients.
1 1/2 teaspoons active yeast
3 1/2 cups bread flour (I prefer King Arthur)
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 cup warm milk


  • Place ingredients in bread machine on dough setting, or make in mixer or by hand; knead well, let it rest for about 20-30 minutes.


Make caramel:

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3Tbsp cream, half & half, or whole milk
1 cup chopped pecans

  • Butter a glass 9x13 baking pan.

  • Melt the above ingredients together in heavy saucepan over medium heat until uniform smooth texture (just bubbling); pour and spread in the 9x13 pan.


Combine filling:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, depending on your taste


  • Turn dough out onto a floured surface; it may be sticky, this is fine, just feed it more flour until it is manageable, then roll into an approximate 10x15 rectangle.

  • Brush dough with: 1/4 cup melted butter

  • Sprinkle filling as evenly as possible over the dough

  • Roll up as carefully and as tightly as possible, so that you have a 15 inch roll; pinch together

  • Using a piece of dental floss (or a sharp knife, but nothing is as efficient as the floss), cut into one inch pieces. Hopefully you will have 15.

  • Place in pan on top of caramel topping, 3 x 5 across, cover with parchment or a damp towel and let rise in a warm place 1 1/2 to 2 hours; or until doubled in size.


  • Bake in preheated 350 degrees oven

  • For 15-20 minutes

  • Immediately (and very carefully), turn upside down onto a platter or pan to cool







2 comments:

Anonymous said...

YUM! (If only I were a baker... or lived closer to you!)

Tricia said...

Mmmmm... Can I have mine with no nuts, please?

I've always been afraid of the whole yeast thing, but these look scrumptious!