Apparently it was National Cinnamon Roll day a few weeks ago but I was too slow with this recipe to actually get it up in time (standard Pinnock). Now I much prefer cinnamon rolls to chelsea buns, I don’t like the intrusion of dried fruit in my nice squishy bun. I’ve been promising my mum for weeks that I’ll make her some so I did and took them for a nice long walk in the Somerset country side.
As I said in my last post, this ticks number two off my list! (Although currently I really can’t remember what number two was…)
Thinking about it I really should have done a bread part 2 video to go with this, but I started making these quite late at night and I just couldn’t be bothered – so I can’t tick number 1 off my list. BUT if you want to know the basics of making bread then please go to the Bread Part 1 post!
This is slightly different in that it is an enriched dough – when we use the term enriched we mean that there is something in the dough other four, yeast, salt and water. This one has the addition of sugar, eggs and milk making it super rich and wonderfully dense and squishy. And cakey. And delicious…I’ll stop now.
Anywho, enough preamble, I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those bloggers who puts their entire life story before getting to the recipe. Or do people actually enjoy that?
Ingredients
For the dough
- 375g strong white bread flour
- 3/4 tsp of salt
- 7g fast action yeast
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 55g butter
- 150-200ml milk
For the filling
- 85g unsalted butter (softened)
- 85g soft dark brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Method
- Melt the butter and allow to cool.
- Place the flour, salt, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and combine. Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter and both eggs. Mix and gradually add the milk to make a scrappy soft dough. You may not need all the milk, or you might need a little more – really helpful instruction I know.
- Bring the dough together in the bowl until it makes a scrappy dough, if it doesn’t come together and there are some dry bits left at the bottom add a little more milk.
- Lightly flour the work surface, turn the dough out and knead (like the video says) in a heart shaped pattern. This dough will be stickier than a normal dough but it should become soft and shiny. Try not to add too much flour as this will make it tough and dry and I will be sad. You can use a dough scraper to scrape it off the surface if it sticks.
- The dough is ready when if lightly prodded it rebound. Shape it into a ball, oil your original bowl and place the dough in. Cover – I use a shower cap to save on clingfilm – and leave in a warm, dry place to rise. I made mine the night before and left it in the fridge overnight to rise – if you keep it in the fridge for a bit it actually helps with step 9.
- Make your filling – cream the butter and sugar together and add your cinnamon – put to one side.
- Lightly flour a work surface and carefully turn your dough onto it. Sprinkle a little flour on the top of the dough and gently roll your dough to the size of an A4 piece of paper – this might be tricky as dough is springy – all that yeast. This is why I keep mine in the fridge, the yeast will be inactive so will be easier to roll.
- Spread your filling mixture evening over the dough. I like a nice, chunky cinnamon roll so I roll the dough up from the short end. This will create a thick log of dough. Once you’ve done this, carefully slice into 8.
- Liberally grease an 8 inch sandwich tin with butter. I mean liberally, like pack it in there. Place your smallest roll in the middle of the tin and space the others around it. There will be a little bit of room between the rolls, but not much. Cover with oiled cling film, or put the tin in a bag and leave to rise in warm place for 1 to 11/2 hours until the rolls are risen and more closely packed together.
- Bake in a 180C oven for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Leave them to cool in the tin, but place a tea towel over the top to give them a softer top.
- Once cool, turn what will now resemble a loaf out of the tin.
- There are three different toppings you can do: a sprinkle of icing sugar, glace icing or a cream cheese icing. Now I was a bit pressed for time so I want for the glace icing option.
- For the glace icing: sift 100g icing sugar into a bowl, add a couple of drops of boiling water and stir. Keep adding a few more drops of the water until you reach the desired consistency.
- Allow to set slightly, then scarf them all. Or share, whatever.
Enjoy, RAJ 🙂
