Yummy!

I thought I'd start posting other fun crafty-type things I like to do in my spare time. One of my favorite things to do for fun is cook. My husband and I often speculate about what we'd do if we had tons of money and one of our favorite fantasy questions is whether we'd have a cook or a maid. He would rather have a professional cook (Thanks a lot, honey! He assures me it'd be more like a trainer/nutritionist thing) but I would definately prefer a maid. Hello? Someone to clean up after I get to do the fun cooking part? That would be perfect for me! Alas, that will probably forever be but a dream. At any rate, here's one of my favorite treats to bake and especially eat! Before I post it, you should know that I haven't made up this recipe (or probably most others I'll post) but instead got it from one of my best friends. What a great gift to get from your best friend, huh! :) I also didn't make up the idea to make them heart-shaped. That idea is from one of my favorite kid-friendly recipe blogs, Gourmet Mom on the Go.

Without further ado, here are the directions, with pictures:

Mix all the ingredients, knead them, and let me rise for an hour. Cute story: As you'll see in the coming pictures, my daughter was helping me. I left her "alone" for a moment to get something from the refrigerator. By the time I got back she'd already snagged some dough! She must have gotten that trait from me...

Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape like so:
Coat the dough in butter and then cinnamon sugar. Don't try to be healthy and go light on either the butter or cinnamon sugar; it's just not worth it!
To make the heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, roll the dough on one side only to the middle. See what a good helper my daughter is? :)

Now roll the other side in to meet the roll you just did. Be sure to add a little butter and cinnamon sugar to the crease you just made between the two rolls! This is how the rolls should look when you're finished:
Next, use floss to cut each roll. I cut my to be about 1"-2" tall. Sorry, I don't have a picture of this, it was too hard to take one. But, I bet you can figure it out. :) When the cinnamon rolls are on the tray, pinch the bottoms a little bit so they aren't rounded but have a pointed bottom, like a heart. I think next time I'll make them even more pointed because as you'll see, they round out a little when they cook.
Bake them at 350 degrees for 20 min. Here's how we feel around here while we wait for the cinnamon rolls to cook:I guess an apple is a serious letdown when you can smell cinnamon rolls in the oven! :)

Here's how mine turned out when they were finished cooking. You can see the heart/scrolling much better now than when you frost them. So, if you are giving these as a Valentine's Day gift, you might want to give the person the rolls unfrosted so they can see the pretty pattern. Plus, that way they can re-heat the rolls and then frost them hot!
And here they are frosted. I'll post the frosting recipe below, along with the cinnamon roll recipe in its entirety, but here's a frosting tip: Make sure the vanilla extract you use doesn't smell like alcohol. If it does, your frosting will taste like vanilla alcohol!
Cinnamon Rolls

• 1 egg @ room temperature - add enough warm water to the egg in a measuring cup so the total of the two together is 1 1/2 cups
• 1/3 c oil
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 1/2 c flour
• 2 tsp (or about one package) yeast

*Mix all the ingredients & then knead.
*Let rise for 1 hour.
*Follow the rolling & cutting instructions above.
*Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Frosting

• 2 tsp frosting
• 4 capfuls of milk (Capfuls being the cap of a milk jug. Very specific, I know. lol.)
• 3 tsp vanilla
• Powdered sugar until frosting consistency

*Mix all ingredients and add powdered sugar until it's the consistency you like.

Enjoy!!!!