Sometimes eating a sweet pastry is the best way to reward yourself after all your hard work, or just to start your day. For those of you who love baking or have never baked and want to try, one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast and love making even more, are cinnamon rolls. My grandma used to make cinnamon rolls on the regular but unfortunately, I don’t have her recipe; just the memory of them.
In today’s world of food, it is hip or cool to take an old recipe and add a new flavor to it. Recently, I took your average joe “Cinnamon Rolls” recipe from Food Network by Paula Deen and added my own twist to it.
Instead of adding nuts or raisins I added the zest of one orange and a teaspoon of a spice called green cardamom to the filling. Cardamom was introduced to me by my India loving, chai drinker friend who happens to be a health nut and fantastic cook. I quickly fell in love with the spice which I describe as having a very light ginger flavor but also much sweeter. I got mine from my local health food store.
Adding the cardamom and orange zest was inspired from a donut I had in Santa Fe, NM at a contemporary bakery called Whoo’s Donuts. That donut was simply an orange and cardamom crème filled donut and it to this day, the best donut I’ve ever had. I figured adding the two subtle flavors to cinnamon would be an interesting and fantastic combination! To my delight, I was right! I had made something fantastic and fully enjoyed it. The sweet flavor of oranges and cardamom with the memory filled flavor of cinnamon and sugar melted in my
mouth with every bite.
To complete my family’s heritage I have plates from my other grandmother who collected things from her travels like fine china and artwork. In the photo are the cinnamon rolls I made paired with orange slices on my grandmothers plates.
I hope that you try this recipe and add your own little twist to it. With the holiday season now in full swing, it would be fun to see flavors like pumpkin, peppermint or apple cinnamon rolls.