Health Insurance Blog

So basically I love my bread machine. A lot.  But I had to figure out how to use it right.  Whenever I made bread, it would turn out dry and crumbly.  I tried several recipes and determined that I truly hate the way bread cooks in a bread machine.  So I decided to simply make the dough (using the same method only placing it on the dough setting instead of another setting) and then bake it in my oven.  Now, instead of being my enemy, my bread machine is among my favorite kitchen contraptions.

With that being said, and with love being in the air, I have utilized my bread machine today to make Heart shaped Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls.

Is your mouth watering yet?  Ok, ok, I’ll tell you how to make them.

So I mixed all my ingredients together in the bread machine on the dough setting and let the magic work for about an hour and a half while I worked on other things.

Then I rolled out my dough on powdered sugar.  You can also use flour, but I prefer the extra sweet accident provided by rolling my sweet dough out on powdered sugar.

I divided the dough in half.

And rolled the half of the dough into a large rectangle, and mixed the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Then I generously smeared softened butter all over the dough and coated it with the brown sugar cinnamon mixture.

Afterwards I peeled and cored two small granny smith apples with this fancy kitchen tool.  I highly recommend these if you haven’t purchased one yet.

Mmmmm Apples!

Then you spread half of the chopped apples on your dough.

And here comes my favorite part:

Drizzle the apples with your favorite caramel sauce.  I use any kind of caramel ice cream topping but you can also use homemade caramel sauce.  Caramel Apple Cinnamonny goodness.

Now comes the rolling.  Because of Valentine’s day, I wanted to make these hearts.  However I make this recipe often and roll them just like normal cinnamon rolls.

So I rolled one side part way and then the other side until they met in the middle.

And then I cut them in about 1 inch pieces.

Then I formed them into this lovely heart shape.

And placed them onto a greased cookie sheet.

Then you let them rise for about an hour.  Because of the sticky nature of the rolls, I do not cover them.  I place them inside of my barely warm oven.  To do this, I turn the oven on until it barely warms up, then I turn off the oven and place my rolls in a nice cozy place to help the yeast grow.  The rolls come out looking like this.

I preheat the oven to 350 degrees and let these beauties cook for about 15-20 min.

Add some cream cheese frosting and enjoy these cinnamon rolls with a cup of milk and your sweetheart!

Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 18 rolls

For Dough:

1 1/3 cup warm water

1 Tbs instant dry yeast

1/2 cup oil

1 egg

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs sugar

4 1/2 cups flour

Mix ingredients in order listed and place in bread machine on dough setting.  If you do not have a bread machine, mix water, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Let yeast grow for 5 min.  Mix other ingredients together and knead until well combined.  Cover and raise until doubled.

For topping:

1 stick softened butter.  For Dairy free option, use margarine.

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tbs cinnamon

2 small granny smith apples peeled and chopped

3-4 Tbs caramel sauce

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Health Insurance Specialists!

This post was written by Marissa Gramoll.

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