The second time around

There are not very many things in my life right now that I would say I find difficult.

Confrontation is difficult.

Running more than 3 miles when I only want to run 2, is difficult.

Making gluten free cinnamon rolls.....beats all the current difficulties in my life.

If complaining that it is hard to make gluten free cinnamon rolls is the worst thing I could say about my life right now, I consider myself to be very blessed. I have been through much worse than wanting to cry over cinnamon roll dough that is so sticky that I can't touch it with my hands or place it on anything because it will stick to it like glue, so I would say I am far from complaining. More like merely stating a fact.

Ok, to the details of this baby that I tackled last weekend.

The cinnamon rolls were the third attempt at my commitment to make at least 3 made-for-gluten-free recipes. I saved the best, and the most difficult, for last.

First, you have to combine about 5 different gluten free flours/starches, including corn flour (which was for some reason hard to find) and almond flour (which is expensive).


While doing that, you should be letting the luke warm water and yeast puff up, like so...

Then you mix all the ingredients together, with eggs, milk powder, etc. And then you let it rise for an hour. Insert painting our room from dark green to grey for the weekend.

Just before getting ready to attempt to create these ooey gooey goodness of a cinnamon roll, you make the filling. Mine, for some reason, decided to stick together, making it very hard to spread the filling more than about an inch in the middle of the dough once I got it rolled out.

Which leads me to my next disappointment (but hey, I still made them and they got eaten, I am just saying....) I didn't have parchment paper. So, I tried wax paper. NOT the same. The dough seemed as though it was rolling fine through the saran wrap and the wax paper. Until I tried to roll it off the wax paper. Insert 4 letter swear word here (under my breath because Chas had a 12 year old in the basement doing a guitar lesson)

So, I put it back in the bowl, and I run to the store. Bought a roll of parchment paper, $3.49.

Brought it home, rolled it out on the counter, proceeded to try again with the rolling of the dough between parchment paper and saran wrap.

SAME DAMN THING HAPPENS. The first batch of cinnamon rolls end up looking like this....

I stand for a minute with my eyes crossed, trying not to seethe through my teeth. I think for one second. The only thing that the dough seems to NOT be sticking to is the saran wrap. So, I take a piece of saran wrap, put the dough on it, take another piece of saran wrap, put it over the dough, and roll out. Success.

I take a piece of dental floss, yes, you read that right. I cut the rolls into pieces and put them in the pie pan. These ones look much better, right?

To be honest, by the time I got done rolling the dough out and putting the rolls into the plate, I was so hungry, could not stand to wait another hour to let the dough rise again. I put them in the oven and baked both batches for 30 minutes until the filling was bubbling.

Add creamy, sugary cream cheese frosting. Take a break from painting, bite into gluten free cinnamon roll heaven.

This recipe is one of those projects that I would think about tackling maaaaybe one, or twice if Chas is lucky, a year. But, if you are wanting to try GF, or you are GF and are up for a challenge, you can find the recipe for these bad boys at www.glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com