Yesterday, the hubby and I went grocery shopping together. To me, that was quite extraordinary considering he hates going to the store. Well, let me amend that statement: He hates grocery shopping with me. Apparently he's an "in-and-out" kind of guy and I'm a "browser and a peruser". In other words, I take a long time shopping for groceries.
Okay, sure. I'll give him that. I'm one of those people who go down every isle, regardless if I need anything from there, just to see if there's anything new or if I happen to remember an item I forgot to jot down on the list. I make a basic list of necessities then make up my weekly menu as I walk along the store. Inefficient? Sure . . . But it's so much more creative and fun this way! That line of reasoning still doesn't negate the fact that he hates going with me.
However, on this occasion, he happened to walk by the seasonal isle and grabbed a box of roll mix and casually suggested, "You should make some caramel rolls." Hummm. Oh-kay. Suuuuure. That shouldn't be so hard . . . I mean, I've already made some cinnamon rolls before, after all.
How hard could it be??
Well I forgot that making those cinnamon rolls were a pain in the ass. AND, not to mention that I still have to tweak that recipe. The filling itself was a mess and ROLLING that thing was even worse. I thought I would do better with the boxed mix.
Turns out, I had about the same difficulty with the boxed mix as I did making it from scratch.. Except that it was reverse . . . The filling was easier to work with and had okay results, but the dough was SOOoooo sticky. I guess I could've added more flour to the dough, but I didn't want to risk it getting tough and chewy. I was aiming for soft cinnamon rolls. So I stretched the super sticky dough until it wasn't as gluey then added just enough flour so I could transfer it to a bowl to rest.
Rolling the thing was also a nightmare. Because the dough was sticky, any flour that I added got sucked right in. My "genius plan" of putting it on wax paper didn't work, so rolling wasn't as tight as I wanted it to be. *sigh* All in all, this wasn't too bad. The final product turned out as soft as I was expecting it to be. I also tried experimenting with putting some caramel on the bottom, but since the buns were loosely rolled, all the filling drained to the bottom. :/
So, my solution was to dribble some dulce de leche on top. On hindsight, I should've bought the squeeze bottle kind instead for easier drizzling. All in all, not too bad. Just some user error that's easily fixed. I may buy another box just to keep handy in case I want to try this out again. Next time, definitely more flour.
Dulce de Leche Cinnamon Rolls
(barely adapted from Pillsbury)
For the Dough:
1 pkg Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup hot water (120 to 130F degrees)
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg, room temperature
For the Cinnamon Filling:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
For the Caramel Topping:
1/4 cup or more dulce de leche
toasted pecans, optional
Make the dough:
Line 13 x 9-inch pan with aluminum foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Combine flour and yeast packets from hot roll mix with sugar in large bowl. Stir in hot water, softened butter and egg until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Knead dough on lightly floured surface 5 minutes or until smooth, using additional flour as needed. Cover with large bowl; let rest 5 minutes.
Make the cinnamon filling and rolls:
Using a fork combine brown sugar, flour, softened butter and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough to 15 x 10-inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Crumble cinnamon mixture evenly over dough. Starting with 10-inch side, roll up tightly, pressing edges to seal. Coat foil in pan with no-stick cooking spray. Cut dough into 12 slices. Place cut side down in prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel. Heat oven to 375°F. Let rise in warm place (80° to 90°F) 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
Uncover dough. Brush rolls with 1 tablespoon of half-and-half, if desired. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Brush rolls again with remaining tablespoon of half-and-half, if desired. Using edges of foil, remove rolls from pan.
Add dulce de leche topping:
Drizzle dulce de leche onto warm buns to desired amount. As an optional garnish, top with toasted pecans before serving.
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