Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Cranberry-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

I recently subscribed to Eating Well magazine.  I'm not quite sure why when you can find all of their recipes for free on their website, but I guess the magazine draws my attention to recipes I want to try that I probably wouldn't discover if I were just randomly searching their site.  In the most recent issue, the recipe that jumped out at me was Cranberry-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls, which you can find here.  You can even see my review on the site.  So far, it's the only review. 

The cinnamon rolls looked so good in the picture, and having "cranberry-pecan" in the name completely sold me.  The one thing I thought was odd was that this recipe was in Eating Well magazine.  These are supposed to be "healthy" recipes, right?  When I think of "healthy", I usually don't think of corn syrup, sugar, butter and oil.  Regardless, I decided to consider them a splurge and give them a try.

I made them exactly as directed, which was easy enough.  A food processor made it easy to chop up the cranberries and pecans.

As I was assembling them in the muffin tin, I thought that these didn't really seem like "cinnamon rolls" at all since they're not rolled.  They seemed more like muffin-sized upside down cake with cinnamon-pecan topping instead of pineapple.  I also once again questioned why these were in a "healthy" recipe magazine.  Maybe because they're not topped with cream cheese?

I put them in the oven and set the timer.  They looked perfect when the timer went off, so I took them out and set the timer again to let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting them onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.  They came out perfectly.  There was a little topping left in the pan, so I spooned it on top of the "cinnamon rolls".

Cue the glamor shots...

They look perfect, don't they?

The real test was tasting them.  That's why I only rated them as "okay" in my review on the Eating Well site.  The topping is amazing, but how could it not be when it contains corn syrup, brown sugar and butter?  The "cinnamon rolls" themselves taste more like biscuits.  At 219 calories each, they should've been more filling.  After eating one, I wasn't full at all.  I wished I had eaten something more satisfying, like waffles or a yogurt parfait.  My husband ended up eating 3 of them.  The topping was really good, but they're definitely not healthy if you keep going back for more.  Suddenly a 219 calorie breakfast becomes 657 calories, and you're still hungry.  Thanks, Eating Well (sarcasm).

Waffle Quarter topped with Sweet Cranberry Sauce
Anyway, if you're not looking for a "healthy" recipe, and you just want a cranberry-pecan biscuit-like treat for your family over the holidays, these are a sure winner.  They do taste good.  I'd just rather eat a waffle topped with an ounce of my Sweet Cranberry Sauce.  You can get the waffle recipe here (it's also from Eating Well, but be sure to look at my blog post because I add some extra flavor to it) and the Sweet Cranberry Sauce recipe here.  For less than 90 calories I can have a waffle quarter topped with an ounce of sauce, and I think it tastes better and is more satisfying, but you can decide for yourself.  Why not make all the recipes and treat your family to a cranberry-themed breakfast buffet?  :)

Happy eating!

No comments:

Post a Comment