Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls

Do you like your cinnamon rolls super soft and puffy or do you prefer them somewhat crunchy on the outside and soft, yet not bread-like on the inside? I belong to both camps. I love cinnamon rolls of all sorts. I am not picky with them. Especially when they are homemade.

Here’s the recipe for the second variety. I’ll come back to you with the first kind some other time. Make these rolls. They are F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C! Guess what? You can make the dough,  shape the rolls and leave them overnight in the refrigerator to rise. In the morning, take them out and bake. The inviting cinnamony smell wafting through the air will wake up everyone in your house. Rolls will be gone soon after. Trust me. Been there. Want to go there again.

Cinnamon Rolls

Let’s begin.

Cinnamon Rolls

Make the dough, knead it, and let it rise.

Cinnamon Rolls

Roll out the dough into a rectangle and brush it with butter.

Cinnamon Rolls

Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar…

Cinnamon Rolls

…all over.

Cinnamon Rolls

Roll the rectangle into a log.

Cinnamon Rolls

Cut the log into slices.

Cinnamon Rolls

Place the slices on a baking sheet.

Cinnamon Rolls

Let them rise.

Cinnamon Rolls

Brush with egg and bake until golden.

Cinnamon Rolls

Drizzle with glaze. Pull apart and enjoy warm!

Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from William-Sonoma’s “Essential of Baking”

Note: I reduced the amount of flour in the original recipe a little bit. But if you feel that your dough needs more flour, add more, but in small increments, as you knead the dough. In this way you will not end up with a very tight dough. I also didn’t add the called for mace to the dough.  Also, the original vanilla glaze proportions were a little odd; too much liquid was suggested for 1/2 cup powdered sugar. I increased the amount of sugar and reduced the amount of liquid. In this way, there is more glaze and it has the right texture—not too liquidy, yet smooth and creamy. Feel free to reduce the amount of glaze in half if you want only a little glaze on your cinnamon rolls.  Or, omit the glaze altogether if you don’t like it.

Makes 16

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
2 packages active dry yeast (4 + 1/2 teaspoons)
1 cup (8 fl oz / 250 ml) whole milk, heated to warm (105-115F / 40-46C)
1/2 cup (4 oz / 125 g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
4 + 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour (23 oz / 675 g)
1 + 1/2 teaspoon salt
Grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup (4 oz / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the Filling:
6 tablespoons (3 oz / 90 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
About 1/4 (2 oz / 55 g) unsalted butter, melted, for brushing

For the Egg Glaze:
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the Vanilla Glaze:
1 + 1/4 cup (5 oz / 140 g) confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can add more vanilla extract for more flavor if you want, but reduce the amount of milk accordingly)

Directions:

To make the dough, in a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the granulated sugar, eggs, 4 cups of the flour, salt, orange est, and butter and stir with your hand until a rough mass forms. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough, adding the remaining 1/2 cup of flour if necessary, until it is smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes. The dough should be soft, but not sticky.

Form the dough into a ball, transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm spot until it doubles in bulk, 1  1/2 – 2 hours.

To make the filling, in a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

Line a 17 X 12-inch (43 X 30 cm) rimless baking sheet with parchment (baking) paper.

Punch down the dough and turn it onto a very lightly floured work surface. Cut it in half with a sharp knife or a bench scraper. Roll out one half of the dough into a 10-by-16 inch (25-by-40 cm) rectangle. Brush the surface of the rectangle with half of the melted butter, then sprinkle evenly with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Starting at the long side farthest to you, roll up the rectangle toward you into a log.

Cut the log crosswise into 8 slices each 2 inches (5 cm) thick. Place the slices, cut side up, side by side , barely touching, spacing them evenly on one half of the prepared pan.  Repeat with the remaining half of the dough, melted butter, and cinnamon-sugar mixture, arranging the rolls on the other half of the pan. You should have 4 raws each with 4 slices.

Cover the rolls loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm spot until they have doubled in size and are spongy to the touch, 30 to 40 minutes. Alternatively, cover the rolls loosely with plastic wrap and place the rolls in the refrigerator and let them rise slowly overnight.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and prehet to 400ºF (200ºC).

If you have refrigerated the rolls, let them come to room temperature for 30-40 minutes.

