Disclaimer: My family doesn’t have an exact recipe, so I make these differently every single time. Here’s a link to the recipe I followed (for the most part) this time around.
As of writing this, it’s been exactly a month since my last column, and I can say with absolute certainty that I am far more exhausted than I was then. You know all that time I claimed to have? I have no idea where that went.
These days, I have a hard time getting to sleep at a decent hour, and I find myself groggy the next day. All month, I’ve been needing a reset, to get outside my head and step away from tasks I have ahead of me.
Today, there are parent-teacher conferences for my classes. It’ll be my first time attending one as a teacher, so naturally I’m a bit anxious. When I was younger, anytime I had a big test, essay or speech to give in school, my mom would make me something to take to school that day. This weekend, I decided I really needed one of those sweet treats to make the week seem a little less scary.
Usually, those baked goods involved chocolate, the star of most of my favorite desserts. But this isn’t the time of year for chocolate-centered dishes. Fall was made for cinnamon, nutmeg, cream cheese, apples and pumpkin.
Now, I hate pumpkin-flavored things, and I don’t understand why that’s an unpopular opinion. So unfortunately, you’ll receive no pumpkin-driven recipes from me.
I am, however, a huge fan of cinnamon. I put it in my pancakes, coffee and as a topping to my warm apple cider. But my favorite cinnamon-flavored dessert is cinnamon rolls. Now, my family does cinnamon rolls a little differently than most. My papa used to make them with pie crust, rather than a flaky pastry situation. They’re less sweet, you can eat them on the go and they give me a wave of nostalgia every time I take a bite.
There’s also no icing involved, just good old-fashioned cinnamon, sugar and butter. I totally understand if the idea of these sounds crazy to you, but the recipe is so easy, you might as well give it a shot! You can always add icing to yours; baking is meant to be fun and experimental from time to time.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Take your pie crust out of the fridge so it can reach room temperature. You can certainly make your own crust, I just didn’t have time! Most pie crusts come with two, so you can double the recipe if you’d like.
3. Get your ingredients together. Melt three to four tablespoons of butter in a small bowl. This is where I deviate from the recipe. In a separate bowl, mix together about three tablespoons of light brown sugar and two teaspoons of ground cinnamon. All of this is to taste, and you can certainly use white sugar instead.
4. Brush the melted butter evenly on the pie crust.
5. Using a spoon or your hands, whatever is your preference, dust the mixture onto the pie crust, leaving a bit of space unbuttered along the edges.
. Roll the crust over the filling tightly, making sure to press the seams together well. I ended up throwing away the end pieces since they didn’t hold well, but still ended up with plenty of cinnamon rolls!
7. Place the rolls carefully and evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You don’t always need parchment paper, but I highly recommend it for this dessert since there’s melted butter and sugar involved – it’ll aid in the cleanup process.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Wait for them to cool and enjoy!
9. These goodies last for a while, though they never last longer than a week for me; just keep them in a sealed airtight container at room temperature.
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