Sometimes, you try something new in the kitchen (like using an entire quart jar of black currants in a recipe for cupcakes), and it's edible, but not something you particularly want to repeat. Then there are times you make something up and it just works.
On Saturday I made a cake that used all the eggs in the house and most of the butter. It didn't leave me much to work with for Sunday breakfast. (This blog is not about Saturday's cake, but it was amazing—the Brown Sugar-Spice Cake from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking book—it's what you'd get if gingerbread and pound cake had a baby together, and it was raised by carrot cake.)
So I figured I'd make a yeasted bread for Sunday breakfast. My initial thought was cinnamon rolls, which we do for Christmas breakfast every year. But I wanted something different—cinnamon rolls are for Christmas, not everyday.
I started off by looking at recipes for various traditional fortified breads, but all of them either had eggs or lots of butter in them.
So I decided to wing it.
Saturday evening, I combined two cups of warm milk, some yeast, about two tablespoons of butter, some salt, a spoonful of honey and enough flour (half wholemeal (whole wheat) and half high grade (bread flour)) to make up a nice bread dough. It rose beautifully, and after two hours, I rolled it out into a large rectangle. I spread it with about three quarters of a cup of quince paste, then sprinkled on some cinnamon and a generous handful of chopped walnuts. Then I rolled it into a log and cut the log into twelve thick slices, which I arranged, cut side down, in a greased 9 x 13-inch baking tin.
I popped the pan in the fridge overnight, and the rolls were beautifully risen by 5 this morning. I gave them 30 minutes in a 210℃ oven, pulling them out when they were nicely browned.
While they were still warm, I drizzled a simple glaze over them—1/2 cup icing sugar (confectioners sugar), about 1/2 tsp vanilla, and enough milk to make a thick, pourable consistency.
It's really too bad I didn't actually measure most of the ingredients, because the result was excellent. In fact, I think it's worth running out of eggs and low on butter purely to have an excuse to make these rolls. Maybe next time I'll measure my ingredients so I can give you all a recipe—it's definitely one worth sharing.
In the meantime, if you're adventuresome and would like to give my loose winging-it recipe a go, I highly recommend it. If you can't get quince paste, I reckon apple butter or a thick apple sauce would work nicely, too, though it's hard to beat quince for flavour.
Good luck, and happy experimenting!
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