photo friday

photo friday

indian lake.

between the table and the kitchen

I don't remember when, exactly, it happened, but around the end of July I found a recipe for vegan cinnamon rolls. I mentioned this, casually I'm sure, to Daniel, who pounced on the idea. I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas a few years ago, and they were (if I may say so) pretty damn good. I was excited to find a recipe that was not only vegan but also mentioned Cinnabon in the post.

An aside: when I was young, my mother and I would go on shopping days, and we would almost always get a roll or two from Cinnabon in the morning. In college, far from my mother, I recruited one of my best friends to go on Cinnabon expeditions with me. I have similar fond memories of meatballs subs from even younger days at the mall in New York.

Anyway. I was excited, Daniel was excited, I bought all the necessary ingredients. Let me remind you: this was the end of July, maybe the beginning of August. I did not make them. I kept on not making them, for various reasons. I started a new job, so I didn't want to use my precious weeknights for such a time-intensive project. I was tired. I didn't want to be stranded by myself in the kitchen for such a long duration.

It's like I had forgotten how much I love baking.

So when Daniel suggested I start making the dough while he made dinner on Sunday night, and I felt myself warm up to the idea, I made myself do it. I ran back and forth between the table and the kitchen, with its woeful lack of counter space, proofing yeast and melting margarine and measuring flour. As soon as I had the dough in my hands, I remembered. I remembered how much I love making food, how much I love baking in particular.

We ate dinner while the dough was rising, and Michael came over to hang out. He and Daniel sat around in the living room while I flattened the dough into a rectangle, melted more butter, spread the cinnamon-sugar over the melted butter. I filled pans full of a melted butter and sugar mixture. I waved off the offers to help and finally I rolled the dough and cut it, filling three different pans full of rolls. Then into the refrigerator and onto washing some of the mountain of dishes I had made.

The next morning I slept in a little, still waking before Daniel, and tried to quietly pad around the apartment until it was time to put the rolls in the oven. It was a great way to start the holiday.







Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Here at VeganYumYum

A note: heed the warning not to add liquid to the icing. It does, in fact, come together with a lot of elbow grease.

rabbit rabbit

oh, september.
i'm so glad you're here.