Biscuits meet cinnamon rolls

My engineer husband is, in general, a color-in-the-lines kinda guy. Give him a set of specs for how to build a bridge or, say, a recipe for cheesecake, and he will proceed step by step to a happy ending. This is a good thing. If the world were full of people like me, bridges might look really cute with flower beds set in all the arches or some such frippery, but no one would want to drive over them. And as for cheesecake, well, my baking disasters are well documented.

But every now and again, Bill decides to let loose in the kitchen. No, no, no, he not stripping down to an apron and doing the electric slide while blasting the sound track to The Full Monty (that was me). This is more of a Bill-style funkification of breakfast, which generally involves taking something basic and making it decadent while maintaining as much simplicity as possible.

Biscuits are a staple in our house. But, for some reason, Bill never gets around to making cinnamon buns, one of his favorite morning treats. Real cinnamon buns call for planning and yeast and all those things that are hard to come by when you are flying from soccer games to judo lessons to planning meetings.

So the other day, I stumbled into the kitchen in my usually morning stupor and found my husband bouncing around licking his fingers and looking more chipper than anyone should before 9 am. Cinnamon biscuits, he said. Or maybe biscuit buns? Or biscuit rolls? Anyway, just try one.

He handed me a flaky golden spiral oozing with cinnamon goo. There was all the warmth of sugary cinnamon, but the normal sweet roll was replaced with the buttery simplicity of a biscuit. Now as flavors go, I’ll trade sweet for buttery any hour of the day. Yes, these are a keeper. Put a pot of coffee on while the biscuits are baking and the house smells so good I almost forget to be grumpy about the morning.