VANILLA PUDDING CINNAMON ROLLS

VANILLA PUDDING CINNAMON ROLLS

with Cream Cheese Frosting
from melskitchencafe.com

**I am going to try it with whole wheat flour to make it a bit more nutritious!  But I think they might lose their fluffiness.

DOUGH:
1/2 C warm water
2T dry yeast
2T sugar
3 1/2 ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 C butter, melted
2 eggs
1t salt
6+ C flour

FILLING:
1C butter, softened but not melted
2C brown sugar
4T cinnamon

FROSTING:
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C butter, softened but not melted
1t vanilla
3C powdered sugar
2-3 T milk

In a small bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar.  Stir until dissolved.  Set aside.  In large mixer, prepare pudding according to package directions.  After mixed, add butter, eggs and salt.  Mix well.  Add yeast mixture and blend.  Gradually add flour and knead until smooth.  If using an break maker, knead 4-5 minutes.  Do not over flour the dough -- it should be soft but not sticky.  Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise until doubled.
Roll out dough on oiled counter/board to a 34x21 rectangle.  Spread the soft butter on the dough.  In a bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon and spread on top of butter.  Roll up from the long end very tightly.  Using a piece of thread, slice the log into 1/2" pieces and place in a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.  Cover and let rise until double again.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove when they start to turn golden -- don't overbake!
While baking, mix frosting by blending the butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Add vanilla and powsered sugar and milk as needed for the right consistency.  Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting.  Makes about 24 very large cinnamon rolls.
NOTE:  you can make the rolls and after slicing place them on baking sheets and immediately freeze.  After partially frozen, you can stack them between waxed paper.  Too cook, remove from freezer and thaw in the refrigerator over night or on the counter for 4 hours.  Bake as directed above.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

For many years we have attempted to make gingerbread houses with the family, but always found them falling and just disappointing!  This year, I learned that the key is in the icing!!  The following recipe was shared with me by my friend's mother-in-law and is very similar to the one I have been using for years BUT the directions for making the icing were a little better AND when I realized that I hadn't beaten the frosting stiff enough, I cheated and added an extra cup of powdered sugar and beat it longer to stiffen it up real good!!  The frosting was fabulous and did the job!!!  I was so impressed with all the creativity!!!

After 20 years of falling houses, we finally had a successful day of building!
So, 3 things I did different this year that seemed to take our gingerbread tragedies to successful structures:

1.  Get the frosting right!!!  It must be stiff -- it is the glue, literally!

2.  Focus on  your house foundation!  We started one wall at a time and made it a solid structure piece by piece with our frosting glue and then set a timer so the kids would let the frosting set.  We made sure the walls were solid before we attempted to put on any roofs!  Not a single house fell this year!

3.  Be patient!!  I told the kids it would take us 2 hours to make our houses!! They relaxed and we enjoyed chatting as we built our houses piece by piece!  They were anxious to get to the candy decorating part, however!!!

Other things we tried this year:

1.  I pulled up some pictures of gingerbread houses on google images for some inspiration!

2.  I also cut houses that were half the scale of the measurements in the directions and then had 2 kids working per house!  That was fun and got more people involved without sooo many big houses!  I'm sure the standard "graham cracker house" option would have worked, too!

3.  Get some fun candy and cereals to use!  It makes a difference!

4.  Don't forget the Christmas music playing in the background!

5.  Let go of some "mother control" and let the kids handle the pastry bags and have at it!  Messes will clean up!  But do wipe down frosting before it hardens -- remember it is the "glue!"