Cinnamon Rolls

"It's Conference once again!" The first weekend of every April and October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosts General Conference, a meeting where our present-day prophet and apostles address the world.

Last Conference, we enjoyed these yummy cinnamon rolls, found here at By Common Consent. They were very tasty and warm and perfect for a day at home, especially considering it snowed that morning.

Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup instant vanilla pudding powder
1 c warm water
1/2 cup melted butter
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
5-6 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon mixture
1 cup melted butter
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
Optional: raisins (say, 1/4 cup?), chopped nuts

Icing
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp milk
(As I recall this made way too much icing so if you can, go ahead and halve this)

1. Dissolve yeast in the 1/2 c warm water with the 2 Tbsp sugar and let rise/froth.
2. In another bowl, combine pudding and water; mix well. Add butter, eggs, and salt; mix well.
3. Add flour; once mixed, knead until smooth.
4. The original recipe says to let rise for 2 hours. We probably let it rise for only half an hour and it turned out well.
5. Once approximately doubled in size (or less if you're impatient like we were!), roll out into a large rectangle. Pour melted butter from "cinnamon mixture" heading over dough rectangle. Combine cinnamon and brown sugar and crumble over the top.
6. Roll rectangle into a nice cylinder. 
7. Slice cylinder into rolls. Ours were probably too tall which made them doughy in the middle when we baked them. The original recipe recommends 2-inch heights.
8. Place in baking dish... leave space in between since they will rise.
9. Let rise. Again, the original recipe says 2 hours, but we skimped on this and it worked out.
10. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes.
11. Combine icing ingredients and spread over the top of rolls when they are out of the oven.

Chocolate Pudding Pie

This one is simple enough and isn't all that creative, but often simple recipes are the best. Also, people are sometimes too afraid to ask about simple things, so it will be posted anyway. Sorry we didn't get a good final picture...we were hungry! ;^)

Chocolate Pudding Pie

9 graham crackers (1 sleeve)
1/4 C butter
1/4 C sugar
1 large package Jello pudding

1. Crush the graham crackers. The easiest way is to put them into a Ziploc bag and start mashing.
2. Melt the butter and add to the graham crackers along with the sugar.
3. Press into a 9" pie pan.
4. Bake for 15 minutes to set the crust.
5. Make Jello pudding per box instructions and pour it into the pie shell.
6. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Themes and variations:

• Consider adding chocolate chips to the pudding.
• You may try adding 1/4 C cocoa for a chocolate crust.