Kaia and I have had a great day so far. We spent the morning watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons, then she got completely pruned in the bath, and this afternoon we baked ourself a treat!

The recipe is from an old restaurant that use to be in downtown Asheville. When I was in high school, down town Asheville wasn’t really a place you would go to, unless you were headed to the 2 antique stores that were there. Most of the buildings were run down and uninhabited. At some point, The Stone Soup, opened with an amazing bakery and fun sandwiches. It started bringing more people down town and more people became interested in transforming the place. Now Asheville has a fantastic downtown with great restaurants, shops, buskers, music, etc. I don’t know what ever happened to the Stone Soup. But, here is the recipe for the cinnamon rolls.

Stone Soup Cinnamon Swirls

2 eggs beaten, room temp.
2 T. dry yeast
2 ¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. Cloves
¼ tsp. Allspice
4 ½ unbleached flour (I didn’t have any, so I used Oat flour and it worked fine)
12 T Butter
½ cup water
1 2/3 cup milk (I used rice milk)
2 ½ whole wheat flour

Filling
3 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1 T. cinnamon

1) Combine dry ingredients, except whole wheat flour, in a bowl and set aside.

2) Combine and heat butter, water, and milk until lukewarm. Put this in your mixing bowl. Add the beaten, room temp. eggs and the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly.

3) Add the whole wheat flour slowly until the dough pulls away from the bowl. You might not use it all OR you might need a little more. Be sure you check the dough’s consistency while adding the WW flour. You don’t want the dough to get too heavy, which is easy to do. Knead the dough in the mixer for 7 minutes OR by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover in a bowl and let double in size. This will take AT LEAST 30 minutes. It will probably take longer. Be patient. You will be rewarded.

4) Make the filling in the mean time. Carefully melt butter and add sugar and cinnamon. Put aside.

5) When the dough has risen, roll it out into a rectangle about 14 inches by 9 inches. Paint the melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar mix on the dough leaving the ½ inch bare at the bottom.

6) Carefully roll it up starting from the top, moving toward you. Pinch the seam together.

7) Cut the rolls into 1 inch (or a little bigger : )) and place them on a baking sheet (lined with parchment) evenly, at least 2 inches apart.

8) Bake in a preheated 350* oven until they have a light crust all the way around, ~25 minutes. The sides should not be soft, but golden brown and delicious!

9) Glaze as desired. I used powdered sugar, rice milk and a few drops of orange essential oil.

Enjoy!!