Cinnamon Rolls (and Cinnamuffins!)

Like red velvet cake, I have to admit that my love for cinnamon rolls only manifested a few months ago. It got to the addictive stage when Nic went to Bangkok one weekend and brought back a box of ridiculously delicious cinnamon buns. Shortly after that, my sister also decided to bake a batch and I was lucky enough to try some of her delish cinnamon buns. 

Even more luckily for me, my sister was kind enough to share that she'd gotten her recipe from Bakerella and so I just had to try it! After a short conversation with her about yeast (because my packets were packaged in a larger quantity than the ones on the website) and my sister's advice that yeast will grow and grow until you make it stop so it didn't really matter how much you put in (still not too sure about that one mims...) I was ready to go.

As I read through Bakerella's post, I found that the recipe she had originally tried was from Pioneer Woman and so that is the recipe that I ended up following though I halved the quantities. 

First you have to warm the 2 cups of milk, half a cup of vegetable oil and half a cup of sugar in a saucepan, turning off the heat before it boils. Let it sit for about 45 mins or so to cool to be about luke warm temperature. 

Next add in the yeast and let that sit for a minute to let the yeast get cozy.

Then mix in 4 cups of flour and cover it again to let it rest for over an hour so that the dough will rise. 

Mix in another half cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. It should be quite doughy by now. You can pop in the fridge this time while you prepare the filing.  

Melt down the butter in a saucepan. I like to also have my cup of sugar and powdered cinnamon on stand by.

Next LIBERALLY flour the surface you are going to be rolling out the dough on. Its sticky stuff so its best to flour up.  

Shape the dough somewhat rectangularly and then roll it out to a long strip.

Pour the melted butter and spread it out.

Sprinkle one cup of sugar and the ground cinnamon. I went a little crazy here, the cinnamon bit is the best part so I put lots of it, haha.

After that, roll the dough as tightly as you can. This is messy. The gooey good stuff inside will ooze out the sides. I reckon this takes some practice so that your cinnamon rolls have that beautiful swirl in them. 

Finally, cut them about 1 inch or so thick and lay them into your pan. In Bakerella's post, she had put her cut rolls into muffin trays which resulted in some lovely cinnamuffins so that was what I wanted to try. However, I only have one proper muffin tray so I put the rest into two long cake tins. Let the rolls sit for another 20 - 30 mins before putting them into the oven (at 190 degrees celsius).

Bake, bakity, bake!

Bake for about 15 minutes. Rolls are done when they are a nice golden brown colour. My first batch got a little burnt unfortunately :( So I watched the rest of the batches more carefully. They also looked pretty ugly ass but at least they tasted good!

And tada!

So yummy too! I had them for breakfast this morning :) 

In the original recipe, Pioneer Woman makes a coffee icing to pour over the rolls. I didn't make this because I thought the rolls would be sweet enough without it and they are. But they do get a little dry after a day or two and I think thats where the icing would have come in handy to keep them moist. I might make a batch of icing for the rest and pour it on just before eating. 

Make Your Own:

[I've just copied Pioneer Woman's recipe, make sure you visit her site to check out how these should look like!]

1. 4 cups Whole Milk
2. 1 cup Vegetable Oil
3. 1 cup Sugar
4. 2 packages Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 Ounce Packets
5. 8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
6. 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
7. 1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
8. 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
9. Plenty Of Melted Butter
10. 2 cups Sugar
11. Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

MAPLE FROSTING: (which I didn't make)

1. 1 bag Powdered Sugar
2. 2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
3. 1/2 cup Milk
4. 1/4 cup Melted Butter
5. 1/4 cup Brewed Coffee
6. 1/8 teaspoon Salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it - overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don't skimp on the frosting.