Cookin' & Cussin'

PB&J Rolls

So I had a bit of a wild hair AND a hair-brained idea all in 1 go.

One of my quiet, personal blog-goals of 2024 is to bake more.

More than what? I hardly bake as it is.

YIKES. calling yourself out still hurts.

Cue the cinnamon roll. Probably the hardest, longest, not-kindest domesticitem that exists in the baking world. Not sure about you but I’m definitely envious of people that can bake with zero anxiety. – although I’ve been told bakers often feel that way about people who can easily cook….the anxiety feels the same just obviously reversed because cooking isn’t NEARLY as scientific as baking. And that’s probably why I hate it most of the time.

what is love?

ANYWAY.

So I scoured the internet (Pinterest) for a “friendly” looking cinnamon roll recipe. I’ve NEVER made them from scratch & never even attempted – like I said, wild hair went plum-crazy & I decided to go for it. This cinnamon roll recipe was ACCURATE, was well-written & I was truly understanding each step and its importance for the next one – basically, if I can do it, so can you!

It was MLK weekend – I’m almost absolutely sure that man enjoyed a good cinnamon roll, so I did this in his honor. Because baking is love? Plus, “hate is too great a burden to bear”, quoted Dr. King, so I decided that if baking = love then this had to be the perfect weekend to attempt ANYTHING baking and love related.

THEN I SPIRALED EVEN FURTHER.

I was like, omg what if Valentine’s Day was a day to concentrate on a stellar breakfast for your honey instead of a fancy dinner? CINNAMON ROLLS would impress anybody! PLUS my glaze uses Champagne so that makes it romantic & a nod to Valentine’s Day EVEN FURTHER! So keep in mind, this recipe is also being posted with enough time for y’all to get your shit together to make this for Valentine’s Weekend ((since it falls in the middle of the week this year, womp womp))

decadent, but make it skinny.

I had also found a Skinny Girl sugar-free Strawberry-Rose jam that sounded / seemed / looked SO delicious and I was simply DYING to use with SOMETHING. I had used the Skinny Girl Mimosa Orange jam for a chicken dish that was divine so I knew this one had to be good too!

Thus, my PB&J Rolls were born. Why PB&J you ask? Well, I wanted my filling to be whimsical and to be fun, but recognizable. I literally don’t know anybody who is like “ew PB&J? I hate it” and welllllll if you do, I suggest you leave now. Cause these rolls remind me of a more decadent & obviously richly flavored UnCrustable so yea, bye.

I also didn’t want this to be a Pinterest Fail – which I’m sure ALL of us have experienced at one time or another. So, I followed Cara Owens – Kindly Unspoken recipe about 75% of the way. I do want to stress that I’m ONLY sharing MY filling even though I photographed hers – the point was that if my filling sucked, we still had regular cinnamon rolls to fall back on – so if you’d like to find her filling recipe, please look on Pinterest!

HOWEVER – The dough I’m showing you? HERS. The “better than cinnabon” glaze? MINE. The filling that’s PB&J? MINE. So never fear, Let’s Get To It!

Dough Ingredients

• 1 square (.25) oz packet active dry yeast

• 3 ½ cups AP flour

• ¾ cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 cup 2% milk

• ½ stick salted butter, melted

• ½ TSP salt

• 1 TSP vanilla extract

Filling Ingredients

• ½ cup Powdered PBFit

• 1 TSP water

• 1/3 cup Skinny Girl Strawberry Rose Jam

Glaze Ingredients

• 4 Oz Light Cream Cheese, softened

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar

• 1 TSP vanilla extract

• 3-5 TBS Champagne or Prosecco

Instructions, 1

OK. This is my final offering of love & support.

YOU CAN DO THIS. Shit, because I DID IT.

Just follow the steps, be patient & have ALLLLL your ingredients ready so you won’t feel stressed out looking for everything – because trust, this is A LOT but I know you can do it!

Firstly we are gonna make this dough. It’s in 3 steps so its really gonna be OK.

*inhales sharply*

Melt the ½ stick of butter in a Pyrex Measuring cup.

Pour the melted butter into a medium METAL or GLASS bowl (or any oven-safe bowl)

Now heat the 1 cup of milk in the same Pyrex measuring cup you used to melt your butter – I would do 2, 20 second turns in the microwave, stirring inbetween.

Pour in the warmed milk to your butter bowl and stir in the yeast packet AND granulated sugar until it dissolves.

((the sugar acts as the “food” for the yeast to eat on & expand! #science))

Cover with a tea towel & place in the microwave for 15 minutes.

While you are waiting for this yeast to activate, turn on your oven to the LOWEST setting – mine was 190 degrees.

After your timer has gone off, remove the tea towel from your bowl and add in the 1 egg, salt & vanilla extract – stir to combine.

NOW – have your flour at the ready. Go ahead & measure out 1 cup.

Add in the flour ½ cup at a time, FOLDING IT IN well with a spatula.

The Dough will simply look clumpy, weird & loose until the literal last cup of flour, so never fear!

For the last ½ cup of flour to be folded in, it was offered to use your hands to fold it in so then you can really get a feel for your dough and make sure everything is incorporated – shape into a round ball & leave it in your bowl.

