Sometimes we have just had enough of soft and flakey croissants and buttery brioche for breakfast on weekends. Don’t get me wrong, I will never tire of the fact that I just need to walk 50 metres to pick up some of the best patisseries mankind has to offer, but it is nice to take a break. So I decided to mix it up a little this weekend, and make my very first batch of cinnamon rolls. The last time I had a cinnamon roll, I must have been 16 and in a strip mall in Wisconsin, so my memories are a bit vague. All I really remember is: a cinnamon roll tastes great!

After a bit of internet research I settled on the Cinnamon Swirl Buns from Smitten Kitchen (a fabulous blog I recently have become addicted to), with a couple of adjustments. The main one was that I just could not bring myself to use all that sugar for the filling, so I used about half the quantity. I don’t think a real American would have approved, but the non-connaisseurs here in Paris had no idea that they were being short changed, and still loved my rolls.

The other thing I did was to prepare the rolls the night before and stick the baking tray with the unbaked rolls into the fridge. That way, I just needed to chuck them into the oven the next morning and 20 minutes later I had fresh rolls. Finally, I baked some of the rolls in little ramekins as I did not have enough baking trays and I actually think they looked really sweet, hence the photo above!

- Emilie