A Spring Semester Check-In, and Baked! Vol. 4: Raspberry Sweet Rolls

Spring semester involves a 1-week spring break that is quickly coming to an end.

This past week has been a wonderful break from our regular school schedule, though not by any means a break from school.  Our game plan this week was for me to study during the time that I would normally be in class so that I could have my nights free to spend with family and friends.

The plan worked out pretty well, and the absence of class this past week was a welcome break from having another 12 lectures added onto my study load, but really there's never quite enough time in the day.

I needed lots of time with these toes.  And these chubby arms and legs.

Instead of fretting about how much extra studying I wish I had been able to get done, I will choose to focus on how nice it was to sleep in a few days (when my amazing wife got up with the kids and let me stay in bed), spend more hours of the day with my biological family than with my school family (though the latter makes fine company, I prefer the former ☺), and yes, have some time to catch up on school work.

So far this semester we've covered orthopedics, rheumatology, neurology, ophthalmology, and 

hematology, with nephrology, urology, and public health still to come before the semester's end.  Highlights have been getting to have more simulated patient days, our casting/splinting workshop, and with each unit realizing we're a little closer to getting to clinic in the fall.

After this semester we will have a brief summer (May-June) term followed by a summer break over July and August to work on master's projects and prepare for our comprehensive academic year final exam in October.  Assuming the exam goes well, we will start our first clinical rotation the following week.  

The clinical staff has been hard at work coordinating sites for our rotations and doing their best to grant our requests for our electives.  Over the coming months we should start getting some of our clinical assignments, and I'm excited to see what's in store!

Baked! Vol. 4: Raspberry Sweet Rolls

I baked these a while ago for Valentine's day.  They came up on my Facebook feed one weekend as a post a friend had liked, and I was intrigued - a cinnamon-bun style recipe but with whole raspberries rolled up into the dough, set off with a nice hit of lemon zest.

(9"x13" pan)

I got so caught up in the idea I committed the cardinal sin of baking and didn't read through the recipe before I had my yeast, coconut oil, and water going in my mixing bowl.  9 cups of flour and 2 trips to the grocery store later, these were well on their way to deliciousness.  I think my family (and my school family) would both agree these were a hit.

(Half sheet pan; don't forget to double-pan!)

Raspberry Sweet Rolls

Yield: 24-30 large rolls or ~80 small rolls

Ingredients

Dough

• 1.5 Tablespoons Yeast
• 3 Cups Warm Water
• 6 Tablespoon Coconut Oil (or shortening)
• 3/4 Cup White Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 9 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (Yes, you read that right)
• 2 Eggs

Filling

• 3 1/2 Cups Frozen Raspberries
• 1/3 Cup White Sugar
• Zest of 1 Large Lemon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Cornstarch
• 1/2 Cup Softened Butter
• 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar

Frosting

• 4 ounces Cream Cheese, room-temperature
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, room-temperature (I used salted)
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Zest

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the beater attachment combine Yeast (1.5 T), Warm Water (3 C), Coconut Oil (6 T), White Sugar (3/4 C), and Salt (1 T).  Beat until well combined.
2. Add 2 Cups of Flour and beat until smooth; add eggs and continue beating.
3. Switch the the dough hook and continue mixing while adding in the remaining flour; mix for about 2 minutes.  This is a lot of dough for a stand mixer so be brave and keep stopping the mixer to push it down if necessary.
4. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand.  Sprinkle with more flour if the dough is sticky.  Knead until the dough is smooth.
5. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with saran wrap.  Leave in a warm area and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).
6. After rising: remove dough to a lightly floured surface and divide in two parts.
7. Assemble Rolls  - preheat oven to 425 degrees F
1. Mix the Filling: in a medium bowl stir together Frozen Raspberries (3 1/2 C), White Sugar (1/3 C), Lemon Zest (from 1 Lg Lemon), and Cornstarch (1 1/2 t).  Keeping the Raspberries intact as much as possible will make for prettier rolls.
2. Large Rolls - grease a 9"x13" baking pan and line with parchment paper.  If your 9"x13" pan is metal and you have another of the same size - double pan.  The bottoms of my large rolls got "deeply caramelized."
1. Using a rolling pin roll out one half of the dough to a rectangle approximately 20" wide x 12" deep.  
2. Spread 4 T softened Butter evenly over the piece of dough, leaving about 1/2 inch margin along the edge farthest from you, and sprinkle with 1/4 C Brown Sugar. 
3. Sprinkle dough with 1/2 of the Raspberry mixture.  The berries will be somewhat sparse over the dough but it won't look that way once they're rolled up.  The final effect will be better if you make sure there are some raspberries close the the edge nearest you (this will be the center of the sweet rolls).
4. Gently roll the dough, starting with the long edge close to you.  I found this easiest to do by folding it back over itself just a little bit along the entire width of the dough, then folding that back again, until I was easily able to roll it all together.  Press the 1/2" margin not covered with butter into the roll to seal it.
5. Slice the roll into 1.5"-2" pieces, placing each onto the greased and lined pan as you go.  Mine were a little floppy and my Raspberries were threatening to escape, so slicing a few at a time did not work for me.  The rolls will rise a bit so you don't want them super close together.  See the picture above.
3. Mini Rolls - grease a half-sheet pan (18"x13") and line it with parchment paper (mine was only semi-lined since the paper wasn't as large as the pan; I just wanted easier roll removal and cleanup).  Double-pan (stick your pan inside a second pan of the same size) if possible to prevent the bottoms of the rolls burning.
1. Divide half of the original dough into two parts again (each will be 1/4 of the original dough).
2. Directions are the same as for large rolls with the following adjustments: roll out the piece of dough to approximately 20" wide x 8" deep; slice the roll into approximately 1" pieces.  When placing the rolls on the pan I staggered them in alternating rows of 5s and 4s (see pictures).  The smaller rolls will still rise a bit so you don't want them super close.
8. Cover rolls with plastic wrap (it's not a bad idea to grease the plastic wrap a bit so it won't be hard to remove) and leave them to get nice a puffy (the original recipe said they should double in size; depending on how big they came out of your roll, doubling could mean they are threatening to bust right out of the pan, so you be the judge.  They will also puff up a bit more in the oven, and they will be easier to separate the less they are pushing into each other).  This should take approximately 30 minutes for the large rolls and maybe 45 minutes for the small.
9. Bake rolls at 425 F for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F and bake 5-7 minutes longer until golden brown.  I found my large and small rolls all needed more time than this to look nice and golden.
10. While the rolls are cooling beat together the ingredients for the frosting.  Frost the rolls when cool if you like your frosting to hold up a bit more structure, or when warm if you like it more like a glaze.