The dough will be SUPER SOFT, a LITTLE sticky and not a full shape – this is fine for this step!

NOW – cover once again with a tea towel, now turn your preheated oven OFF and place your METAL or Glass or OVEN SAFE BOWL directly into your oven – yes, with the tea towel STLL COVEREING IT.

Set another timer & allow to proof for 15 minutes.

Instructions, 2

While your dough is proofing, clean up after yourself! You filthy animal!

Trust me, cleaning up a little bit at a time through this process will make you feel hella better & hella accomplished!

You will also still have plenty of time to mix together your filling!

Measure out the powdered PBFit & the Skinny Girl Strawberry Rose jam – it will be THICC so don’t worry about that – that’s what the 1 TSP of water is for – just to even it out but you definitely don’t want things to be SO RUNNY that your filling falls out of your rolled dough!

Once your 15 minute timer has gone off, remove your towel-covered bowl from the oven.

Lightly flour a clean work area or a silicone pastry mat.

Gently dump your dough ball onto the floured area.

Flour your hands and gently knead the dough around – just for a minute or two! Nothing serious!

Next, take a rolling pin and roll into a square shape – I’m not even gonna tell you HOW to do that because mine wasn’t a perfect square, nor do I know how to explain it.

Simply roll your dough ball in even directions and lightly flour inbetween so nothing sticks.

You want your dough surface to be about ¼ inch thick.

Gently schmear your PB&J Filling onto the entirety of your dough, leaving about ½ inch of bare dough along the edges.

Flour your hands once again, and gently begin to roll the dough into / onto itself.

Once you have reached the end of your roll, gently pull up on the remaining perimeter & allow it to stick to the outside roll of your dough & gently pinch to seal.

LOOK AT YOU OMG YOU JUST MADE DOUGH, MADE A FILLING & ROLLED A DAMN ROLL OF DOUGH!

WHEW.

Instructions,

OK, so now preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I used a cast-iron pan for my cinnamon rolls because I believed in my heart of hearts that it would keep all the goodness inside because my cinnamon roll ends were a little wonky & I wanted to keep everything as tight as possible.

NOTE – if you choose to use a GLASS dish, your cooking time will be much shorter – so just keep an eye on your J&B rolls PERIOD.

So now its time to cut our cinnamon rolls.

I simply used a VERY sharp kitchen knife and it worked beautifully – just don’t saw back & forth, this will tear your dough and make a mess & you will be sad.

Cut your PB&J rolls about 2 inches thick and try to make them all evenly cut / spaced.

ALSO – they will taste delicious either way so just try your best with cutting them.

Lay each PB&J roll snug up against each other in a greased dish or cast iron skillet.

Place them in the oven & bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes.

((the cast iron took nearly 12-15 minutes longer so just keep that in mind!))

Once your cinnamon rolls are slightly browned and not doughy to the touch of a finger, they are ready!

Remove from the oven & allow to cool for 10 minutes before glazing.

Let’s make this glaze! Because OH EM GEEEE its so good. And totally elevated and a completely perfect pairing with my Champagne Glaze.

You’ll need a hand mixer for this step – combine the softened cream cheese & powdered sugar in a bowl.

Pour in 1 TSP of Vanilla Extract & 1 TBS of Prosecco or Champagne.

Mix on low & mix well.

You want to add in the Prosecco or Champagne 1 TBS at a time to reach the desired consistency YOU would like for these PB&J Rolls – and remember they are still gonna be slightly warm from the oven so the residual heat will also soften your glaze & make it a little runny.

Once you are satisfied with the taste & consistency of your glaze, go ahead & drop spoonfuls all over your rolls in the dish.

It will be a beautiful sight.

Scoop out however many PB&J Rolls you’d like to eat gently with a spoon & serve immediately!

We made bacon in the AirFryer to serve alongside these & no regerts were had!

Taste your childhood with the twist on PB&J and also revel in the fact that the glaze has PROSECCO in it – how romantic is that?

Enjoy!

PB&J + Prosecco

Let’s be forreal, who would ever think that taste combo would work?

To quote Paul Rudd – “not me” – but LOOK AT US.

You just successfully made HOMEMADE PB&J rolls in about 1 hour & 15 minutes.

THAT’S AMAZING.

I believe these are and were TOTALLY worth the work & I enjoyed feeling confident while I was doing it – which is completely another win in itself.

But seriously explore this with me – velvety scrambled eggs, peppered thick-cut bacon, and PB&J rolls with a flow of prosecco in your glass. I mean, if that doesn’t say romance, I don’t know what will.

The cost of these PLUS THE TIME SPENT would be more worth it to me than going out to dinner, waiting for a table, spending more money than you normally would & maybe leaving satisfied? ((idk holidays & going out to eat are always hit or miss for me personally))

Try these out for a lazy weekend, an important weekend, or a SNOWY weekend! EEEK! We are supposed to get snow here in Virginia this weekend sooo (fingers crossed) and I thought this would be the perfect recipe to share if you’re snowed in *wink*

Happy Baking Y’all!