Puffy Heaven Cheese Rolls

Yes, through trial and error I have come up with the bomb of a recipe for those cheese rolls that I always see served at family gatherings. I'm having difficulty in parting with this recipe since it only took me 876 times to figure it out, but hey - it's my little tasty, puffy creation so why not share during this holy month. The best part is that includes no deep frying! You can also check out another version here that is filled with nutella (May God have mercy on our souls).

I use American measuring cups, so a little fyi before you get to choppin'...I mean kneadin'!

Puffy Heaven Cheese Rolls

3 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk powder (nido)
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup canned evaporated milk (rainbow)
1 egg
2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
A healthy pinch of saffron

Filling:

Cream Cheese (or kiri / al-marai cubes)
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Ok, here's the kicker. You're gonna need to break out that dusty bread machine that your grannie gave you as a gift that has been sitting in it's box in the back of your closet. I know, I know - but trust me. It's honkin' huge but it serves a purpose in your life now. You will no longer have to knead anything from here on out and the only effort you're gonna use will be to push the button on the god forsaken monster of a thing to the 'knead setting'.

So, if your machine is like mine - add all the liquid ingredients to your new best friend, followed by the dry ingredients and top with the yeast. Hit that button and walk away. No wait! Don't walk away! Stand there for about five minutes until it kneads it all together. If you feel like it's overly sticky, add about an extra 1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour to it. It should be pillsbury dough boy kind of feel when you poke it. But watch out for the kneader do-dad because it will break your knuckle. Not that I know anything about breaking my knuckle in a bread machine, no siree.

Once it's done its rising thang, take out that chunk of dough and try real hard not to squeeze it like a stress ball. Spray it with a very light coating of vegetable spray. As you go, you might need to spray again so it's not too sticky to work with. You be the judge! Now. The size of each cheese stuffed roll depends on your nationality. For real. The girls in the family make bite sized rolls. Being American and wanting everything to be super-sized, I would say mine are probably a little bit bigger than...say...a golf ball. A heavenly soft cheese filled golf ball that will rise to the size of a small baseball (well almost!).

Yank off that golf ball sized piece of dough and sort of flatten it out to oh, a two inch chubby disk. Put about 1/2 tsp or so of the cream cheese in the middle, then bring all sides of the chubby disk together and pinch to form a ball. With the pinched sides down, place the ball into a greased cake pan. The balls need to have a little space in between them for rising. Once all are in the pan, cover with some saran wrap until they almost double in size. Don't freak if they look monstrous!

Now, I have a big old Bosch stove here that the hub paid dearly for, but the wacked thing has no temperature gauge on it. It has a timer, a light, a rotisserie thing a-ma-bob and is big enough to bake half a lamb in it. But it has no numbers to show the temperature! I take that back - it does, but there are only two. The first being 120 and the last being 200 (I think). And that's in celsius. I don't do celsius! In between are little notches that mean nothing to me. I have no idea what the exact temperature is on the oven when I put these in, but I do know it's a few notches before the 200 mark. I'm thinking it's about 375-400 fahrenheit. I have learned to cope in many strange and unusual ways and have the odd ability now to stick my hands in the oven when it's piping hot and am able to determine if it's just right. Pay no attention to my 2nd and 3rd degree burn marks from bumping into the rack.

Okey dokey, so pop them in the hot oven for about 12-15 minutes until they are nice and golden brown on the top. I make mine a little bit browner than the ones you see here, but it's up to you. While they are baking, you can prepare the sugar syrup glaze:

Sugar Syrup Glaze

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cardamom
nice pinch of saffron (maybe 15 strands or so)

Bring all of the above to a boil. Simmer for about 3 minutes and set aside in a bowl. You won't use all of this, but you can save it in an airtight container and use for another recipe I'll give you in the future.

Once the rolls are done, pop them out of the oven and BRUSH on the syrup glaze you just made. The rolls are sweet already, so just a nice brush on the top is enough. You don't want them to get all soggy so don't even think about being lazy and just pouring on the syrup. You'll drown the rolls and we all know drowned rolls end up like goo.

Now watch them all disappear!

*On a side note, if you are stateside, you can do the same with a roll of biscuits. Cut each biscuit into half, shape into a disk, add the cheese and bake. If you do it with biscuits, you will pour the syrup on the top since there's no sugar in the dough. Just watch and be sure not to pour too much so it doesn't get soggy!

**Omani readers can find bread machines at Carrefour or Emax. I happened to find mine in Geant in UAE for a bargain price of AED130!