Cinnamon Rolls

April 20, 2011



My dad and my brother love cinnamon rolls. I think it's funny, but I indulge them and whip up their favorites. If I always made what I wanted to eat, no one would eat my food -_- Meaning most of it would be multi-grain muffins, granola bars and biscotti.

This is a full-proof cinnamon rolls recipe, just make sure you have good yeast!



CINNAMON ROLLS

Dough:
1 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Microwave milk and butter for 30-45 seconds in a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of flour, the sugar, egg, yeast and salt. Mix until wet, sticky mixture forms.

Add the rest of the flour (2 1/2 cups). Mix and knead for 7 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

Let the dough rise for 2 hours in a warm place. Grease the bowl and cover with a dish towel.

Roll the dough out to about 10"x24". These measurements are out of no where but I don't know how long you should roll it out. I just eyeball the damn thing.

Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

On a floured surface, roll the dough starting from the long side. Cut into desired widths and place in a buttered dish of your choice. Let it rise for 5 more minutes.

Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated 375˚ oven.

While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make an icing. I have a recipe, but I don't want to share it :) It's a little special. But a simple icing would be:

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
some milk

all mixed up and smooth. I'm sure you can find one on the interweb.

Tammy's notes: This recipe makes two batches of the above photo. You can easily freeze one baked batch and warm up in a 250˚ oven. Also, it is very important for the dough to have a warm place to rise because then they won't rise. If the weather is a little chilly, preheat the oven to 200˚ and turn it off. Place the dough in the OFF oven and it will rise perfectly. While you're doing your second rise, just let the dough sit on top of the oven while you're preheating it for the final bake.

I like minimal icing, which is why it's barely visible on my rolls, but feel free to douse it.