Brush the rolls lightly with the beaten egg. Bake until golden brown, 20-35 minutes.

Just before the rolls are ready, make the glaze. In a small bowl, stir together the confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture thickens slightly.

Let the rolls cool slightly in the pan, then drizzle on the glaze while they are still warm. Pull the buns apart and serve warm. Note that these rolls are good while they are still warm. They don’t stay well for too long. But there is remedy to this – freeze the rolls and when you crave them, warm them in a microwave or oven and you have them fresh again!

22 Comments

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  1. “Do you like your cinnamon rolls super soft and puffy or do you prefer them somewhat crunchy on the outside and soft, yet not bready on the inside?”

    Yes.

    🙂

  2. They all look perfect, I’m they’re also delicious. I like things , they contain cinnamon. Thank you for sharing us the recipe step by step.

  3. The Cinnamon rolls looks very nice, one of my fav spice.

  4. Dear Farida, it says under For the Dough:
    2 packages (4 + 1/2 teaspoons)
    2 packages of of what? Could you please clarify it? I wanna bake these rolls today.

    Thank you,
    Nata

  5. Nata – thank you for catching it. My fault. Added – it is yeast.

  6. Looks so gorgeous and inviting… Perfectly done

  7. mmmm can you beat a cinnamon roll? im not sure you can 🙂 beautiful recipe, im saving this for an adventurous day bake sometime soon 🙂

  8. i love cinnamon very very much.i use it with black tea or tea from cinnamon sticks.cinnamon makes me feel happy 🙂 thanx for the receipe.i love this rolls n i’ve made it 6times when i got this receipe from “pakmaya yeast” book.

  9. looks good. I usually make stuffing with brown sugar.

  10. Thank you so much for the recipe, I baked them and they turned out so yummy

  11. Thank you for all your commens!

  12. Why are you not living nearby that I could have had a couple of these for breakfast? 🙂

  13. These look so delicious! I too leave mine in the fridge overnight and let them come to room temperature before baking. The long rise makes them taste soooooo good! Lovely pictures and post!

  14. I am having the hardest time proofing the yeast in milk. I’ve baked plenty of breads, rolls, pizza doughs and I’ve (almost) never had an issue proofing yeast. However I have never proofed yeast in milk. Am I doing something very wrong. I heat up the milk to warm ~110F and stir in the yeast, but it just clumps up and even when I whisk well to dissolve it doesn’t poof up. The milk just smells yeasty. I know the yeast is good because I just made pizza dough yesterday. Is there a trick to this that I am missing? I tried twice and I can’t get past this step.

  15. RACHEL MULTARI – Yeast in milk won’t be as foamy as in water but don’t worry, even if it doesn’t foam much, it will still be good. Make sure you use good yeast.

  16. Farida? I love this website and I love your food! It’s so fun just to read about the history of the food and your culture, but way funner (please forgive my grammar) to actually make it! I try to look at everything you post. I think you should apply for the Next Food Network Star!!! This season’s almost over, and all you have to is copy and paste this link into your browser: http://my.foodnetwork.com/food-network-star-casting-call/editupload.esi and then all you need to do is show them in a 3-minute tape your: 1) Cooking know-how (which you clearly have lots of), 2) Personality that pops (you could definitely show everybody how memorable you are!), and 3) Teaching skills. Farida, I think that you would be an awesome candidate. And while it’s really, really awesome that you’re on AZRU now, think of how awesome it would be if you were on the Food Network!!! I would root for you all the way!!!

  17. THANK YOU FAR?DA.? L?KE TH?S ROLLS.? CAN COOK TH?S TASTY ROLLS

  18. THANK YOU FARIDA KHANIM.I CAN COOK THIS TASTY ROLLS

  19. I used this recipe and the results were Delicious! They were all consumed in under an hour, my relatives kept going back to the plate for another one 🙂

  20. hi can walnuts be added to the filling,also could grated chocolate be used as another filling? could you suggest more fillings for this dough? thanks for your wonderful recipes.

  21. ANE – You can write grated chocolate (not much), grated coconut, chopped dried apricots, raisins and any other dried fruits your heart desires.

  22. Another great and delicious receipe which I tried and came out very good. Froze some of it, like you suggested. Thanks, Feride!

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