cinnamon rolls

So my husband and I have just two weeks to go until we get to eat desserts again. I am dying for buttery yellow cake with chocolate frosting; soft, chewy, still-warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies; and really, anything that has chocolate and sugar. So far we have not broken down and had dessert, but several times we have been really close to caving. This weekend, we were tempted by a chocolate ice cream cake and gooey butter cake. I was willing to give in, but my husband managed to resist, so I held firm as well. It wouldn't be any fun to indulge if he doesn't do it too. The competition between us is probably the only thing that is keeping me going.

In keeping with the agreement that we can have breakfast foods, I have made cinnamon rolls a couple of times. Since I never thought to make them in time to let them rise, I have been using a quick cinnamon roll recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. The first time I made them, I foolishly thought I didn't need to read the directions thoroughly, so I spread too much melted butter on the dough before adding the filling, which made all the cinnamony sugar run out of the rolls when I baked them.

The second time though, I followed the directions exactly and the cinnamon rolls turned out better. (Of course.)

After the first batch, I realized I missed the yeasty taste found in regular sweet dough cinnamon rolls. This recipe uses baking powder as a leavener, and is almost more like a biscuit dough than a sweet dough.For the second batch, I increased the sugar in the dough by 1 tablespoon. I probably could have put even more in (because there is never a thing as too much sugar), but this little bit seemed to make the entire dish sweeter. One of the best parts about the recipe is the addition of cloves to the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture of the inside of the rolls. The ground cloves really sets off the cinnamon and is delicious.When I was growing up, my parents made cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast each week. While everyone else was digging in, I patiently unrolled the finished roll, put butter between all the layers, then rolled it back together to douse it with powdered sugar icing. That treatment is just as good now as it was back then.

There is just one roll left in the house. I wonder which one of us will get to it first.