things that can never be understood simply on the basis of the ingredients

Pumpkin-pecan cinnamon rolls with browned butter icing were on the breakfast menu again this year over the holidays. 

For me, making pumpkin-pecan cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning is certainly about the warm, sweet, buttery, frosted treat at the end.  But more than that, it's about the smell of the yeast, it's the elastic feel of the dough in my hands, it's using moms rolling pin and Pat's sifter, it's remembering who was here last year when we ate them and wondering who might be here next year. It's about the spode christmas plates they are served on.   It's about drinking a cup of coffee while I wait for the dough to rise. 

It's about the idea of a cinnamon roll.  The feeling of a cinnamon roll.   Kind of like Alice's sugar cookies in the round needlework holiday tin, or Aunt Lois's biscuits mixed by hand on the countertop, or Chris's shrimp pasta.  These are things that can never be understood simply on the basis of the ingredients.  

You know that saying "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts it's made of" ?    I am pretty sure the person who came up with that was referring to cinnamon rolls.  Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning probably. 

Comments

[Janet Ghio]

The perfect title for this post!!

[Amy at love made my home]

I hope that you had a great Christmas and that your New Year will be wonderful too! Best wishes for all good things in 2015 to you and yours! xx

[Joan]

That sifter is a relic, a true treasure! The way you feel about cinnamon rolls is how I feel when I make bread...oh yes, way more than the sum of its parts. Something so earthy and, and, and...I can't put it into words.

[emie]

Those look scrumptious!!!
BTW... I'd like to follow your blog via email... does typepad allow that? I can't find a button. I'm using a reader for now but will be using my ipad for the next 3 months. The format for the reader I use is not ipad friendly.
Thanks for all the inspiring post you do.... I LOVE reading your blog!!! Happy New Year!!!!
Emie

[Julie]

Yes! I have very similar thoughts, feelings, memories when making my mom's favorite whole wheat bread recipe. I only occasionally allow myself to use her bread knife I inherited as I never want it to lose its edge. But I see it when I reach for another and I smile at it's comfort......Thank you for this post. And she had a sifter for years like the one you have.

[Barbara Casillas]

I've always enjoyed baking. You're pictures evoke the essence of it so well.