Some of you may be wondering why there is an image of Michael Scott, branch manager of Dunder Mifflen Scranton, on the beginning of this post. Well let me start by saying that this isn’t actually Sara typing, it’s her husband Eric. If you’re an avid reader of this blog you may feel like you know Sara. You might know she’s obsessed with chocolate and limes. You might know she can’t swallow a plain cherry tomato even if her life depended on it. You might even know she cringes at the word “panties.” However, one thing you might not know is that she’s completely accident prone. Especially in the kitchen. Which is why it didn’t come as too much of a surprise this morning when my dear, sweet wife grabbed the handle of a skillet just moments after it came out of a 500-degree oven. Yeah, ouch. For those of you who are fans of The Office and have seen this famous episode, you know the rest of the story. One clean CT scan later…we’ve determined that Sara’s okay, too. Unfortunately, her hand now has frostbite from sitting in a bath of freezing cold ice all day, so she has asked me to type for her. I assure you that she will quickly recover and be back to writing witty commentary soon…thank goodness for bubble wrap.
The recipe today is awesome. I’m an average guy, so I think it’s awesome because it tastes amazing. But Sara tells me it’s awesome because there’s NO yeast in it. Just a bunch of other random stuff that somehow lets it fake being a real cinnamon roll. No yeast means no rising and no waiting and no nightmares for all of you yeast-o-phobes. You just mix it, roll it, bake it, and eat it. I think even a guy could do it. (And by guy, I’m not talking about the food-blogging guys who are actually reading this post, I’m talking about the average Joe who likes to eat, but probably doesn’t even know where things such as baking soda are even stored in their kitchen. Sara tells me I have to specify this or she’ll get hate mail from hoards of offended man-foodies. For the record, I totally hooked Sara on our first date when I impressed her with my mad cooking skills. Two words: Boboli Pizza.)
Alright, from this point on I’m turning it over to Sara and typing exactly what she says because this is taking way too long with her making me delete all of the inappropriate commentary. (But come on, she actually told me to write something about disliking soggy nuts. Really? You think I can let that one go?)
No Yeast Sweet Rolls
adapted from Fine Cooking
For the dough:
3/4 cup cottage cheese (4% milk fat)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbs real butter, melted
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
9 oz. (2 cups) flour; more for rolling
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Orange Roll Filling:
4T butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
zest from one orange
Orange Roll Glaze:
2/3 C powdered sugar
1 T melted butter
2 T Orange juice
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla.
Process until smooth, about 10 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and pulse in short bursts just until the dough clumps together (don’t over-process). The dough will be very soft, probably softer than you’re used to. Don’t add anymore flour!
Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times just until smooth.
Roll the dough into a rectangle, about 12×15 inches.
Now put your filling on. The pictures below are from when I made the recipe as written in Fine Cooking. We decided we weren’t too fond of nuts inside the rolls themselves because they tend to get soft after baking. I did, however, like the addition of the allspice and cloves. Next time I’ll probably stick to my normal cinnamon roll filling, but still include the extra spices.
After it’s filled, you know the drill. Roll it, slice it, dice and entice it….(totally my husband’s line)
Okay now, forget about cinnamon rolls…my family inhaled the orange roll version. Pretty self explanatory-same drill, just with orange roll filling. If you have a favorite recipe, use it or use my quick version as noted above.
After the rolls are filled and cut. Place them in a pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. The recipe in Fine Cooking tells you to bake the rolls in a springform pan. However, the batch I cooked in a spring form pan were very overdone on the bottom. I cooked my orange rolls in a ceramic pie pan and they were perfect. So I suggest using a glass or ceramic pan vs. a springform pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Not gonna lie–I was completely doubtful when these went into the oven. But when they came out? Wow!
When the rolls have a few minutes left in the oven. Whisk your glaze ingredients together. When the rolls are done cooking, let them cool for five minutes. Then spread the glaze on and eat those suckers warm. They are seriously so soft and tender and delicious! You’ll be so surprised.
These are definitely best fresh out of the oven. We had some that sat out all day and they weren’t nearly as delicious. Check out these pictures, you’d never know these were made out of some weird cottage cheese mixture.
