You know, all the best things in life are either addictive, fattening, health damaging or costs at least 10 dollars. Well, who cares if these Cinnamon Rolls kind of ruin your healthy eating plan? It`s weekend, it`s rainy (at least in my town) and these are my perfect medicine for chasing away the melancholic mood I have.
Spring is full of surprises, I know. Especially for me. Usually, spring is that time of the year when I start worrying about the fact that I am a baking freak and have no boyfriend or any type of friend in general. Because I`m weird. And I kind of start accepting this idea. With my earphones plugged in and a long (long,long,long) list of Guns N` Roses, Of Monsters and Men, Scorpions and Bryan Adams songs to listen to.
Ok, so leaving my obnoxious behavior aside, I took a set of pictures of (almost) each step of the recipe, so I make sure this works for you.
First of all, the yeast part. You don`t have to warm up the liquid too much, 115 degrees F should be enough to make the yeast rise. If the liquid is not warm enough, the yeast won`t activate, if it is too hot it will kill yeast. I think I used the word "yeast" too many times. Ok, so you know it`s good to be used when you start to smell it and it looks bubbly, foamy and well, pretty much like that:
After this, you just dump in the rest of the ingredients and knead until your arms fall off. Literary.
No, really, you have to (!!!) knead it like crazy in order to get a fluffy, soft dough. A good 15-20 minutes work perfectly. This time, I cheated and used my bread machine. My lovely, trustworthy friend. If you don`t own such a tool (it`s really useful, by the way) you can do this by hand or use a hand mixer with the dough attachment (the one that looks like a corkscrew). So, if you use a bread machine, dump the ingredients in this order: liquid, other ingredients(sugar, eggs, vanilla extract,oil etc), flour and end with the dry yeast. Dry yeast is sold in 7 or 8 gr. packages and it usually doesn`t call for dissolving in liquid, but I do mix it with my warm water/milk to be sure it does it`s job. If you have a 25 gr. fresh yeast cube, crumble it between your fingers and dissolve it as directed above.
After you`ve mixed and kneaded the dough (you should stop kneading when the dough stays together in an elastic, pliable dough ball which doesn`t stick), place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and place it in a warm spot in your house to let it double in volume. I pop it in my microwave (without turning it on, obviously).
Then, take the beautiful thing out (I looove working with dough), schmear it with lovely, flavorful butter (aka the thing which makes these Rolls out of this world delicious):
...and top with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Owh, Tooth Fairy will be so glad to receive my teeth soon.
Roll this beauty up, just like you would do with a burrito or a Swiss Roll...
I just fell in love with this recipe. See how weird I am?
Use a bread knife of dental floss to cut it. Food can be so sexy. There, I said it!
Warning: use parchment paper for this recipe, or else you will have a big, unpleasant surprise with the Rolls sticking to the bottom of the pan and stubbornly refusing to come out. So, again, DO NOT (UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES) be naive and think that greasing&flouring the pan will work. Because as the Rolls bake, the sugar will caramelize and caramel is the whore of the kitchen if you don`t know it`s secrets.
Remember: Parchment paper!
After you have placed all your babies in the pan, cover them and allow them to rise 20 to 30 more minutes. Then, you have to wait only another 30 minutes until you can eat the entire pan, like I would do if I had any room for more.
This is how they look like...
...lovely golden brown, puffed up and waiting for you to eat them right away.
But first, top them with cream cheese frosting, because a Cinnamon Roll is not a Cinnamon Roll until you spread some gooey topping over it.
I just want to marry these Cinnamon Rolls and be fat for the rest of my life.
Awww dear Jeeezus! Look at the...
*Gasping for air*
*Eats another three pieces*
*Burp*
They look good, they are delicious and all the stuff, but my first attempt proved to be a complete disaster. At that time, I was quite inexperienced but adventurous when it came to baking. So what did I do? Instead of putting the good ol` stuff like cinnamon+sugar, I mashed up 2 ripe bananas, mixed them with a bit of honey, shredded coconut and spread it over the dough.
The moment I tasted one, my inner baker said: "I have done...the most horrendous mistake.". I can`t describe how ashamed I was of the final result, but here`s a picture to remind me of the dark day:
Don`t worry, since then, I gathered a lot of information about baking and everything that it involves. Maybe, in the near future, there will be a Honey Coconut Banana Rolls recipe...who knows?
However, this is a perfect dish to treat your guests with on the Easter Breakfast.
Ingredients:
Dough:
370 gr. plain all purpose flour
50 gr. sugar
1 (7 gr) package of active dry yeast
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
50 ml. milk
150 gr. water
4 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
grated zest of 1/2 orange
Filling:
100 gr. room temperature butter
215 gr. granulated sugar (brown would be perfect but you can use white)
3 leveled teaspoons of cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze:
a few drops of lemon juice
60 gr. room temperature cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
3 to 5 Tablespoons of milk or heavy cream to make a looser icing
Directions:
1.First of all, combine the milk and water in a saucepan and heat it until it is lukewarm (115 d F/60 d C), take off the heat. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the sugar and the yeast, stir it a bit, set aside for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to activate. You know it`s ready when it looks foamy and it smells. Stir in the egg, egg yolk, oil, vanilla extract and orange zest. Set aside.
In a large bowl, toss together the flour and rest of the sugar. Make a well in the center of it and pour the liquid yeast mixture. Start mixing with a wooden spoon until the dough starts forming (2 minutes). Switch off to a hand mixer (or electric mixer like Kitchen Aid) with the dough hook attachment (the one that looks like a corkscrew), and knead for 15 minutes or until you got a soft, non sticking, pliable dough ball.
Lightly oil a clean, large bowl and place the dough ball inside, cover with a clean kitchen towel and set in a draft-free, warm place to rise, about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until doubled in size.
2.Take the dough out on a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin start stretching it out into a 14x8 inch/35x20 cm rectangle.
Filling:
1. In a bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract. Toss together until combined.
2. Spread the softened butter over the top of the dough rectangle and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Roll up the dough like you would do with a burrito or a Swiss Roll. Using a sharp bread knife, cut the roll in 12-16 equal pieces.
Place them in a rectangle 13x9 inch/33x22 cm baking pan which has been previously lined with parchment paper.
3.Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and leave the rolls to rise for an additional 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 d F/180 d C.
4. After they increased in size, remove the towel and insert the rolls into the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffed up. You could cover with aluminum foil to prevent heavy browning.
While they are baking, make the cream cheese glaze.
Glaze:
1. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese with the sugar and lemon juice. Add vanilla extract, then mix in milk. If you like a thinner glaze, add more milk, if you want it thicker, add less liquid.
Spread it over the rolls immediately after you`ve taken them out of the oven.
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