Raspberries + Cream Cheese + Cinnamon + Walnuts = yes.

I've been fantasizing about making cinnamon rolls, ever since winter. True story-- but I was too busy in the winter, with all the grad school stuff they throw at you (dear higher education, you're a bully!), and then I was too bogged down in the spring, with all the school stuff + vacuuming up all the dog hair that emerged out of nowhere (well, i guess it all emerged from my dog... mystery, solved). So, that leads us to right now, mid-summer, for me to make these labor-intensive (but totally worth it) breakfast (and dinner) treats! Yes, I had to crank the AC up to offset the heat from the oven, but man-- my belly (and the husband's as well) gives me a hi-five for that completely un-economical decision to use an oven during a midwest summer.



Speaking of summer, berries are EVERYWHERE, and since there was a crazy sale on raspberries at the chain grocery store, i caved and bought 4 cartons (i know, i know-- i totally should only buy produce from local stores like the co-op, where we're actually members... or the farmer's market... i'm sorry!). What was I going to do with that many raspberries?! I ate them by the fistfuls, forced them onto Jarrod and Juni, and threw them into salads. Then, I thought about my favorite summer camp sandwich from way back when... cream cheese and jelly. And then it dawned on me. The cinnamon roll recipe I had in front of me folded in cream cheese into the dough (thanks, Joy the Baker, and... (drool)... I can shove raspberries into the swirly pockets of these cinnamon rolls! They'll be just like childhood awesomeness!

So I did it.

It took 4.5 hours.

Seriously.

So what if Jarrod and I split one as a 1 am snack on a Wednesday night? no biggie.



Check out Joy the Baker's recipe for these yummies-- all I did was cut the amount of confectioner's sugar by a little more than half (for the icing-- it was more of a glaze, which was perfect for my taste), and instead of the raisins + pecans in the filling, sprinkled in about 1 cup of fresh raspberries.

The cinnamon roll dough itself ended up tasting (and having the consistency of) a light and mildly-sweet brioche, and the raspberries definitely added a tart zing to the sugary filling. I have a feeling I'll be making these again soon... now, if only I didn't need the oven for this...