See how light and soft they are inside?
As delicious as these are, I don’t think they are a replacement for a normal sweet roll cooked with yeast. However, that’s because it would be like comparing oranges to tangerines. These are super yummy, quick and easy, and you have to give them a shot to see what I mean. I guarantee this dough will come in handy. I’m loving it for the morning hours when I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to allow normal rising time. Or for an event where I need something done at a very specific time. Or when I have a craving and need a cinnamon roll NOW not 2 hours from now!
I’d like to try it out in some of these too:
Easy breakfast roll
Kate’s hot pockets
Filled with Kate’s garlic roll filling
Eric here. One last thing. If you’ve ever wondered if Sara really is the young mother of two she claims to be and not some scary old man, some of you can finally know the answer. If you’re in Utah, tune into KSL’s Studio 5 this Thursday (Sept. 17th) to see Sara cooking up a storm. And let’s all pray her hand is functioning by then.
Questions & Reviews
So delicious. You totally made my conference weekend!
Oh my goodness!! LOVE love LOVE these rolls. Made them yesterday with my older kids-super easy! These just might now be our 'Cherished' cinnamon roll recipe. My husband isn't a fan of cottage cheese-imagine his surprise when he bit into his first roll and my son yells out "Dad, there's COTTAGE CHEESE in these"…too funny. His expression was priceless. He liked them so much he asked me to make more! And you're right, when you want super yummy cinnamon rolls right now, this is the perfect recipe.
Thank you for this wonderful blog, for all your cooking talents and for the most amazing recipes. Not sure how I found you, but SO so glad I did!
I just made these this morning- I have been looking for a quick alternative to the usual cinnamon roll and these were great! I made half of mine with the orange filling/glaze and half with my normal cinnamon roll filling/glaze.
My family loved them!
I don't know why I haven't seen your blog before now- it is great!
Thanks for sharing this recipe and doing the step by step instructions- they were great, especially the one of the dough- I knew exactly when to get mine out of the food processor!
Emily- and everyone else: If you have a small food processor (or no processor at all) just puree the cottage cheese and liquid ingredients any way you can (sm. food processor, blender, etc.) and then mix the rest by hand.
Nice post, Eric. I was laughing out loud too. We made these this morning with the cinnamon filling and we LOVED them! I, too, am somewhat afraid of yeast/impatient when I have to wait for something like this so I was excited to try them. I think I really could have eaten the whole pan.
I think our food processor is smaller than yours, Sara. Everything just barely fit. Do you think I could use my blender or mixer next time to make it a little easier?
I'm glad I'm not the only accident prone one. I was searing the roast for the french dip sandwiches earlier this week and of course, got burned pretty badly by the oil. I now have some beauties on my right wrist and my left breast. The sandwiches were so yummy though!
Yeah!!! Thank you! I will give them a try!
Absolutely, positively can NOT taste cottage cheese!
I just want to know if you can taste the cottage cheese? I don't enjoy cottage cheese at all, so if I did not make this but was offered to try one . . .would I notice there was cottage cheese in it?
That was so much fun to read. Way to go Eric! I'll be tuning in to see what's happening on Studio 5 this morning. Good luck Sara, and I hope your hand is healed quickly!
Good Luck tomorrow Sara! We were just talking about "accidents" in the kitchen. So sorry to hear of another. Good thing you have Eric around. Loved the post. I will have to ask Eric about "soggy nuts" sometime. Too fun! Wishing you well in Utah and a safe return.
Shannon
What a great husband to type for you!! I can only imagine the jokes he was making! Gotta love the office 🙂 HOpe your hand is better!!
(Oh, and the recipe sounds good also!!!)
That was great! Eric had me laughing out loud. I think you found an awesome helper. Love your blog and all of the fun stuff. I cant wait to try them. Thanks!
Wow, I bet dinner conversations are a riot at your house! I had to laugh about the soggy nuts thing…my husband SO would have left that in there!
Get well soon, I am off to the kitchen…I just bought a giant tub of cottage cheese!
i'm definitely impressed you can get results like that with no yeast
Hey, Eric! Great job on the post! I enjoyed your commentary.
