An old fashioned breakfast

Cinnamon rolls. Hot, yeasty, and straight from the oven. Does breakfast get any better than that?

It does if the recipe is from pioneer times. Or at least if we can imagine it is. I don't know how far back this recipe dates but I know they used a lot of sourdough in the 1800's and this cinnamon roll recipe calls for sourdough. So...if it doesn't date that far back please leave me with my illusions.

However far back it dates it is my understanding that this recipe is from the Appalachian area so it has its own history.

And whatever time period or geographic location it's from, it was a hit at my house this morning. My two year old grandson started out wanting to know 'what is this' and ended by saying 'I love this.' Everyone else just wanted seconds...and thirds... and...

Well, you get the idea.

So from my house to yours, here's a wonderful cinnamon roll recipe that's well worth the time it takes to make them. 

4 tsp salt

5 tbsp. sugar

2 cup milk

 1 cup sourdough starter (if you don't have a sourdough starter you can substitute 1 pkg yeast)

10 tbsp melted shortening

 4eggs, slightly beaten

6 cups sifted flour

Cinnamon filling (I had plenty of filling left over...and I used it liberally... so you may want to use only a cup of brown sugar)

1 1/2  cup packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons quality ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the yeast and milk and sugar and salt together and let rise for 30 minutes. (I skipped the rise time here because at this point my mixture was very liquidy and there wasn't any hope of it rising. I did let it sit for a few minutes just to make sure everything was mixed well. My sourdough starter was very watery...my daughter was the last one to feed it and she believes it might be extremely thirsty...so the consistency of your dough will vary with the liquid content of your sourdough). Add the remaining ingredients and mix, let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Mix up the filling, roll out the dough into a large rectangle, apply butter and add filling. Roll into a loaf, slice into cinnamon rolls and arrange on a buttered pan. Allow to rise again in a warm place for 30 minutes or until double. Bake at 400 for 10-20 minutes. (My first pan of cinnamon rolls didn't rise like it should have because I didn't put it in a warm enough spot. I went ahead and baked though to satisfy little bellies. The next batch rose nicely.)

Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

Milk-enough to bring sugar to frosting consistency

Spoon over rolls when they come out of the oven. 

Enjoy!