PB banana cinnamon rolls.
After about a week of enjoyable temperatures and blue skies, the past couple of days have reverted back to a harsh wintery coldness, that's only exaggerated by living in a house with no heating. In true Emma style, I've been working on comfort foods that'll help build up an extra layer of fat (or three) to get us through the looming winter months, specifically cinnamon rolls in all their many guises. However, our kitchen appears to be conspiring against me. It would seem that it is so cold in there, that baked goods don't act as they usually would. Last night, I made two batches of cinnamon rolls (pumpkin and peanut butter), and neither of them rose properly, meaning they were heavier than the past ones I'd made. I was not impressed with this, particularly as I'd baked them for a pretty important meeting today. They were ok, but... just not right. I kept thinking about them late into the night, until this morning I headed straight down into the kitchen and started working on a new batch, this time keeping a tighter control of the overall temperature and hoping that it'd work out. Lesson learned: it turns out that not only does the room temperature affect how well I can feel my toes, but also how yeast-based goods react. It wasn't a total waste of energy because I got to improve further on bjorkedoff's recipe, so much that I now consider it to be my own, and out came these seriously decadent peanut butter banana cinnamon-rolls, with thick, salty-sweet peanut butter icing. Quite a mouthful, whatever way you look at it! Once I get back from England, they should soon be on sale at the Quiet Storm in Pittsburgh, along with some other vegan baked deliciousness :)