Sunday, October 5, 2008

Cinnamon Rolls (reposted from my former blog)

This is recipe from my former blog which I'm reposting at Lulu's request. I hope others give it a try and post their results on their blogs!

Dough for Rolls:

1 T. dry yeast softened in 1/4 cup lukewarm water for 5-15 minutes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter cut into small pieces
1/4 cup scalded milk + 2 T. cold milk
1 large egg
3/4 t. salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

In a mixing bowl, whisk sugar, butter, salt and scalded milk. Cool then add egg, 2 T. cold milk and yeast mixture. Gradually add the flour until it forms a stiff dough. You may need a little more or less than 2 cups. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth and satiny (about 3-5 minutes). Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about an hour in a warm place. The dough should double in size.

After it has risen, divide the dough in half (use a knife to cut it). Roll out thinly (about the thickness of a tortilla) into a long rectangular shape. Spread filling (see below) over the dough. Roll up lengthwise and cut into pinwheels slightly smaller than the height of the pan you'll be baking in.

Place the about 9 pinwheels in a 9" square pan or 12 in a 9" x 12" pan. There should be about 1-2 inches between each. Cover each pan with plastic wrap and allow to rise again for an hour or two. The dough should rise enough such that the rolls nearly touch each other in the pan. You can let it rise for longer than a few hours if you like (I just let them sit when I'm too busy to deal with them right away).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. or 175 degrees C. Remove the plastic wrap from the rolls and bake for between 20 and 30 minutes until the tops are golden. Be careful not to overbake them or the filling will get hard and the bread will dry out. Baking time is affected by the size and type of pan. Shallow, thinner pans need less time than deeper, thicker pans. Glaze if desired.

Cinnamon Filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
4 T. cinnamon

Cream the ingredients together and set aside. Soften the butter if necessary to make it spreadable but do not melt it!

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. of vanilla
~4 tbsp. whole milk

Scald the milk (heat to near boiling) then stir in the sugar and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cinnamon rolls. You can use less milk and make a thicker frosting rather than a glaze. Usually, I just add in sugar until the glaze reaches the consistency I want.

This recipe makes rolls that are very light and tender. They are much less heavy and bread-like than most cinnamon rolls. They also have a very strong cinnamon element so you may want to reduce the amount of cinnamon in the filling if you like a more subdued flavor.

The rolls also freeze well though it's better if you freeze them without icing and glaze them after they've thawed. Usually, I end up freezing at least half of them since my husband can't eat them quickly enough.

The basic dough can be used for endless varieties of rolls. You can fill them with any sort of thing you like.

3 comments:

Lulu said...

Oh thanks for that! I have saved the link for future reference. What I really need is a printer so that I can print all the great recipes I find on the net and make a recipe book- I suppose I could go old school and write them out but I am pretty sure that isn`t going to happen!

Thanks again

Anonymous said...

Wow, that brings back memories!

My daughter's youth group at church used to have roll bakes to raise money for trips. Not all that many of the group participated, and fewer parents did (quite a few people at our church have $$$ but some were generous for us, who needed subsidies). I remember many all-day Saturdays working in the hot "commercial" kitchen at the church making both "dinner rolls" and "cinnamon rolls" to sell. There would be a few people baking the cinnamon rolls during the sermons on Sunday mornings so folk who did not pre-order would be inspired to by some rolls.

I have not eaten a cinnamon roll since! Too much sugar and cinnamon for me, who has no sweet tooth!

But I used to make a dough very similar to yours to make "monkey bread." I could still eat that—if I needed extra calories. It's very fun to eat though. Roll the dough out a little less than 1/2" thick, sort of rectangular. Cut triangles about 2" wide, 3" long (don't get anal), dip each in melted butter (or butter with herbs—my favorite was fresh dill), and place them overlapping in a bundt pan (or tube pan—I think any pan would work). Bake. To eat, you put the whole round loaf on a platter and people pull off buttery chunks of rolls. Great with a nice soup or stew.

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