My mom came up with a recipe I call mom’s bread that she uses for everything from cinnamon rolls to plain bread.  I don’t know if it’s the flour where I live, but the bread always comes out drier for me than for her.  Lately though I’ve discovered how to make tender, tasty cinnamon rolls and substitute in some of my favorite ‘healthier’ ingredients.  Not that my mother’s recipe is unhealthy.  She is allergic to milk so uses water as the liquid.  I luckily do not have that problem.  However, I do have three athletic teens or almost-teens whom I’m trying to nurture with lots of protein and fiber, thus I try to add whole wheat flour and yogurt whenever I can.  Other than that, this recipe is full of sugar and butter – yummy.

The night before you wish to have rolls for breakfast, in a medium bowl, mix

1/4 cup warm water

2 tsp yeast (or 1 package)

After the yeast dissolves stir in with a whisk

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs of sugar or molasses or honey

3 Tbs oil. My mom says a ‘gluck’. I don’t know what that is.

1 egg

1/2 cup whole yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup milk warmed 1 minute in the microwave (less if yours is powerful) Make sure it’s not too hot (

1 cup of whole wheat flour (or white)

After the batter is smooth, use a spoon to stir in

2 cups of white flour

Add and knead in flour as necessary until dough is smooth and bounces back when you poke it. Usually a couple of minutes. I always knead my dough directly in the bowl by hand. I find it faster and less messy.

Cover the top of the bowl with a flat pan (I usually use a cake pan). Allow the bread to rest for 10 minutes or rub some oil on the top to keep it from drying out and let it rise for an hour.

Melt 4 Tbs butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Meanwhile, sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and roll out your dough. I usually do this on my largest cookie sheet which is 14×15 inches. Spoon or pour the butter over the dough and spread it to the edges. Sprinkle on cinnamon. I never measure this, but I’m sure it’s a couple of tablespoons. I’ll have to take a picture next time. Sprinkle on brown sugar – several handfuls. Add nuts or raisins or cranberries or whatever else you’d like to try. Roll the dough into a log shape and stretch it just a little so that the roll is evenly sized and fits diagonally on your cookie sheet. Cut it into 1 inch rolls and place in a greased 13x9x2 inch pan, or thereabouts. Cover and put it in the refrigerator.

The next morning, pull the rolls out of the refrigerator and turn the oven to 350 F.  If you have time and the rolls don’t look like they’ve risen at all, as they might do if you skipped the first rising step, you may want to let them rise for about thirty minutes.  I’ve done it both ways.  This last time I did not skip the first rising step and put the rolls into the oven even before it was fully heated (yes, I’m a bit impatient.)  They turned out fine.  They took about thirty minutes to bake to a nice tan/brown color.  This makes 14-15 medium rolls.  I only took a picture of 4 because the rest were gone before I got around to it.

If you want to add frosting, here is a simple recipe

1. melt 1 Tbs butter in a glass cereal bowl for 10 seconds

2. add 2 Tbs cream cheese and microwave another 10 seconds.  It may pop and complain loudly.

3. stir well.

4. add heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar and milk until you reach the amount and consistency you want. I usually use 3-4 heaping (as in peaked) spoonfuls and 1-2 Tbs of milk. Optionally, you could also add a tsp of vanilla for more flavor. If you don’t have cream cheese, just use 2 Tbs of butter and melt for 20 seconds.