I'm Back & Look What Dan Made! Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

I may have gotten a little crazy with the frosting - I swear the roll is in there.

I was MIA. I admit it. I could list my excuses or make up something exciting like ninja training or doing this*. But we're all friends here so I'll come clean. I had an out patient procedure that while not life threatening or anything exciting like that... pretty much kicked my ass and left me stranded on the sofa for about a week drugged and ridiculous. Fable III was launched but I was too deliriously well delirious to even play really or do much of anything really. Most weeks I would find a way to enjoy this. I'm a pretty positive person but this is was pretty much the worst week it could have happened because I missed some really great stuff... in no particular order.

• Halloween! I missed Halloween. I'm not one of those gals who needs to go out every night and drags Dan to dance clubs or parties. But when it comes to Halloween. I'm a party girl. I love it more than anything and this Halloween we played Civilization V and I was asleep by 9pm. 
• The Rally to Restore Sanity. I would have done anything to go. I looked forward to it for months but it was not meant to be. I will forever have to live through the photos and anecdotes of my friends. Soon we'll be living in LA and I can't help but get a little sad thinking about all those times I've marched on Washington. This would have been a really nice high note to end my East Coast Era on. 
• We had to postpone having a food writer and her photographer over for dinner because I just couldn't get off the sofa. It pretty much broke my heart.  

On a positive note though there is a lot to look forward to...

• This morning we got up to have one of our favorite dates - Voting Day Date! Getting up before dawn to beat the rush and take steaming hot travel mugs over to the elementary school to do our our part as good citizens**. Don't forget to vote today! Especially if you are in Missouri. Those puppies need you to support Prop b.
• Yesterday was our first post as part of Vegan MoFo! What's that? It's a clever little project created by the gals over at Post Punk Kitchen where basically we're going to post at least 20 blog entries this month (that's every weekday) about being vegan. Yeah - I know that's what we do around here anyways... but It's OK to belong to something that supports what you do - especially something that is doing so much to help animals by making vegainism cool! 
• Thanksgiving is coming! We love Thanksgiving around here. We have pretend Thanksgiving dinner a few times a year... So yeah... our Thanksgivings are kinda a big deal and this year I'm hoping we can really bring it!
• The much anticipated Vegan Girl's Guide to Life is out! If you live on the East Coast you should check out one of these events! 
• Dan's Birthday! YAY! (if you never click on any of my links - this time make an exception)

There's more but let's just get back to these Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls that Dan made and we'll get to the rest in good time...

Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Rolls

• 1/4 Cup Warm Water 
• 1 Package Active Dry Yeast
• 1/3 Cup Soy Milk (room temp)
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (make sure you pack it in the cup) 
• 1 Tablespoon EnerG Egg Replacer (just the powder not made per instructions on the box)
• 3/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
• 1 Tablespoon Margarine (melted) 
• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1 /4 cup Whole Wheat Flour (save some to flour your surfaces for kneading and rolling the batter out)
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• Dash of Ground Cloves
• Olive Oil for covering your bowl 

Fillings

• 1/2 Cup Margarine (melted) 
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger
• 1/2 Teaspoon All-Spice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
• Dash of Cloves

Cream Cheese Frosting (this one is a bit more like a glaze but you can also use the recipe from our Carrot Cake Cupcakes recipe)

• 4 ozs Vegan Cream Cheese 
• 1/2 Cup Margarine 
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla 
• 1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar

In a bowl, and Yeast and Water and let sit for 3-5 minutes until it completely dissolves.  Then blend in the remaining Roll Ingredients except the Olive Oil with an electric hand mixer on a medium heat for around 2 minutes. It will make small clumps but that's OK as long as the ingredients are completely blended. No big clumps of Brown Sugar or anything.

Then on a floured surface, knead the batter with your fists and then roll into a large ball. Place it in a oiled metal bowl - turning it once to cover the Dough and then cover. Let sit in a warm place for 1 hour.

During that time, blend the Filling Ingredients until smooth.

Heat oven to 375.

Once your Dough has risen, roll it out on a Floured surface with a Floured rolling pin into a large rectangle. Then gently smooth out all the Filling ingredients over the Dough. Try to make sure it is even and there aren't any holes. Then gently roll the Dough into a large tube. Now here's where you can decide how fancy you wanna be...You can cut the Dough into 1 inch slices using a serrated knife or you can use a piece of dental floss or heavy thread to make the rolls. If you're a fancy pants - you can just place the thread under the Dough roll and bring the ends up and crisscross over the top of the Dough roll, then pull ends in opposite directions.

Place slices apart from each other on a covered cookie sheet. At this point you will want to make sure the end of the Dough roll is securely tucked or pinched into the roll. You will also want to shape the rolls into round rolls. You can also VERY SLIGHTLY push the center of the roll up - just the tiniest bit. Seriously just the tiniest. It should help make the bottom of the roll more secure so the buttery filling doesn't escape when you bake. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Now you have time to make some Frosting. First put all your Frosting ingredients in a food processor except Powdered Sugar and blend until smooth. Then gradually blend in the Powdered Sugar - like 1/2 a cup at a time.  

Then bake for 15-20 minutes or until the rolls are nice golden brown. Now, we are only 2 people so we're going to eating these all week. If you're like us, just put the frosting on the rolls before you want 'em and reheat them in the oven set at 200 for about 10 minutes. If you are going to eat these all right now - place your rolls in a glass lasagna or baking dish, put your frosting on each roll and pop in the oven set at 250 for 10-15 minutes. That should be long enough to melt your frosting.

* If I had any of those dresses - I would never wear a mask because I would want everyone to know it was me!
** Did everyone else have a stretchy guy in a Brooks Bros. knock-off suit - dressed like a character of an evil banker/mobster and a name tag that said "Representative for the Republican Party" - hovering over the sweet little old ladies checking IDs and voters registration this morning?