BOOZY FRUIT AND NUT CINNAMON ROLLS

A friend of mine travels over to America a lot and we would always chat about all yummy stateside food she would enjoy when she was over there. One thing that came up was the cinnamon roll. They are big business over in the States but you don't really see them around here much, well not in Liverpool anyway. To cheer myself up stuck with the rain back home, I devised a recipe for some raisin and pecan packed rolls, spiked with a hint of Amaretto. A little of booze is always a good pick me up when your feeling a bit blue isn't it?

Yes, I've taken a shortcut and used ready made puff pastry in my recipe but it just means you can get the cinnamon rolls in your mouth a lot quicker. If you have the time and the inclination feel free to make your own puff pastry but ready made puff pastry is of such good quality nowadays that I wouldn't feel bad if you do (I certainly don't!).

I've also added some Amaretto soaked raisins into the mix as well partly because I think they really compliment the cinnamon and because I don't need an excuse to get some booze into a recipe. However if you are tee-total, leave it out of the recipe, the warm taste of the cinnamon spices, nuttiness of the pecans and sweetness of the raisins will still pack a big flavor punch.

What's great is that the fruit and nuts can be swapped around as well. Don't like pecans? Use some chopped walnuts or macadamias instead. Don't like raisins? Use sultana's or dried cranberries. You could even make them with just nuts or just fruit if you like. Use whatever combo you like as long as the combined weight of your fruit and nuts comes to 200g.

You can even serve them without the glaze if you want, although you would have to be insane to contemplate this. The glaze is what bring everything together into one sticky batch of baked perfection. You may not what to you use cream cheese or butter though so if you want to make a more simple glaze, you can just use some water icing by mixing together some icing sugar and water and pour that over instead. Always make sure you have some vanilla extract handy tho, that icing needs to have that vanilla flavor so that everything doesn't become to unbearably sugary sweet.

Ready for a treat? Here comes the recipe! All you need is a round baking dish that will be big enough to just pack in your rolls. I can't really give you an exact size as it depends on the size of your rolls but dish with a diameter of 20cm should suffice;

  Boozy Fruit And Nut Cinnamon Rolls

2 Tbsp Amaretto
100g Raisins
100g Chopped Pecans

100g Light Brown Sugar

Zest And Juice Of An Orange

2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 Heaped Tbsp Softened Butter

375g Ready Roll Puff Pastry

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Cream Cheese

150g Icing Sugar

1. Get your oven on to 190 degrees (170 fan).
2. In a bowl, add in the Amaretto, raisins, pecans, brown sugar, orange zest and cinnamon and give everything a good mix together and then leave to rest. Put 1 tbsp of the butter in a pan and melt over a low heat. 
3. On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry and give it a little roll with a rolling pin to get it around 2mm thin and brush all over with around half of the melted butter.
4. Take the boozy fruit and nut mix and scatter it all over thepuff pastry leaving a 1cm gap around the edges. Tightly roll the pastry into a long sausage shape and seal the edge with some more of the butter. 
5. Cut the sausage into 8 equal slices and place with the sliced side of the rolls facing up into a greased baking dish that's big enough so that the rolls are packed in with only a small gap between each.
6. Brush the top of the rolls with the remaining butter and then place in the oven around 35-45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and has puffed up to fill all the gaps.
7. After the rolls have been in the oven for around 30 minutesstart preparing the glaze. Place the remaining 1 tbsp of butter, vanilla, cream cheese and icing sugar and beat everything together until well combined. Begin to slowly add in the orange juice until the glaze loosens up so that it remains thick enough to coat the back of a spoon but is runny enough to pour. This is a balancing game so if you make the glaze too runny, add in some more icing sugar to thicken it up again.
8. Once the rolls are baked, remove them from the oven. Pour over half the glaze mix and leave for 5 minutes so the rolls soak up the glaze and then pour over the remaining glaze so the rolls go uber sticky.

The rolls are best served at this point as they will be at their maximum sticky, gooey best. If you do leave them to serve later they are still just as good but I would advise that you try and warm them up again slightly if you can and they so much nicer when they are hot. These are such a naughty little treat! All that gorgeous glaze dribbled over that crisp puff pastry encasing the boozy raisins and the crunchy and slightly toasted pecans, it's an array of flavors and textures wrapped up in a little roll that is going to create a little party in your mouth. Try baking a batch this weekend, you'd be a fruit and nut not too!