These cinnamon rolls are a family tradition in the Poe house. Naomi believes it’s important to teach your little Sillies to cook for themselves very early on – because they’ll have to manage it once they leave the nest.

This recipe, which is fun for little hands to roll out and ‘decorate’ with icing, is a recipe that allows for a lot of hands-on fun and immediate gratification – you can eat this bread straight from the oven!

You may want to prepare all the parts of this recipe, and let very little ones just do the ‘assembly work.’ You may use non dairy cream cheese and margarine in this recipe, in order to make it dairy free.

Dough:
1 package quick rise yeast
1 cup warm water
1 package cream cheese, at room temperature (Tofutti cream cheese may be used)
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
3 cups (12 oz or 340g) Better Batter all purpose flour
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cardamom

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

Icing:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (or Tofutti Cream cheese)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, stir together water and yeast. Let sit 5 minutes.
Add cream cheese and beat on medium speed until well combined, then
add 1 tbsp. of the sugar and 1 ½ cup of the flour and beat well. Turn the
mixer to low and add one whole egg and the yolk from the other egg
(saving the white aside), the salt, the cardamom, and ½ cup of the
melted butter. Mix well. Add the other 1 ½ cup flour, beating until a
soft dough forms.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and pour the rest of the butter
in. Coat the dough in the butter, cover with plastic wrap, and let
rise till doubled, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile mix the filling. Mix
the sugar,cinnamon, and butter in a bowl until crumbly.

Divide the dough in half. Lay out two sheets of plastic wrap and
grease a rolling pin with a bit of the butter that’s left in the
measuring cup. Roll out each portion of the dough into a 9 by 14 inch
rectangle. Spread half of the sugar mixture on each rectangle. Roll
up like a jelly roll, from the lengthwise side and pinch seams.

Cut each roll into seven portions and place in greased 8 inch cake
pans. Let rise for about 40 minutes. Brush each pan with the
reserved egg white.

Bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile beat the topping ingredients together

Remove the buns from the oven and smear the icing over them. When buns
are slightly warm, remove from pan and serve.