Roll out of Bed

I slept in a bit this morning.  Kevin left for an event he is sponsoring in Kallispel last night so I had the place to myself.  I stayed up until 1 a.m. finishing my Vampyre book.  Probably not the smartest thing to do when home alone in a relatively new place, but I was able to sleep.  Kevin woke me around 9.  He is fond of finding reason to call, but I think he is really just making sure I'm out of bed.  Of course I tried to trick him with my fake super cheery no i'm not asleep hello, it might have worked this time.

I got up and decided I was going to make homemade cinnamon rolls, well semi-homemade, based on one of my favorite desserts: Sopapilla Cheesecake.  My friend Jodee Heimdal and her daughter Jessi introduced me to that dessert and I, in turn, have introduced to Missoulan society.  You can't really eat cake in the morning and feel good about it, so I decided to turn it into cinnamon rolls.  Everyone knows it's okay to eat those for breakfast at 10 in the morning. 

The ingredients:  1 package of Pillsbury recipe creations (you can use the cressant rolls but they are perforated and harder to work with), 1 pkg cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon. ( I actually did this at 1/2 the recipe because I didn't want to make the entire roll and be tempted to eat it while at home alone.)

Preheat the oven to 375, put on the coffee, and then start the filling. Combine the sugar and cream cheese.  It's best if you let the cream cheese sit out for a while to soften.  Keep the dough in the fridge until last minute so it doesn't get too soft and sticky while you are trying to work with it.  Then roll it out onto a cookie sheet or piece of waxed paper.  Spread the filling mixture evenly from end to end and then roll back up.  Cut roll into 8-10 even sized pieces.  Next, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, to taste.  Repeat last step on the other side of roll.  Bake in oven for a period of minutes that falls between 12 and 15 or until they are the perfect shade of golden brownness for your particular palate.  Generally, if a recipe calls for 5-7 minutes I go for 6 it's in the middle, but if you have a two minute spread do you choose 13.5 minutes?  I don't know, so I cooked them for 16 the bottom was a bit more crispy than the top but not burned and not hard, just right.

The only thing these rolls were missing is that orange flavored gooey thing you put on top of the store-bought ones.  My mom use to make those for Michelle and me.  If only I knew how to make that goo. I would and then these would have been perfection.