Is it a proper food blog if I don’t have a cinnamon roll recipe? Feels like it is time to put one up…. a classic cinnamon roll with loads of brown sugar, cinnamon and a cream cheese glaze. Just keeping it simple. As much as I love to play with flavours and make something a little different, sometimes the simplicity of recipes and food is just all you need and totally perfect. These rolls are really easy to make and don’t take long at all! They are best eaten fresh on the day but if you have some left over, put them in the microwave for 20 seconds and they will be like you’ve just taken them out of the oven. Delicious!
Here are some tips to make the best Cinnamon Rolls:
- Temperature is key. When warming the milk and butter, make sure you let it cool down to lukewarm. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast and you won’t get a good rise on your dough!
- I always recommend using a free-standing mixer to knead your dough. However, if you are kneading by hand, keep going! It will need quite a lot of work as the dough is quite sticky, but resist adding more flour. The more flour you add, the tougher the dough will be and will come out dry.
- Before you slice the dough into individual rolls, to get the perfect slice, I recommend using dental floss to cut them! I know it sounds weird but totally works.
- Also, chilling the dough before slicing the dough will make it so much easier to cut!
You will need an 8 inch (20cm) square baking tin
Ingredients:
For the dough:
415g Plain Flour
200g Whole Milk
40g Sugar
5g Dried Yeast
6g Salt
1 Medium Egg
45g Butter
For the filling:
100g Butter, softened
70g Light Brown Sugar
3 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Salt
For the Glaze:
115g Cream Cheese
80g Icing Sugar
Milk to adjust consistency
Method:
1. Firstly, the dough. In a small pan, melt the butter and add the milk. Heat until body temperature. Make sure it isn’t too hot otherwise you will kill the yeast.
2. In the bowl of a free standing mixer, place the flour, salt, yeast, sugar, eggs and warm milk and butter. Using the dough hook, mix until it has all come together. Keep the machine on a medium speed for about 5 minutes. The dough should have all come together, it should be tacky and very elastic. This is when it is ready to be proved.
3. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with cling film or a clean tea towel. Leave for about an hour, until it has doubled in size.
4. Whilst the dough is proving, let’s make the cinnamon filling. In a bowl, whisk together the butter, cinnamon, sugar and salt until all combined. Then set aside.
5. Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface, knocking out the air. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle of a thickness of 5mm.
6. Spread the cinnamon filling over the dough. Making sure it is evenly distributed across the dough leaving a centimetre gap around the edge.
7. Now, starting from the longest edge, roll towards you tightly until it is all rolled up. If it is quite soft, place this onto a baking tray and put in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up. You may need to cut this in half as it will probably be too long!
8. Using a knife or dental floss, Cut the rolls 3cm thick. Place in the prepared tin with the filling and roll facing up. You will fill the tray 3 rolls by 4 rolls.
9. Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove again for about 45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan).
11. Brush the rolls with a beaten egg, making sure to avoid the filling and just brushing the dough. Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes and bake until golden brown.
12. For the glaze, mix together the cream cheese and the icing sugar. Gradually add 1 tbsp. milk to the mixture until you achieve a consistency where it is soft, smooth and loosely spreads across the buns.
13. Spread and drizzle the glaze on top of the buns and Enjoy!!!
