Conference Rolls!

{The Aftermath}

This past weekend was Conference weekend once again!  Which is one of my favorite weekends of the year.  In an effort to get the kids just as excited about the prospect of listening to 8+ hours of church talks as well, we've come up with some traditions over the years to make it a little more palatable.   I'm ALL about creating positive associations. :)  

For several years now, we've been inviting families over for "Conference Breakfast" on Sunday mornizng before the first session starts.  Part of this tradition involves the making of cinnamon rolls for said Conference Breakfast.  Because I only make them 3 times a year -- April Conference, October Conference, and Christmas morning -- they are always a highly anticipated treat.  In recent years, we've thrown some orange rolls into the mix, and I have to say that THOSE are even more highly anticipated by ME.  Hahaha.

I thought I'd do a special post on the making of these rolls, to have in the record, and should anyone want to try them out in their families as well.  Two things to note for this season's batch of cinnamon and orange rolls:  1.) My Kitchenaid mixer is on the fritz once again, and I actually had to mix these up by HAND, and 2.) I times-ed the dough recipe by 1 1/2 to make a big enough batch for a dozen cinnamon and a dozen orange -- and I think it made the perfect amount!

DOUGH: {which to clarify -- IS already 1 1/2 times-ed from the recipe I usually use}

1 1/2 c. warm milk

6 T. melted butter

1 1/2 T. yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. sugar

3 eggs

6 c. flour

With a Kitchenaid mixer, I would basically throw all these ingredients into the bowl in the order listed, and mix on speed 1 or 2 until the dough was kneaded together and pulling away from the side of the bowl.  When doing it by hand this time around, I put everything in a bowl in the order listed (minus the flour), and mixed it with a rubber spatula until it was kind of combined.  Then I added the flour and mixed things up with the spatula as best as I could until finally I had to plop it on the counter and knead it by hand, adding flour as needed -- because it was pretty sticky.  The next step was letting it rise for an hour, in a covered, greased bowl.  {I like to stick the bowl in a warm spot to rise -- in this case, I turned our griddle on the stove on for a few minutes before the dough was ready, and then turned it off and covered it with a dish towel before placing the bowl on top.}

After the dough had risen, I dumped it on the counter and started rolling it out.  {Helpful hint -- I don't punch it down or try to work with the dough at ALL, except to start smashing it out into a rectangle before using the rolling pin to finish it off.}  I don't have exact measurements for you here, but I basically rolled it into a giant rectangle.  Then I used a pizza cutter to split it in half -- one half for the cinnamon-sugar filling, and one half for the orange-y filling.

Orange Filling: {Courtesy of Lion House Classics cookbook}

Mix 1/4 c. melted butter with the zest of 2 oranges.  Spread over dough evenly, and then sprinkle all over with 1/4 c. granulated sugar.

Cinnamon Filling: 

Mix 1 c. brown sugar with 2 T. cinnamon.  Melt 1/4 c. butter and spread evenly over dough.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

{As you can see, it's easy enough that a kid can do it.  ;)  }

After the fillings have been spread, it's time to roll them up and cut them.  It can be a little tricky to roll them up neatly, but practice makes perfect, and eventually it becomes no big deal.  :)  I cut each long roll into 12 individual rolls using the trick of a simple piece of thread and a quick sweep of my hand.  It's complicated to explain, but quite simple to execute.  Essentially, you wrap the thread under and around the log and cut through the dough by crossing the thread over and pulling on each end.  It cuts through that dough like a hot knife through butter.  Hahaha.  :)

{Again -- easy enough for a kid to do.  :) }

After a dozen of each set of rolls were created, I placed them in a pan to let them rise (covered) for another hour.  {Another helpful hint -- I'm a HUGE fan of disposable aluminum pans.  They make clean up SOOOO much easier, and I find that making the cinnamon rolls in a glass casserole dish can sometimes cause the cinnamon-sugar-butter combo to ooze out the bottom and turn into cement on the bottom of the dish.} {I also employed the same "warming" technique on the stove before setting them aside to rise.}  After rising, I popped them into a 400 degree oven and let them bake for 12 minutes.  Plus a couple extra minutes because my oven always needs it.  Once the rolls were cooled, I iced them and set them out for the masses.  :)

Orange Icing:

2 T. orange juice
1/4 tsp. orange extract
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2-4 T. heavy cream, half-and-half, or (in this case -- because it's all I had on hand -- whole milk)

Cream Cheese Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls:

1/2 c. softened butter
3 oz. cream cheese
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

In case you were wondering, they were delicious and devoured before the day was over.  :)  As per usual, I totally forgot to take pictures of the full Conference Breakfast spread OR our company.  So, you'll just have to believe me when I say we had quite a feast.

Jane created some little "rolls" herself with the leftover dough.  :)

As for the rest of the day, I enjoyed Conference as best I could with the chaos of 5 children surrounding me.  In retrospect, I really should have prepared more things for the kids to work on while listening, but I feel like we've already tried every idea out there and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.  Oh well!  I don't think the kids got very much out of the sessions this time around, but at least they didn't out and out fight watching it either.  Grace and Ethan took up fort making, while Jane drew pictures, took some "notes," and played with sea shells while watching Conference.  Sophie alternated between drawing and playing, and Alex did a little coloring with a little playing on the side.

As a sampling for what the kids learned this weekend, here are the responses I got when I asked the older 3 this evening what they got out of Conference:

Sophie -- "Women are powerful!"  {Complete with a fist raised triumphantly in the air.  Hahahahaha.}
Grace -- "Zilch" followed up with a "I don't know -- I think somebody said something about their mom dying."
Ethan -- "To pick a new scripture each week to ponderize."

And that pretty much sums each of them up perfectly.  Hahahahaha.  As for me, one of the talks that really struck me the most was from the Saturday morning session by Larry Lawrence.  In part of his talk he issued the following challenge:

 "I would like to suggest that each of you participate in a spiritual exercise sometime soon, perhaps even tonight while saying your prayers. Humbly ask the Lord the following question: “What is keeping me from progressing?” In other words: “What lack I yet?” Then wait quietly for a response. If you are sincere, the answer will soon become clear. It will be revelation intended just for you."

That night, after asking those questions in prayer, a phrase popped into my mind as I was drifting off to sleep --  "PEACE, BE STILL."  For someone like me, who really needs to just chill out and stress less with life in general, this was quite powerful counsel.  Here's to hoping that I can really work on making this happen in my life.  :)

Ethan at his first Priesthood session with Scott on Saturday night.