Thursday Morning Breakfast

It's my turn again to bring in breakfast for work. Last time I made biscuits and gravy loaded with TLC. People went back for thirds. How to out do that this time? I would make savory cheddar and cheese rolls. Fashioned very similarly to our dear friend the cinnamon roll, these puppies were stuffed with ham and cheese instead of cinnamon and sugar. The recipe was a hodge-podge of ideas, and therefore I have re-written it below.

Up close and personal.

The dough was adapted from Pink Parsely. Sooooo good! Will have to make those cupcakes again, they were the cutest stinkin cupcakes you've ever seen. And they tasted identical to Cinnabon.

And finally, as my mother can attest, I don't stop. Thursday evening I made caramel. Sweet, salty caramel. I had heavy whipping cream left over and a house guest coming to my parents place who devours my caramel. The little beauties are a pain in the butt to wrap, but very much worth it. Caramel recipe to come. Pretty standard though, just time consuming. You can sprinkle sea salt on top of the caramel squares, but it just gets lost when you wrap them individually.

Here they are in the different stages of wrapping. I felt like Lucille Ball a bit. I don't like wrapping them alone, my attention span barely lasts, and too many of them end up in my stomach or the trash because I just can't wrap them all. Hopefully Christine will find the ones I left for her.

Aren't they so gorgeous all glossy like that?

Cheddar and Cheese Breakfast Rolls
Dough
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk (100-110 degrees F)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour

Filling
3 Tblsp Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 Tblsp butter, room temperature
1 cup good ham, diced

1 1/2 cup cheese1 Tblsp chives, chopped

Topping
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 Tblsp chives, chopped

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk in a large bowl and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.

Mix in the eggs, butter, and salt. Add flour and mix until well blended and the dough forms a ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead about 5-10 times. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about one hour). Even though I love kneading dough, I let the Kitchenaid do all of the work, it was a weeknight!

After the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll out to 22"x13". Fill sheet of buttery pastry with a thin layer of cream cheese and butter. Generously sprinkle over shredded cheese and ham. I prefer to use a mixture of white melting cheeses. Anything from jack to fontina. Call me crazy, but I'm partial to processed white American cheese. It melts so well! Finish off with a dusting of chives.

This is only half the dough, from my test batch the weekend before.

The recipe above will be twice as large.

Roll pastry into a log and cut in 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces. Try cutting the dough using unflavored dental floss. It makes such clean cuts. Arrange in a 9x13 pan, cover and let rest for an hour in a warm place.

The dental floss technique. It even cuts through the ham.

Here they are after the second rise. I never achieve

double the volume in the second rise.

When they bake, the puff up very nicely.

Bake at 325F for 30 minutes or until slightly golden. During the last 5 minutes, top with cheddar cheese and chopped chives.

I toyed with the idea of adding a very thick alfredo sauce to mimic a cinnamon roll's frosting. The sauce came out too salty, so I decided to forgo the extra fat. The rolls were plenty perfect without.

Note: This recipe is easily halved or doubled. For my coworkers, I made 1.5 batches, which filled two perfect 9x13 pans and some left over rolled ends.