Luscious swirls of banana pecan goodness. 100% worth the effort. # 67: Bananas Foster Cinnamon Rolls

 

Happy Thursday! Only one more sleep until it’s Friday and your weekend’s off and running. Is anyone feeling like March and April have been a bit of a whirlwind? I certainly have. When you have a moment this weekend, I suggest grabbing a cinnamon roll (or two), finding a park or a bench, and munching away in the sun. Netflix can wait – get that vitamin D!

 

Have you ever ordered bananas foster in a restaurant and had the waiter flambe at the table? Smells like heaven! Though the flambe aspect is a little intimidating. The glaze for these rolls is supposed to imitate that bananas foster effect – pouring rum in at the last moment and lighting it ablaze. I was feeling a little more on the cautious side and I mixed my rum in and simply cooked it down a bit til the alcohol bite was less pronounced and it just had the rich flavor of the dark rum. Totally worked! No singed eyebrows for this girl.

 

Crank sifter? Check. Mickey Mouse spatula? Of course!

 

 

The first time I made cinnamon rolls, I forgot to add the yeast. I know, I know. Go ahead and laugh. They were still yummy, but denser than a bagel and super flat. I made a point to read through this recipe 4 times before starting and made sure I had mis en place before starting. And lo and behold, it worked!

 

This recipe was super interesting because it had me add additional flour after it proved. I guessing it was so it could achieve maximum rise without the weight of the extra flour? Besides that, I’m not sure on the reasoning.

 

Post-additional flour – ready to rock and roll.

 

 

So many good things going into this filling: cinnamon, pecans and bananas, oh my!

 

 

It was a very wet dough and required an ample amount of sprinkled flour to keep it from sticking to everything.

 

The moment where I get to be an artist and paint the butter on. Voila!

 

Aww yeahh.

 

One enormous cinnamon log! I used a serrated knife to cut the slices off so as not to squish the roll too much.

 

The more bananas the better! They help keep each roll from getting overly dry (without having to add gallons of sugary glaze to each roll.)

 

Off for a second-rise nap.

 

 

Glaze, sauce, syrup. Tomayto, tomahto. It all is delicious on top of a cinnamon roll. This recipe veered away from the powdered sugar & milk glaze found in store-bought cinnamon roll packages, and I think it’s a huge improvement. This one used dark brown sugar and butter as the base, so it actually had a flavor other than sugar!

 

I did try an itty-bitty version of a flambe but ended up switching to just stirring it in and cooking it through.

 

 

 

Happy munching!

 

 

Recipe from: http://thewoodandspoon.com/bananas-foster-cinnamon-rolls/