Baking is excellent therapy. On days filled with aggravation (of which I’ve had too many of late), I find that baking is extremely therapeutic. Baking provides me with an opportunity for solitude and to simply forget whatever it is that is irritating me and, in the end, I have the satisfaction of providing bliss in baked form to someone else (as well as myself because I don’t grow tired of eating what I bake).
Although these irritations are, admittedly, “first-world problems” including, but not limited to, being in the path of what was thankfully a “near-miss” of a horrific car crash and a litany of infuriating telephone calls and/or e-mails from people purporting to be business professionals that are anything but, it does damper my mood to have to contend with idiots all day long. It is exactly days like those that make me want to retreat to the bakery and fire up the oven. While I say that I “bake people happy” in reality, baking is oftentimes as much of an enjoyment to me as the end-product is to others.
Standing alongside the bakery granite counter (purchased last summer not only for its utility purposes but for the happy esthetic it provided), I contemplated which recipe to use. I drew an absolute blank. I also contemplated the amusing irony of a writing recipe column without including a recipe. After considerable deliberation as to what would be the ultimate recipe to cheeriness it then occurred to me that the perfect thing to make was cinnamon rolls because there is nothing more comforting than the smell of warm cinnamon and sugar.
Ingredients:Dough:2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt Filling: 4 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar2 teaspoons cinnamon
Raisins or nuts – optionalGlaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar1/4 milkInstructions:
For the filling, in a small bowl combine softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon to form a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mixture over the bottom of a greased 9×9 pan.. In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Slice the butter into small pieces and add into the dry mixture. Stir in the milk to form a soft dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface into the shape of a rectangle that is 1/4 thick. Spread the remaining filling onto the dough and then roll up your rectangle. With a knife slice the roll into slices of mini-rolls. Add the slices to your pan and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. To make the glaze stir the powdered sugar and milk until it is dissolved. Drizzle over hot rolls when they come out of the oven. Enjoy!
On the bright side of my aggravating week is that at least my children were well-behaved – unlike the distracted driver of the late-model maroon minivan who completely ignored the red light at the intersection of Route 562 and Route 662 the other afternoon.
Felicia Fisher is the founder of the Black Buggy Baking Company and lives in Oley, Pa. with her husband and three children who are all willing taste-testers. For more information on what Felicia’s baking up visit her web page www.blackbuggybakingcompany.com or e-mail her at blackbuggybakingcompany@yahoo.com.
