Baking K

Thanks to a lovely care package last week from my mom, my kitchen is now nicely equipped for baking. Good thing, too, because this afternoon I knew I'd have a hankering for cinnamon rolls in the morning.  They're in the oven now (because I figured it wasn't necessary to wait until morning to eat one) and the smell is divine. I adapted a recipe I found online to make it more friendly for my Georgian kitchen, but I can't remember the website. Here's what I came up with:

Mash's Cardamom Almond Rolls

Ingredients

3/4 C milk
1/4 C butter (I completely guestimated on this and visualized the volume of 1/2 a stick of butter)
3 1/4 C flour (the stuff I bought was white and powdery fine)
2 T yeast
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t salt (I used a large pinch)
1/4 C water
1 egg
1/2 C sugar
1/2 ground almonds
1/2 C butter softened (another exercise in imagining the size of a stick of butter)
cardamom
pumpkin pie spice (because I just happened to throw that in my suitcase at the last minute)

Directions

1.  Heat the milk in a saucepan (or, in my case, a small frying pan) until it's steaming and hot. Remove from heat and plop in the 1/4 C butter and stir until butter is melted.
2.  In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 C flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add water, egg, and milk/butter. Mix well. Add the remaining flour 1/4 C at a time, mixing well after each addition. When the dough pulls together, turn it onto a floured surface and knead the entire length of "Winds of Change" (I was listening to the radio) or until smooth.
3.  Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
4.  Mix together the 1/2 C butter, the ground almonds, a semi-generous shake of cardamom (it depends on how fresh your cardamom is....this stuff can be overpowering), and a few generous shakes of pumpkin pie spice.
5.  Roll out the dough. I rolled it until it was the length of my forearm and about 2/3 as tall.
6.  Spread the butter/sugar/almond/spice mixture onto the dough and roll it up along the long side. Cut into 10 pieces and put in a pan (I used an 8X8).
7. Bake at 375F/190C for 20 minutes.

I'll let you know how they turn out (and try to take a photo or two before I eat them all)! I'm thinking I should have added orange zest to the buttery spice mixture, but I don't have any oranges at the moment.