Fresh fruit is indeed a wonderful and fabulous part of summertime, but before you know it, summer will be over. It’s okay if you want to take a little time to mourn. Have a tissue. There, there. It’s okay. Seasons are cyclical, remember?

Dried fruit, luckily, isn’t just for camping. Some of my favorite comfort foods are made with dried fruit, like scones and cinnamon rolls. Hmmm. Cinnamon rolls. Sounds like a great way to start off the morning, doesn’t it?

Ingredients

• 4-1/2 to 5 cups unbleached AP flour
• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast (I like to use instant yeast, which works faster at higher temperatures)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot milk (125 F)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted (sweet) butter, cut into pieces
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup raisins or currants, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1-1/2 tablespoons milk or half and half
• A couple tablespoons of butter at room temperature, for greasing the pan
• Canola oil

Streusel filling

• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup AP flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup cold butter

Combine dry ingredients, then cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or two knives. I usually make this up while the mixer is kneading the dough, or when the dough is rising, and put the streusel filling in the refrigerator until it’s needed.

This is one of those recipes where it helps to have a stand mixer, like my beloved Kitchen-Aid. Or a strong arm and spoon.

Combine 2 cups flour with the yeast, sugar, and salt. Add hot milk and beat for a minute (medium speed). Next add the butter, eggs, and 1/4 cup flour. If you’re using a stand mixer, prepare to switch to the dough hook. Add the rest of the flour, half a cup at a time. Once the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, knead for about 5 minutes. The dough should be soft and springy. With the canola oil, oil a large, deep bowl and put the dough in there to rise. (Make sure the dough is lightly coated with the oil–put it in the bowl, then turn it once.) Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (If you’re using instant yeast, follow package directions regarding temperature and time.)

Using about 2 tablespoons of softened butter, thoroughly grease a 9 by 13 pan. Sprinkle your counter or other work surface with flour and turn out the dough. (I usually punch it down a bit before removing the dough from the bowl.) Roll the dough out into a rectangle, about 10 by 14 inches. Sprinkle the streusel filling across the dough, then sprinkle the raisins and nuts. (I sometimes leave out the raisins and nuts.) Carefully roll the dough lengthwise until you have a bulky jelly-roll style dough. Take a serrated knife (freshly sharpened if you can manage it) and carefully cut the roll crosswise about every 1-1/2 inches. This is going to be messy. Be very careful when you cut, or you’ll end up pinching and deforming the rolls. Arrange the rolls in the buttered 9 by 13 pan, cut sides down. Let rise at room temperature until puffy, about an hour. (See above reminder about the use of instant yeast.)

About 20 minutes before the rolls have finished rising, start preheating your oven to 375. Brush the tops of the rolls with a little milk or half and half. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. You can brush them with milk again after you’ve removed them from the oven, but I never have and it doesn’t seem to hurt the taste. You will probably need to loosen the rolls away from the side of the pan because the sugar will have melted and caused them to stick to the sides. Use a spatula or a knife–hot sugar ranks right up there with bacon grease in the kitchen napalm category. Invert the pan over a cooling rack and let the rolls fall out. They may separate, but they’ll probably just fall out still stuck together. Let them cool for 15 minutes or so before trying to pull them apart.

Icing is, as I said, optional, and I usually opt not to, but on those occasions when I do, I mix up 1 cup of powdered sugar (also known as confectioner’s sugar) with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and about 1-1/2 tablespoons of milk.