Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café—Cinnamon Rolls

When I was a little girl, before my mom started working full-time, she taught me the bare basics of following a recipe.  I could make biscuits using Bisquick.  I made spaghetti sauce from scratch, and the same with chocolate chip cookies.  But for all I knew, cinnamon rolls came from a can.  I never experienced homemade ones until I went to college.

When I married and we started having children, I bought those same cans of cinnamon rolls.  My husband thought they were great, and even though I make fabulous cinnamon rolls now, he refuses to quit buying the canned ones.  Sigh.  Of course, it’s because I don’t make cinnamon rolls often enough.  But that’s because we both need to lose some weight, and not having cinnamon rolls here will help us reach our goals faster. 

However, I do still make these rolls a few times each year, especially Christmas morning when all the kids are here. 

Naturally, my original recipe calls for butter.  To make these cinnamon rolls entirely from food storage, I substituted coconut oil for the butter.  Whipping cream is available in shelf-stable cartons, and we learned how to make cream cheese from yogurt (which we make from powdered milk) earlier this year. 

Dough

2 cups flour

½ cup warm milk (½ cup warm water + 2 tablespoons powdered milk)

¼ cup melted coconut oil

3 tablespoons sugar

½ tablespoon instant yeast

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

 

Filling

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

 

Combine all dough ingredients in a medium bowl.  Knead 8-10 minutes and let rise about 1 ½ hours.  Punch down dough and roll into a rectangle.  Spread with filling ingredients—butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, and then brown sugar.  Roll up dough and pinch to seal.  Slice about ¾-1” thick.  Place in a greased pan, cover with plastic or a damp towel, and let rise.  Bake at 400°F for 12 minutes.  Immediately spread with icing, recipe below. 

 

Icing

¼ cup butter

2 tablespoons cream cheese

1 tablespoon whipping cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup powdered sugar

In a small bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, whipping cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Mix in powdered sugar on low speed until combined, and then beat well. 

Review:  My family absolutely loves these cinnamon rolls.  This is the recipe I have used for at least 20 years now, of course using butter instead of coconut oil.  And I’d still recommend using butter if at all possible.  If you’ve only got a little bit of butter, use it for the icing.  And if you have no butter, you’ll still have pretty dang good cinnamon rolls even if you use coconut oil in the icing. 

Links to related posts:

Making Cream Cheese from Yogurt 

Making Thick, Creamy Yogurt  

Using Coconut Oil in Baking