Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon is such an amazing spice. It's warming and delicious and when heated, it fills the room with the scent of winter. It pairs wonderfully with all kinds of things like apples, Morrocan tagines and pumpkin pies. It can also shine all by itself (well with plenty of sugar and butter to enrich our lives) in these delicious cinnamon rolls.

The soft yeast dough bakes with a lovely crust in top and a soft and spiced centre. The rolls are delicious warm and at room temperature. They even last a few days too (assuming they're not all scoffed within moments of icing). They can be reheated in the oven to restore freshness too if necessary.

This recipe from The Pioneer Woman came highly recommended. I wasn't sure whether to go ahead and make the whole batch but I'm glad I did. Just make sure you have plenty of people to give these away too else you may have to be lifted from your house with a crane. Seriously. These are high calorie treats and they are so delicious. I wouldn't make these every week - not least because they take all day to make but they are really fun to make and easy too.

I decided to make a tutorial for these as the process is quite long to start with. It's mostly hands off time until the dough is ready then it's a quick turn around of the buns, a half hour wait for the dough to rise again and then a blast in the oven for 15 minutes. Brilliant.

As usual, the recipe has been changed into metric measures and written how I made them.

Ingredients
2 pints Whole Milk
230ml Vegetable Oil
200g Sugar
2 sachets Active Dry Yeast
880g (Plus 110g Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 heaping tsp) Baking Powder
1 scant tsp Baking Soda
1 tbsp Salt
Plenty Of Melted Butter
400g Sugar
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

Method
Put the milk into a large pan (I used a pressure cooker pan) and mix in the oil and sugar. Heat gently until it's just before boiling (this is called "Scalding") and then switch off the heat. Leave the milk mixture to cool for 45 minutes to and hour or until it is lukewarm. Sprinkle over the 2 sachets of yeast and let that sit for a minute or two.
Next, add the 880g of flour to the milk and stir it all together (I needed Al to help with this because I'm weak. Cover (I used a tea towel) and let it sit for an hour.
Now add the remaining 110g flour, the baking powder and soda and the salt and mix together again.
Divide the dough in half. Flour your kitchen counter and roll the dough into a long rectangle.
Drizzle melted butter over the dough (don't be frugal!) and spread it out a bit with a pastry brush. top with a generous cup of sugar and plenty of cinnamon.


Roll the dough into a a tight sausage (along the long side) and seal the edge with more butter.


Slice the dough into equal rounds about an inch thick. Brush 4 pans with a bit of melted butter and lay the sliced rolls into the pans.


Leave the buns to prove for 20-30 minutes, until the double in size. Top tip: If your house isn't warm enough, put the pans into a cold oven with a tray of hot water underneath. The steam creates the perfect atmosphere to prove.

Once the rolls have doubled in size, place in a preheated oven 180C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.


Frost while still warm so the the icing melts into the rolls.

I used the other half of the dough the following day and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to use it. You can do both batches in one day or you can store the dough in the fridge. Do punch it down if it rises too much in the fridge. It'll be fine.