A Favorite Mistake

Joe and I (and I suppose the kids too) belong to this amazing church. I know most people say that their church is fantastic and amazing and all that, but ours really REALLY is. It goes so much deeper than the message we receive on Sunday (which is also so amazing), we have developed strong relationships with several people in our church and one of the ways we did this was by joining an Ekklesia (house church, small group, etc). The people in this group have truly become family to us. 

Our Ekklesia gets together weekly for dinner and usually a message, some weeks we have game night or worship. Something that our group has decided to do is follow Gods commandment to go tell others about Him. We are going to Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-haw-ka) Mexico this summer. We are going to be leading a bible day camp for kids there and also building chicken coops in the rural villages surrounding Oaxaca. As you can probably guess this trip is going to be pretty spendy. We are taking Kennidy but leaving Cruz with Grandma. SO for the 3 of us it is going to be over $4000, but more about that later ;)

Our group is currently fundraising for our mission and this weeks fundraiser was a combination bake/garage sale. Unfortunately Joe and I are going to be out of town for a wedding so we can't be at the garage sale, so to compensate I baked my birth weight in baked goods. No joke. 

Here's the proof.

There was more but *oops* it got eaten. Lets just say certain members of this family have impulse/portion control issues. Their *plural* names will remain anonymous. 

I made Snickerdoodles, Oatmeal cookies, and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies AND cinnamon rolls and a mystery roll.....read on. 

Lets preface this mystery roll story by saying I am a terrible planner. These darn rolls cost me 2, almost 3, trips to the grocery store. 

I used one of my culinary idols recipes for the cinnamon rolls. The every fancy and beautifully buttered Miss Paula Deen. If it came down to shadowing one of my culinary/domestic hero's for a day I would be so stuck between her, Martha Stewart, & Ina Garten. Throw Oprah in there and we have a serious dilemma. 

Needless to say this is a pretty great Paula recipe. Lots of butter. Here is the link to the recipe on her page. I made one batch true to her fashion of these delicious cinnamon rolls. Then I ran out of cinnamon, rookie mistake. I still had 3 more batches of dough too, so I was literally up poop creek without a paddle. I scoured my brain and I came up with a brilliant idea, one I had never heard of before. So I am officially capitalizing on this idea....drumroll please......dum dum dum dum 

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY ROLLS!!!!!!

 ***mindblown*** Delicious!!! I made 2 different kinds, with 2 kinds of peanut butter and 2 kinds of jelly. Luckily I am a mom to a 7 year old and a staple in her diet is peanut butter and jelly so we had lots of it on hand. I made a crunchy peanut butter and grape jelly roll and also a creamy peanut butter and raspberry jelly roll. Both equally delicious. 

I altered Paula's recipe a little bit; here is my rendition. 

 Dough

2 1/2 tsp. yeast 

1/2 cup HOT water 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup warmed milk 1/3 cup melted butter  1 tsp. salt 1 egg 4-41/2 cups flour

Filling

Peanut Butter

Jelly 

1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 200. Mix the hot water and yeast in a bowl and set aside. Mix sugar, warm milk, melted butter, salt and egg until well blended. Slowly mix in about half of the flour (a little more or a little less is NO big deal) then add in the yeast mixture. Add the remaining flour until the dough is easy to work with, again a little more or a little less than called for is ok. Next knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 min. Spray an all glass or all metal (no rubber or plastic) bowl with some Pam and add your dough. Cover with a light cloth towel.  This next step is super important(!!!!), SHUT THE OVEN OFF. Put the bowl in the oven and leave the door cracked open. The light heat will help your dough rise faster. Let the dough rise for about an hour or until the dough doubles in size. Then take it out of the oven and punch it down. Roll out the dough until it is about 15x9 inches, bigger or smaller is okay too, it just depends on how thick/thin you like your rolls. 

Now here is the fun part. In a bowl mix up a few table spoons of peanut butter and a few tablespoons of Jelly until fully blended. 

Re-reheat oven to 350. 

Spread it on top of the dough evenly. Roll up the dough and slice with either a really sharp knife or with dental floss. You should get between 10 and 15 slices, depending on how thick you want your rolls. 

Drizzle melted butter all over bottom of a baking dish (usually I would use a 10x13 dish but I made smaller batches for the bake sale). Add roll slices with a little space in between them. Let them rise again until doubled, usually about 20 min or so in a warm kitchen. 

Bake in the oven for 30-35 min. (Less if you like your doughs a little doughy). 

I wouldn't do a glaze on these because they are already pretty sweet and a little savory and I think a glaze would make them too sweet, but maybe you feel differently. 

Obviously these are a little bit healthier (but not much) than regular cinnamon rolls. They still make a yummy breakfast/dessert. And there is a little more variety with these bad boys; experiment with different kinds of nut butters and jellys. Maybe drizzle some honey on them. IDK, just have fun with it. 

Back to our mission trip. If you feel at all led to help us out financially on this trip,deltaministries is the link and all you do is  click on Donate/Payment, Click on Donate Online, under Categories & Funds choose Short-Term missionary support from the dropdown, then in comments type that you want your donation to go to Lauren & Joe Mendoza and put our team number which is #2013409FS. We really appreciate any help we can get! Plus we will send you pictures and a thank you card....even in Spanish if you want :) 

Thank you all so much for reading! Cheers!