Hi
Honeys,
How are you today? All well, I hope. This will be my second post today as I try to catch up with Blogtober๐ The weather has definitely changed and my poor arthritic joints are not happy (and making sure I know about it too.)
So, since happenstance has decreed that today is not only an official cinnamon roll day but also that my arthritis doesn't want to allow me any peace at all today, I thought I'd share (again) how I make them (almost) instantly but also make them healthier too!๐
You know, I'm fairly certain that these yummy treats would be called cinnamon buns here honeys, but whatever they're called, Hubby adores them.๐
Every single (very rare these days) visit Hubby makes to Ikea (I don't go outside anymore, other than to doctors or hospital appointments) will usually include a visit to their food hall to bring home a pack (or two - they can go in the freezer for later after all) of their ready to bake cinnamon rolls. Another of his favourites is puff pastry, added as a topping or side to dinners, such as with steak in gravy or to a chicken hot pot. So I do try to add it to dinners when I can as a treat for him.
What would happen then, if both of Hubby's faves were combined? Let's see, shall we?
Almost
Instant (And A Wee Bit Healthier) Cinnamon Rolls...
Ingredients:
1 pack of ready made puff pastry
(rolled in a sheet type)
Olive oil spread (replaced butter in
the original recipe)
Stevia (replaced sugar in the
original recipe)
Ground cinnamon (use that jar in the
spice drawer honeys)
Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350F/gas
mark 4
2. Remove the sheet of puff pastry
from it's packaging and lay it flat on your work space. The pack we
bought was rolled up in it's own baking parchment, so if yours is too, just
roll it out, leaving it on it's original parchment which will allow it to be
easily moved onto a baking tray. If not, lightly flour your worktop to
prevent sticking honeys.
3. Since I was trying to make a healthier version of Hubby's favourite treat, I decided that, instead of melting butter and coating the surface of the pastry sheet (cholesterol overload! Goodness no!) I would instead use what we had on hand. Some time ago we switched from our then regular spread (we'd already switched away from butter after the Dr raised the subject of Hubby's cholesterol) to an olive oil spread, so we just grabbed a butter knife and (lightly! We don't want it all soggy) spread a layer of this lovely healthy spread over the top of the pastry sheet...
4. This was followed by a good
sprinkling of ground cinnamon (we'd made a start in the photo above as you can
see ๐) all across the pastry (right up to the edges
honeys.) Once this is done, follow by an equally good sprinkling of not
sugar.
Not sugar you say Rosie? Well,
yes honeys. I know there should be a layer of sugar. In fact, some
recipes for cinnamon rolls ask for the sugar and cinnamon to be combined and
the coating done in a single layer. This was our first attempt though so we
were finding our way, as well as chuckling our heads off while deciding how
much cinnamon to use.
I quite like cinnamon of course,
especially with anything that has apples, but Hubby... Hubby has never
met a cinnamon anything he doesn't like and I'm quite sure he'd be eating the cinnamon sticks from the jar on the spice rail like lollipops if I didn't keep a watch
on him lol ๐
As a general rule of thumb (and being
diabetic) I stay as far away from sugar as it's possible to be. Instead I
use stevia instead. It's a sugar substitute made from the stevia plant,
but if you'd like to you could use a thin layer of honey? We used what
was on hand though so stevia it was.
5. Once all of the sprinkling was done, the roll/sheet of pastry was carefully rolled up to produce a long
roll. This roll should be cut in half. Then cut in half again, and then once more. This will produce 8 equal pieces of the pastry roll.
6. Next we fetched (Hubby did
actually, thank you honey x) a large round glass oven-proof dish. The
dish was given a light spray of oil and the pastry pieces were placed inside,
allowing room for them to rise and grow in the dish...
7. The pastry spirals were
placed into the pre-heated oven and allowed to bake for 18-20 minutes and they
became these lovely treats...
8. Oh my!! The smell of
cinnamon filled the kitchen when the oven door was opened honeys! It was
wonderful ๐๐๐
9. Now, we get to the really
difficult part of this whole process... waiting for them to cool down before
munching happily on these yummy treats ๐
10. While waiting, you could decide on what to do with your yummy cinnamon rolls. Again, what should be done of course is to make up lovely icing sugar and drizzle it all over them but instead, Hubby and I decided to sprinkle a little stevia across the top instead and go right ahead and put the kettle on...
They were sooooo good honeys!!
Positively a treat and so easy (and fast) to make too. We've actually
made them since and added thin slices of apple as it was rolled up. It
made for a very knobbly and uneven roll but the combination of baked apples and
all of that cinnamon (there was lots more used the second time around... even
more so than this first experiment) was delicious ๐
Looking back on it, next time I make these (and there will definitely be a next time!) I think I'll try adding a layer of apple sauce under the sprinkled cinnamon instead of the butter? The apple sauce might actually be sweet enough on its own so that the stevia isn't needed, but it could definitely replace the butter/spread. If the apple sauce (or stewed apples) is spread over the pastry, then the cinnamon sprinkled on top, it might actually be prefect ๐๐๐๐
What do you think honeys? Have
you tried using puff pastry to make cinnamon rolls? I actually carried
out another experiment a while ago where I used puff pastry to make a pizza.
As you can see, I made these cinnamon
rolls super quickly by using a ready made sheet of puff pastry, but if you'd
rather make your own puff pastry, and I would encourage you to do that
(homemade is always better) it's so quick and easy and, as promised, here's how
I make ours...
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Super
Easy Puff Pastry:
Ingredients
250g of plain white flour
Pinch of salt -
optional. I add a pinch of salt when using the pastry in a savoury dish (but
not a sweet one) but it's up to you honeys.
250g of butter
at room temperature - yes we all try to avoid using full butter for health
reasons but for puff pastry it works better.
150ml (approx) of cold water.
Directions
1. Sieve flour (and salt if using)
into a large bowl.
2. Add butter which has been roughly cut into chunks. Make sure it's not too
warm, you want it to be room temperature but not runny or melting.
3. Rub the butter through the flour until combined. You should still be able to
see the butter a little. I use my little hand mixer with the bread hooks
to do this because I'm incredibly squeamish about getting my hands icky ๐ณ
4. Make a well in the middle of the flour/butter mixture and pour in around 2/3
of the cold water. Make sure the water is cold so that it doesn't raise
the temperature of the butter and cause it to melt.
5. Mix until you have a thick, firm dough, adding a little extra water if
needed. Be careful though because it's easier to add than remove it
again!
6. When you have a firm dough cover your bowl with cling film or a clean tea
towel and place into the fridge to rest for approximately 15-20 minutes (longer
is better.)
7. Roll out on a flour coated surface being careful to handle it as little as
possible to avoid raising the temperature of the pastry.
8. If you're not going to use the
pastry right away, or any leftover pastry, should be wrapped in plastic wrap
(or beeswax paper) or placed into an airtight (freezer-proof) container and can
be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days or frozen for up to a month.
When you want to use it, remove the
frozen pastry from the freezer the night before and place into the fridge to
defrost overnight.
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There we have it then honeys. Have you tried puff pastry cinnamon rolls? This would be such a great little recipe to have tiny humans help make ๐ Wee ones love to cook, they have such fun and can have a yummy treat to eat that they've made and can share with loved family members? Maybe they could help make a batch and take them with them to visit grandparents?
The
more I look at this photo honeys, the more I'm tempted to go make another batch, and we do have a jar of apple sauce in the
fridge....
Till next time dear ones, thank you for spending some time with me and making
my little corner of the internet less lonely๐ Hugs always x
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