The World's Best Cinnamon Rolls

This is for Suzanne, who said she wanted to make luscious cinnamon rolls.  I stumbled across a recipe the other day, made the rolls, and ohmigoodness.  They are to die for, and best of all, I didn't have to deal with all that sticky syrupy mess that so often accompanies cinnamon rolls.

You can find the recipe here, at King Arthur Flours.  King Arthur flours are just about the best you can get in this country, and you can find the unbleached all-purpose in your grocery store.

I made this recipe and opted for the ordinary thing every time--vanilla instead of the butter flavoring, the homemade cinnamon spread instead of the fancy pre- made mixture, plus I skipped the grape seed whatever the recipe called for.  Plus, I was so excited to roll those things up that I didn't bother with making them look like little mountains--I simply rolled it all into a huge log, cut it into 12 pieces, and then dropped each piece into a muffin tin.

And boy, were they delicious!  I took some across the street and my neighbors loved them, too.  Really easy and absolutely delicious.  (And I should have taken pictures!)

And the only "pastry work" is simply rolling out the dough and then smearing it with the cinnamon/sugar mix that you mix up yourself.  And nuts!  I adore pecans.  (What southerner doesn't?)

So here's a delicious something to start your day--or weekend--off right.

BTW, the next recipe in The Art and Soul of Baking is an olive bread . . . and I despise olives.  I'm going to see if I can find a reasonable substitution (cherries?), but if I can't, I might skip that one.  Ewww.  Can't think of anything that sounds worse, except maybe lima bean bread. :-P

Have a great day!

~~Angie