I know you’re supposed to start the New Year with great healthy aspirations but our family likes to start it with some SUGAH! Every year for the past 4 years I have made a different kind of cinnamon roll for our New Year’s Family Breakfast, to ring in our new year. Our New Year’s traditions have changed depending on the number of children we had at the time, we went from: attending fun parties where I get to dress up, then 2 children later- having a family sleepover with friends and 3 children later- eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Cinnamon Rolls are a great family friendly recipe to make together. Share your favorite cinnamon roll recipe? I am going to run out of cinnamon roll combinations soon.
You’re going to laugh because the first time I attempted to make cinnamon rolls little did I know that most of the recipes take a day for preparation. I had NO IDEA! So I stood in the kitchen with dashed hopes and then reality set in, “familia, we are having cereal instead.” After this experience I came up with my own recipe that DOES NOT take a more than a day, Lemon Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls.
- First year- Basic Cinnamon Rolls
- Second year- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Third year- Lemon Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls (see recipe below)
- This year- Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel icing! recipe coming soon
Ingredients:
- 2 tbspn dry yeast
- 1/2 cp warm water
- 3 eggs
- 1 tspn salt
- 1 cp warm milk
- 1/2 cp sugar
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1cp shortening
- 1tspn lemon extract
- 1/3 cp of instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1/3 cp of instant lemon pudding mix
- 7-8 cps of flour
- filling:
- 1/2 cp of melted butter
- 2/3cps brown sugar
- 2tsp cinnamon
- lemon zest
- 3/4 cps of blueberries
- 2 tspn of lemon juice
-In a large mixing bowl dissolve yeast and water, let it sit for 10min or until bubbly.
-Add eggs, salt, milk, sugar, shortening, both puddings and lemon extract. Slowly add all the flour (reserve 1/2 cp). The dough will be sticky.
-Use remaining 1/2 cup to flour surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
-Punch dough down, divide in half. Roll each portion into a 12-in. x 8-in. rectangle; brush with butter. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough to edges. Place blueberries in lemon juice in a separate bowl. Then add lemon zest to all of the dough and place blueberries on top.
My hands were covered in sticky sugary mess so I couldn’t get a picture of the rolled up dough ready to be cut.
-Roll up jelly roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seams to seal. Cut each into 12 slices.
-Place cut side down in two greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
Bake at 350° for 22-28 minutes or until golden brown.
I learned this cool trick: use thread to cut your cinnamon rolls. It works!
Lemon Glaze
- 2cps of powdered sugar
- 2tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cp milk
In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients. Spread over buns. Serve warm. Yield: 2 dozen.