I started out the day by shuffling over to the freezer and taking out two pounds of butter. This was a sign it was going to be a special day.

I butter in bulk at Sam's Club. What does this say about me?

Shortly thereafter I took both of the babies on a little walk in their stroller... A little preemptive calorie burning on my part. I knew it would make me feel better about what I was about to do: Make these...

Hello, lover.

These are Mr. Blue Eyes Favorite. He ate too many one time and colicked. I kid you not.

(If you don't know what colic is, click here. It has to do with intestinal...... blockage........ discomfort. I won't say anymore. You get the picture. I'm pretty sure he'd rather not have me tell you that, but it's for your own good. Control yourself. You've been warned.)

I wouldn't necessarily say these are difficult to make, but they do take a little time (mostly because you have to wait for the dough to rise twice) and explanation, so I'd better quit rambling and get cooking...

Pecan Caramel Rolls 4x6 Recipe Card - Coming Soon!

Ingredient List...

• 1 Package Active Dry Yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp.)
• 1 Cup Warm Water
• 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 2 Tbsp. Melted Butter
• 1 Egg
• 3 1/4 Cups to 3 1/2 Cups Flour

• 1/2 Cup Melted Butter
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Corn Syrup
• 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Pecan Halves and Pieces

• 3 Tbsp. Room Temperature Butter
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Turbinado Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Pecans

First off, let me say that I use this:

I suppose you could do all your mixing and kneading by hand, but just to be clear, I do not. I attach my handy dandy (out of focus) dough hook to my mixer and off we go. Well, it 'goes'. I watch.

In your mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water...

Once dissolved (this takes about 3-5 minutes or so), add in 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 egg and 3 cups flour. Turn your mixer on low and let it begin to combine the ingredients.

Once the flour is starting to mix in, turn your mixer on to medium and mix until ingredients are well combined and forming a ball of dough around the dough hook. This should only take a couple minutes.

At this point, if your dough looks like this (sticky)...

...add more flour. It's most likely that it will look like this and you will need to add more flour. If so, add another 1/4 cup or so. Again, let your mixer incorporate the ingredients together.

I like my dough to look like this...

It's still a bit sticky; this is intentional. I like to leave my dough a bit sticky at this point so that it doesn't get too stiff later when we roll it out on a floured surface.

Next, spray a large bowl with cooking spray, put the dough in your bowl, and lightly spray the top of the dough with cooking spray as well. Then, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise for about an hour.

I like to put it in the sunshine, preferably on top of my dog kennel. The dog kennel placement has nothing to do with the flavor or outcome of the rolls. It just happens to be in a good spot in my kitchen where the sun is shining in. We've gotta work with what we've got, right?

While your dough is rising, you can make the pecan caramel sauce. All that needs to be done is to stir together 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons corn syrup, 1/2 cup milk and 1 cup pecan halves and pieces. Once you have combined all of these ingredients, pour them into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan..

Set this aside for now.

Once the dough has doubled in size...

...we are ready to move on to the next step, which is to roll it out.

I like to use a pastry cloth and an industrial size rolling pin for this process.

Why?

Well, because I love my rolling pin and it's the one I have. You can get away with using a regular rolling pin, but you'll have to use a bit more elbow grease.

That's a metaphor... Not a recipe ingredient. ;)

As for the pastry cloth... I think you can also get away without using this. Just roll it out on your (cleaned and floured) kitchen counter instead. However, I do think the pastry cloth makes the rolling out process quite a bit easier. It sort of grips the flour and the dough, keeping things in place better. They're really cheap and a good investment. But that's all up to you.

Flour your pastry cloth (or countertop) well. I used about 1/3 cup of flour, and spread it out evenly all over the cloth, then place your dough on the cloth and sprinkle the top with a bit more flour...

Punch down the dough and knead with your hands to incorporate the flour...

Make sure the surface of your dough has a nice, light, even layer of flour on it, then begin to roll it out...

If the dough starts to stick to your rolling pin, add a little flour and spread it around on the surface of the dough. I like to roll it out in a large rectangle, as shown above, because this is what works best for rolling it up and cutting it apart. Read on and you will see what I mean.

Once your dough is rolled out, it's time to top it with all the ingredients that make it what it is: sweet, nutty and delicious.

I start with (what else?) butter. Spread 3 tablespoons butter all over your dough...

Next, sprinkle 1 teaspoon cinnamon all over your dough...

Then, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar all over your dough...

At this point I like to smear it all around together a bit with my hands or a knife, to get a little more even distribution of the cinnamon and sugar...

After smearing, sprinkle dough with 1 tablespoon of turbinado sugar...

If you don't have this, go ahead and just use granulated sugar instead.

Finally, top the dough with a 1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans...

I don't skimp on the nuts, as you can tell.

Next, roll it up, lengthwise, like this...

... and find yourself a good, sharp knife. We want to cut into twelve rolls, so first, cut it in half...

Then cut each half in half...

Then cut each quarter into thirds...

This is how I do it, so that I get twelve relatively equal pieces. I won't be offended if you have your own method for divvying it up.

Hello, darlin'. Oh, so perdy.

Place each roll into your 9x13 pan (the one with the caramel sauce in the bottom) with the swirls facing up, like this...

Cover the rolls with a damp towel and place in a warm place (again, I like to use my dog kennel in the sun) and allow rolls to rise for about an hour.

Have they risen? Let's take a peak.

Oh, yes. Lookin' good.

Once rolls have risen, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I like to put my dish on a baking sheet and wrap it with aluminum foil to prevent the carmel from burning on the edges and/or bottom of the pan. You may not need to do this with your oven... All I know is that I need to do it with mine.

Place rolls in the oven and back for about 25 minutes, taking them out when they look like this...

Let them rest for ten minutes or so, then invert them onto the baking sheet, and voila!

Hello, beautiful.

Remember, self control, people! Learn from Mr. Blue Eyes' mistake. Since then he is now, of course, the epitomy of self control, as you can plainly see...

I can't believe I'm showing you this. Remember yesterday how sappy I was about him and how I probably made you roll your eyes at all my gushing? This should negate that whole thing for ya'.

It's disturbing on so many levels.

Yet, it also made me laugh myself silly.

We have a multi-faceted relationship, Mr. Blue Eyes and I.

 

Whew... That was a lot of pictures to edit! But I love you, and I love Mr. Blue Eyes, and I love pecan caramel rolls, so it was all worth it.

Here's one more pecan caramel roll shot to leave in your memory, to replace the baking-dish-licking shot above. I hope this redeems me...