Sara these look delish and easy! Right up my alley! Sorry to hear about your kitchen mishap. Hope your hand heals up soon (by Thursday)!
~ingrid
Hanna, my husband and I got into a, let's just call it "discussion" about this, lol. He happens to *work* at urgent care, so ya you'd think I'd trust the opinion of a professional! He kept telling me to take it off ice and wrap it but I tried and the pain wouldn't go away! It was horrible and I decided I'd rather carry around a bowl all day and get frost-bite than deal with the gauze-wrapped sting! lol
These look amazing–I hope I get to test them out soon, yum! Great job man!
OK– I went camping and grabbed the handle of a skillet that I was cooking on over a huge propane flame. Yes, I rode home from Jackson, WY. to SLC with my hand in ice, stopping at every gas station to refill the ice. After arriving home and finally submitting to going to Urgent Care. The first thing the nurse told me was to cover up the burn! She immediately wrapped my hand in gauze and taped it up and the pain went away almost INSTANTLY. She said when we keep the burn in the open or worse yet in ice or ice water, it keeps the nerves in a constant state stimulation. So next time you burn your hand, wrap it up. I bought some little 100% cotton white gloves from Walgreens and keep them in my first aid kit now– Best of Luck!
You should guest blog more often. I LOVE that episode of "The Office".
Pam: "I'm sorry you cooked your foot."
But seriously. These rolls look SICKENINGLY DELICIOUS. I dont' think I can make them. I would have to be locked up in mental institution after eating the whole pan of them and suffering from sugar-induced mania.
Thanks for all of the well-wishes! My dumb hand is so much better today- at least I can type now! Hubby appreciates all of the nice comments too, I think I'll have him pinch-hit more often!
Victoria- OUCH. Geez girl, that sounds way worse than mine. And I feel bad our caramel sauce took part in it!
Jennifer- you've probably seen that blue dish a lot- it's my favorite! I use it a lot in my pics, lol. Ya know, I got it as a wedding gift years ago. I just searched the net to see if I could find the exact one and I don't see it. But it's made by Chantal and it's a 1 1/2 qt ceramic dish. It's like a pie plate (similar size) but the sides go straight up instead of flaring out. I looked for ceramic Chantal dishes on Amazon and found lots that look similar- I think it's one of their quiche pans. Love it!
Interesting recipe. I'll have to give it a try. I'll also be watching for Sara on Studio 5!
Oh man… Sara, sorry about the hand. I was making a stupid stupid (did I mention how stupid?) caramel sauce two weeks ago, and dropped butter into the mixture, so that 400-degree sugar splattered up onto my hands. I have been in bandages for two weeks. I am un-bandaging today, and maybe I'll post a pic of my witch hand on my blog. But seriously… kitchen burns are the WORST. Loved the guest post, however, and am very intrigued by the no-rise roll dough. Biscuit-like? I may have to try it… Thanks!
Your husband is a popular guy judging from the comments he might be able to author his own "food my wife cooks" blog. It was good of him to chip in. Hope your doing better soon.
Get Better Soon Sara!
what a sweet hubby you have!! he is so funny. He just might have to guest post more often. I wouldn't be able to turn away a "soggy nuts" joke either, sorry 🙂
Those rolls look soooo yummy!
So sorry to hear about your hand.. i hope it's better in time for the show! wish I lived nearby so I could watch!
Hi-lar-i-ous. Seriously, your husband is a great guest typist. I hope you are feeling better soon!
HAHAHAHA that totally made my day. you must train eric in the way of the jedi sarah…
i would totally read his blogs.
and LOL at the office reference!
hope your hand de-cripples fast sarah!
I came on here today craving orange rolls. No joke. Do you think there's a world where it's acceptable to feed my children orange rolls for lunch? Oh yeah, the world where I'm 8 months pregnant and sick, the world I'm living in. Mustering all my energy to make these instead of doing any housework. That's rational right?
I'm a yeast-phobe, so I was really interested to see how these turned out – they look pretty good to me