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