Pumpkin Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

Saturday was pretty cold here. I even put on socks and got out the spaceheater! With the rain, wind, and overall cold and gloomy outside, I got into the fall spirit. I decided to make cinnamon rolls (partly because it reminds me of fall and partly because I am preggo and wanted cinnamon rolls). Brad and I have also been all about pumpkin lately since we bought a ton of puree that was on sale, so he suggested I try to incorporate the pumpkin into my rolls. Success.

They were soooooo yummy and the whole house smelled delicious. I did half gluten-free for me and half gluten-filled (aka normal) for Brad. Here's the recipe, Enjoy!

Pumpkin Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

• ROLLS:
• 1 cup warm milk 
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour OR 4 1/2 cups rice flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
•  
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• *Like I said earlier, I halved this recipe and did  half with the regular flour for Brad, and half with the rice flour for me. 
• 
  
• GLAZE:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (We LOVE pumpkin so I added a little more)
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• *This glaze was delicious but Brad and I thin k next time we might add some cream cheese to make it even more gooey/rich delicious. 

DIRECTIONS

• Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. 
• Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. 
• Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour (if gluten-free, use rice flour).
•  Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
• After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface (again, rice flour works here for gluten-free), cover and let rest for 10 minutes. 
• In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. 
• Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls.( Tip for cutting rolls that Brad taught me: slide some dental floss under the roll and then pull either side the opposite way. It makes a perfect cut and doesn't squish the roll) 
• Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. 
• Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. 
• While rolls are baking, beat together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over rolls when they are out of the oven.

Just a note: The gluten free version of these rolls is a little less gooey than the gluten-filled version. I am sure that is just because of the nature of the rice flour. They still taste delicious though I just wanted you to know that they won't be identical to the other version. 

5 Months/ Christmas Pictures/ Halloween

Last weekend, we reached the halfway point in this pregnancy! Wahooo! So for the 20 week milestone, Laura took pictures of me, and also some of our our little family for our Christmas cards. She is amazing. Somehow she makes me feel like I look like a hot mama even though about 80% of the time I feel like the cantaloupe inside of me is about to burst out because I am so big (can you believe he is now the size of a cantaloupe? That is huge, but he is about a pound now and just about 10inches long.).  Here are some of the pictures she took. I had a really hard time choosing my favorites so I'm sorry for the overload! Happy 5 months baking, Hezekiah! 

As for Halloween, it ended up being a really chill day around here. I LOVE Halloween, but couldn't find a good excuse/place to go that would merit getting in a costume...so we hung at home with the Walsh's, watched scary movies/ghost shows, learned about the Chupacabra, ate a spooky dinner (you don't want to know), and passed out candy to the whopping FIVE little kids that trick-or-treated here. It was a fun chill night to get scared and remember why I love this holiday in the glow of my light-up colorful spiders.