Hey y’all,

Today I want to talk to you about the importance of having the proper temperature of water when you are blooming yeast. 

Can I tell you that if you have your mouth all set for some form of bomb bread that you take the time and effort to put together, and knead, then let rise, then form, then back only for it to be heavy as a rock because you had your water too hot and killed your yeast in the BEGINNING of the process….it is devasting.

I had been craving cinnamon rolls for over a month.  I was trying to resist because cinnamon rolls are not Weight Watchers friendly.  I tried y’all, God knows I tried.  In the end, I couldn’t resist.  I picked a weekend and told myself that I would eat the minimum of everything and completely low in points, so that I could eat these amazing cinnamon rolls that I was going to make.

I went through the process of making these rolls, that took close to two hours to make (even though the recipe was for a 1-hour cinnamon roll) only to have them be so heavy and just not right.  I knew it was because of the yeast.  I knew it. 

I think the give away was when the yeast just didn’t foam up the way it usually did.  I was trying to do things fast and didn’t whip out the thermometer.  I won’t do it again.  Those cinnamon rolls were trash.

The next week, I did a do over.  I used the thermometer for  the hot water this time, and wouldn’t you know it, that water was too hot and I had to give a some time to cool off before I added my yeast.  It paid off though.  I had nice bubbly yeast ready to be tossed in with the rest of the ingredients.  Once I had my flour added in, I kneaded the dough for about 6 minutes by hand.  I could have easily used my mixer, but I really enjoy setting a timer and letting myself go while kneading.  I get a good feel of the dough, I take some time to talk with God.  It’s relaxing.  Although the recipe said that I didn’t need to let the dough for a long time, I placed some plastic wrap over the dough and took Sasha to her grooming appointment.  I had a few errands to run, so I believe the dough had about 1.5 hours to rise.  I got home, punched it down, then rolled it out on my silicon mat (that thing is my best friend when I don’t want to use a lot of excess flour in my baking – I only need a little flour and nothing sticks). 

For these much awaited cinnamon rolls regular butter would not do.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I used butter (actually it was Brummel Brown, cause I really do try to cut back when I can) but I wanted to make these extra special and only one thing would do.  Now some of you would reach for Nutella for that extra flair but not me…..I whipped out

Yeap, cookie butter.  Cookie butter combined with cinnamon sugar (I used half sugar and half Swerve) is the filling created by angels.  I am a HUGE fan of chocolate, but I just didn’t want to do too much.  And for me, Nutella would have been too much.

I let these rise again for about ½ hour, then baked them off. 

I’m about to tell you something that may get me thrown out of the sweet lovers club, but I did not make a glaze for these rolls.  Since my journey began with Weight Watchers, I have cut back on a LOT of sugar.  Sure I bake EVERY weekend, but I don’t eat that much of it.  I just love to bake and come up with new and interesting things.  I LOVE TO COOK PERIOD AND BAKING IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO DO.  I don’t drink sugary drinks (I’m a La Croix and San Pellegrino gal if I’m not drinking water or Agua Frescas made with cucumber and pineapple), I prefer dark chocolate or semi-sweet over milk chocolate; and for every bit of sweet I eat, I usually have to follow it up with something salty to cut it. But I’ve lost my train of thought here, back to the rolls.

Instead of making glaze made of confectioners sugar, butter, milk/cream, and vanilla; I smeared honey butter over the tops of the rolls and called it a day.  Not too sweet and the addition of more butter.  Oh. So. Good.  They were amazing and so worth the points that I sacrificed to have them.  The best part of all was they were not heavy like rocks.  They were light like they should be, they were sweet like I had been imagining for weeks.  Just darn good. 

So what did I learn from this?  Treat your yeast with the respect that it deserves.  Don’t kill it with too hot water AND give it life by using water that is just warm enough.

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Until next time,