Holiday Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

This entry was made the day before Thanksgiving. The rolls ended up being left in the oven too long because someone besides me was responsible for them, but I’d make them again – aside from being too hard from being in too long, they were good.

“I hope they’re good,” I said, referencing these rolls that I had rising in the fridge. Charlie’s sister has instructions to put them in the oven when she wakes up in the morning, earlier than the rest of us, since her friend needs a ride so she can catch a flight.

“I hope they don’t eat them all before we wake up,” Charlie said woefully.

This recipe is based on the one that’s on the King Arthur Flour website , except that I’ve made a lot of changes. Some of them were because I just didn’t have some of their products that they sell, like their Easy-Roll Dough Improver, and some of the changes were for reasons such as, I think it’s blasphemous to not include cinnamon in the filling inside of sticky buns.

Either way, those are the origins, and I’m quite happy to have the inspiration. Charlie, his sister, and the other people sleeping at our house tonight were quite happy for me to have it, too.

(Don’t let these spend too long in the oven! I made the mistake of letting someone else mind them, and they were in too long and got a bit dried out.)

Ingredients

Dough
3 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons natural sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup bread flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Filling
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons maple sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon natural sugar
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 brown sugar
4 tablespoons cane syrup, golden syrup, or light corn syrup
2 tablespoons cinnamon (or, to taste)

Directions:

Combine all dough ingredients and mix them in a stand mixer or by hand until a smooth, soft dough is formed. Add a bit of water if the dough is too dry. Spray a non-metal bowl with oil and flip the dough once to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about one hour (the dough will not necessarily double in size).

Combine the filling ingredients and stir well. Deflate the dough and roll it out onto a floured surface into about a 12×16 rectangle. Spread the filling over the sheet of dough, then, starting with a long edge, roll the dough into a log, pinch the edge to seal it, and slice it into 16 1-inch pieces.

To make the glaze, melt the butter, then stir in the sugar, syrup, cinnamon, and walnuts. Pour some on the bottom of the pans, and drizzle the rest on top.

Bake the buns in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 minutes for 2 round pans, or 35 to 40 minutes in the sticky bun pan, or until they’re golden brown and you see the glaze bubbling.

Remove the buns from the oven, and immediately turn them out of the pan(s) onto a serving plate to cool.

Jazz Pizza

My friend AJ makes jazz pancakes. Jazz is often about improvisation, and so are jazz pancakes. They started, I believe, when AJ was out of some ingredient or other, and began doing wild substitutions. No baking powder? Beer will have the same sort of effect! The pancakes are now different each time, sometimes including traditional items like chocolate chips or bits of fruit, but sometimes venturing into much more dangerous territory with whatever leftovers AJ can find in the fridge. When we were visiting AJ and Felicia at their house, I got into the spirit of jazz pancakes.

A few weeks later, at our house, I was exhausted and in spoon debt from the day before, and Charlie had a huge research paper to finish up on. We decided to eat a frozen pizza we had, but I wanted to make sure Charlie had enough of a meal to fuel him for what would undoubtedly be a late night.

We knew we’d put some mushrooms on the pizza, and probably spinach, too.

“What about… black beans?” I asked tentatively.

“I don’t know about that,” Charlie said.

“Jaaaazzzzz pizzzzza!” I suggested, drawing out the words.

“I could be into it,” Charlie said, now nodding his head.

We rummaged in the vegetable drawer and cabinets, and even came up with a lone strip of tempeh bacon leftover from the weekend’s most recent brunch extravaganza, with, ironically, Felicia and AJ. A little while later, we had quite a substantial jazz pizza.

Try this one, or rummage for random ingredients and come up with your own improv pizza.

Ingredients (besides whatever you want):

1 12″ frozen cheese pizza
1 strip crumbled tempeh bacon
a handful of spinach
a quarter of an onion, diced
a couple of mushrooms, sliced
a few strips of yellow peppers, finely chopped
1/4 cup or so grated cheddar cheese
1 can black beans
avocado

Directions

Preheat oven according to package directions (ours recommended 400 degrees). Arrange mushrooms, spinach, peppers, and onion on top of frozen pizza. Spoon thoroughly drained black beans over veggies. Sprinkle grated cheddar on top.

Bake according to package directions (you may need a bit more additional time). Ours took about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly, and garnish with slices of avocado directly before serving.