The Tradition of the Christmas Rolls

  I believe Christmas is the perfect time of the year to show our appreciation to those who affect our lives throughout the year. Each year I try to do something nice for our neighbors and friends by giving small tokens of my appreciation. In the past I have given the traditional gifts like candy and small tokens with cute verses to go with it.  A few years ago while experimenting with ideas I found my young women leaders bread recipe and thought I would make cinnamon rolls for the neighbors.  I began the process and decided they needed to be a little more festive or colorful, so instead of butter, cinnamon and sugar, I added raspberry pie filling in the center of the rolls and baked them.  I loved how pretty they were when they came out of the oven, and after I topped them with cream cheese frosting they looked very Christmas-y.  I had Doug and the kids test them to see if they tasted OK, and they said they were yummy so I gave them away to the neighbors on paper plates.  Since then, the raspberry Christmas rolls have become a tradition in our family.  We take a day during the holidays and bake as many as we can and take them around to our friends and neighbors while they are still warm.  Each year I seem to make a few more than the last and this year we did a record number of 210 rolls.  I put them in their own pans now so that I can bake and frost them without running out of cookie sheets to bake them on.  The kids all pitch in and help, this year Mady did most of the spreading and cutting, Cody and I made the dough (we did 11 batches) and Cami, Dalyon and Doug helped intermittently.  I'm learning as I go, and this year I learned that they are better if I make the rolls then let them raise for a few hours before I bake them, instead of letting the dough rise in a bowl and punching it down before making them, and it is faster too.  This year we made them the day before Christmas Eve, and Doug, Cami and Dalyon got the fun of delivering them that night.  I was glad to hear that everyone still likes them.  I'm also glad to see that the kids are showing more interest in making them, Cody made a batch from start to finish by himself!

Cody rolling the dough out.  I'm glad he likes to cook, and does a good job.

We are cutting the rolls with thread.  It is easier with two people because
when you cross the thread to cut the pie filling oozes out onto the counter unless
there is another set of hands to grab it and put it on the sheet.   Teamwork!

Mady was sampling the pie filling.  "Its OK to put on the rolls" she told me. 

Here they are partially raised and ready to bake.  I didn't get a picture
of them finished, but with the icing on them they are glossy and yummy.  I
also sprinkle green sugar sprinkles on them after the icing to make them look
more like Christmas.

Christmas roll day is always a long day, but very satisfying.