As sweet as sticky cinnamon rolls

I’ve always wanted to learn to make cinnamon rolls. It is one of MDK’s favourite baked goods and one of MDH and my small indulgences. I say ‘indulgence’ because we are trying to cut down our sugar intake and wolfing down these sticky breads doesn’t exactly help in the cutting-down-the-sugar endeavour.

I stumbled upon the recipe on the internet which after reading some of the encouraging reviews, convinced me to give it a try.

It’s an easy recipe and anyone who is equipped with a breadmaker in their kitchen can do it with the least amount of work. And if you don’t have a breadmaker at home, despair not. You can still make the dough the old-fashioned way.

My dependable sidekick in the kitchen

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.
Source: Clone of a Cinnabon Recipe

If you have some time, read the comment/review section. It's a treasure trove of ideas.

I followed almost everything in the recipe, made some slight modifications.

(Steps 2, 3 ) For the filling, I mixed all 3 ingredients (butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar) and spread the mixture on the flattened dough instead of spreading the butter first and sprinkling cinnamon and sugar next. Not too messy plus it helps to spread the filling as evenly as possible.

Step 3) I used glass baking pans and lined them with the more gooey version of the butter-cinnamon-sugar mixture. I added more butter. I didn’t measure.

(Steps 1, 4) I used a convection oven so the oven setting was 350F and I baked them for less than 15 minutes.

Cinnamon Roll version 1

Overall, I am quite happy with how they turned out. I got a big hug from MDK and his very encouraging “I’m proud of you, Mama. Are you proud of yourself for learning something new today?” And the kicker –

MDK: “Hmm this is way better than Cinn-- (our favourite brand)”

Mama-not-the-Martha-Stewart-wannabe: “And what makes it better than Cinn--?”

MDK: “You made it.”

Next step, as MDH suggested – find a good cinnamon powder I can use for the next batch. And I will have to modify the filling a bit to make it a bit moist. That will be for version 2.

Sep 20, 2010 @ 21:13