Bread Baking Day Part 3 - Cinnamon Rolls

Ahhh the bonus at the end of bread baking around here. Cinnamon rolls.

I usually either make a batch from one recipe's worth of bread dough or use the little bits left over from making buns to make about 4 small cinnamon rolls. That's what you see above including the runt in the middle that is the end pieces cut from the full batch of cinnamon rolls made that day. The kids love having this special snack in the afternoon and I like to make this on the days that Mr. Maricucu is working from home so he can indulge too.

For a full batch I roll the dough as thin as I can which is usually about 1/2" thick. Don't knead the dough or it will snap back on you and be impossible to stretch. Just dump it out from the bowl after the first rising, dust with flour and roll it out directly from that state into a semi-rectangular shape. The rolling pin will take care of pressing out the air bubbles.




Now drizzle on a stick of melted butter, leaving an inch at the top bare for pinching the roll shut. I accidentally dripped butter on my sealing edge and these rolls were not as tight as they could have been. Then sprinkle on 1 cup of brown sugar and 5 tablespoons of good cinnamon. I'm thinking of cutting the sugar back to 3/4 cup since the frosting is pretty rich.




Roll up the dough away from you, pretty tight and then pinch the seam shut. With a serrated knife or a piece of dental floss cut the cinnamon rolls into 1 1/2" thick rolls.






If I'm going to eat these right away I place the cut rolls in a greased baking pan, cover them and them rise. Usually if I make a full batch I place the rolls on a sheet pan and freeze them. After they're frozen I put them in a freezer bag. The night before I want cinnamon rolls I plop the frozen rolls into a pan (5 in an 8x8" pan or 10 in a 9x13), cover them and let them thaw AND rise on the counter overnight. The next morning all I have to do is put them in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes or until the center is done.




The icing is very simple. It's just 1 stick of melted butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. The lemon juice and butter are a combo that tastes just like cream cheese icing which is perfect for cinnamon rolls. Just stir all of the above until it's nice and smooth. Set it aside. When the rolls are done and still hot I dollop one large spoonful on each roll and then smooth it on after it starts to melt. Care for one?






Phew! We're all done with breadbaking. I promise it's not hard. Like I said if you don't have the starter or the desire to tackle it just start with the King Arthur Classic Sandwich Loaf dough. You can make the buns, sliced bread and cinnamon rolls from this same dough. If you're ever in the mood for a true Cinnabon cinnamon roll then try this recipe. The Cinnabon clone recipe was my go to recipe for cinnamon rolls before I started the regular bread baking. It has an egg in the dough and the frosting is made of cream cheese and butter. Truly delicious and decadent. My tips, go for the real butter instead of margarine, whole milk only and just go ahead and use one whole egg instead of trying to figure out how to get 1 1/4 egg.

Bread Baking Day Part 1
Bread Baking Day Part 2