cinnamon roll

A delectable pastry covered with cinnamon, sugars, and usually a sweet creme. The dough of the cinnamon roll is stretched out, then rolled up before it is baked. Of course, the proper way to eat a cinnamon roll is to unroll it, eating the length of the original strip of now cooked dough. This of course gets your fingers and hands gooey and sticky. Way more fun than just eating it like a doughnut.

What!? What!? What!? no recipe for these fine baked comestibles!?!?! I am shocked and appalled!

Here, for postarity is a fine recipe which will hopefully steer you away from those tube-packaged doughs:

The Dough
4 1/2 Cups Flour
2 packages of Fast Actin' Yeast
1/2 Cup Water
1 egg
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 Cup Milk


The Filling
1/2 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Cinnamon


The icing
1/2 a Vanilla Bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound of powdered sugar
3-4 Tabelspoons of milk

Makin' the dough: Disolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water, and add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Set aside. Melt the half cup of butter, warm up the 34 cup of milk and mix it into the melted butter. After this has cooled a bit add it to the yeast along with your 1/4 cup of sugar, the egg and salt. Mix this together then add your flour 1-1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a ball (be careful not to add too much flour, and take into account that additional flour will be added in the kneading process, I usually leave it a *little* sticky). Spread flour on you kneading surface and knead flour into the dough until it's no longer sticky, please do not over-knead. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a moist cloth. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size (about 45 minutes - 1hour).

After the dough has risen, place it on your rolling surface and roll it out as thin as you'd like (depending on how many "swirls" you wish the rolls to have). But keep it to around 2' on one side, try to keep the dough as rectangular as possible.

Filling: Melt your 1/2 cup of butter, and with a pastry brush liberally coat the up side of your rolled-out dough. Sprinkle the dough with the granulated sugar and the brown sugar, and cinnamon (the measurements here need not be exact, it's all up to how sweet or cinnamony (is that a word?) you want your rolls). Roll the dough into a log and cut into disks about 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Place these into a well buttered cake pan, or a couple of pie tins. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Icing: Split half a vanilla bean and scrape the insides into a small saucepan, add about half a cup or so of milk and place on low heat (I throw the rest of the bean in here as well, just for the extra flavor), allow the milk to heat and infuse with the vanilla flavor, but to not boil!. In a bowl mix a few tablespoons of this milk with 1 pound of powdered sugar, until the desired consistency is reached (this is really a matter of preference, I like a "heavy glaze" consistency) save any leftover vanilla-milk (it's great in coffee or Engligh Breakfast Tea). If you do not have vanilla beans, simply add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to your powdered sugar first, then add regular milk until you have your desired consistency. One your rolls have finnished baking drizzle the icing over the rolls generously.

Eat Them! (or alternatley bring them into work to score points with co-workers).

And for those of us who like to do things out of a package and very easy....here's the busy frazzled working mom recipe for cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients

1 package of canned pizza dough..the kind you have to tap on the counter to open

1 cube REAL butter

1 cup brown sugar

cinnamon

chopped nuts if you got em and want em

canned cream cheese frosting

Making the rolls

Melt the butter.
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon and place in a shallow pan
Open the dough and spread it out on a flat surface.
Slice the dough in strips about 2 inches wides.
Dip the dough strips in the melted butter, then in the cinnamon/brown sugar mixture.
Sprinkle the nuts on top of the strip, and additional brown sugar mixture if you want really gooey rolls
Roll up the dough strips and place them end up in a baking pan
Bake according to directions on the dough package
Frost with canned cream cheese frosting if desired.

Dough:

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 3 1/3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons yeast

Filling:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened

Glaze:

Mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons milk until smooth and thin enough to drizzle.

1. Place all dough ingredients in bread machine in the order listed. Select dough cycle. Or, you can mix them up yourself and allow to rise about 30-45 minutes.
2. Grease 9x9x2- inch square pan.
3. Mix 1/3 cup sugar and the cinnamon.
4. Flatten dough with hands or rolling pin into 18x9-inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Spread with 2 Tablespoons butter; sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.
5. Roll up tightly, beginning at 9-inch side. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal.
6. Cut roll into 1-inch slices. Place in pan. Cover: let rise in warm place 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until double.
7. Heat oven to 375. Bake 25-30 min. or until golden brown.
8. Remove from pan; drizzle glaze over warm rolls. Makes 9 rolls.

I am in total agreeance with LordOmar, those prepackaged tubed cinnamon rolls you buy at the grocery store are a measley excuse for an honest to goodness cinnamon roll. Here's my own twist on these delectable nummies. They're really more of a biscuit-ey texture than the springy roll most of us are used to and has a cardomom flavored icing similar to that what you would see on a petit four, it sets up more solid than the usual glaze. I am in no way knocking the traditional ooey gooey cinnamon bun, simply adding my own pittance to the mix as another spin on the traditional favorite.

___________________________

check out more of my recipes here