Cinnamon Roll Recipe

It has been another gorgeous day here in the UK! Unfortunately, I've spent most of it inside doing uni work. The good news is that I have finished my last EVER essay for my undergrad. To celebrate, I made a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls.

From start to finish, everything in these rolls is made by hand. It's not too difficult, and the taste is SO worth it. Plus, you get to make great big monstrosities, which the store-bought ready-to-bake stuff just doesn't give you.

Another bonus is that I've been practicing bread making, and cinnamon rolls are a good exercise. I've been tinkering with a white bread recipe, and I think through making these cinnamon rolls, I've figured out where I was going wrong: I was putting too little dough in the tin.

Like bread, these rolls need to rise twice, so they are a little time consuming. The good news is that outside of the first step and shaping, most of the time is spent letting the bread ferment and do its own thing. So you can fit these in around your schedule. Get them going, and then go and do something else while you're waiting.

There are seven steps here to be aware of: making the dough, kneading, rising, knocking back, shaping, proving, and baking.

• Making the dough: salt and temperature kill yeast. This recipe has both salt and hot milk. So after scalding the milk, you must let it set to cool slightly before continuing or you will curdle the egg and kill the yeast. As for the salt, just make sure you don't add it directly to the yeast.
• Kneading: Basically just move the dough. There's no right way to do it. I push it forward, away from me with the heel of my hand, bring it back to me by folding it over, and then push it away again. Kneading distributes water evenly throughout the dough and develops the gluten. Make sure you knead until the dough bounces 3/4 the way back when pressed lightly with your finger.
• Rising: This allows the yeast to do its magic and ferment the dough.
• Knocking back: This step breaks the air bubbles and allows them to re-form in the desired shape. Pack the rolls in tight so that they prove together.
• Proving: The second rising. Allows the gluten to finish developing. Proving is finished when the dough does not spring back when you press your finger lightly into the top.
• Baking: Always, always put bread into a pre-heated oven. Baking time may vary a little depending on your oven, so use your senses to tell when its done. The rolls will sound hollow when tapped lightly on the top. If it browns too much, you can place a piece of tin foil over the rolls to discourage further browning.

Cinnamon Rolls
Preparation time: 2 hours
Baking time: 30 minutes

Dough Ingredients:
100ml milk
1x 7g packet fast-action yeast
100ml warm water
100g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp salt
60g granulated or caster sugar
1 egg, whisked
500g strong white flour/bread flour

Filling Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter, melted
100g sugar
2 TBSP ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
1 tsp ground ginger (optional)

Glaze Ingredients:
200g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 TBSP milk

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from heat, let cool for five minutes.

Meanwhile, place the yeast and the warm water in a bowl and mix with a fork. Set aside.

When the milk is cool, place the melted butter and scalded milk in a bowl. Add the salt and sugar, mix. Stir in the whisked egg. Add the yeast/water mixture, stir. Dump in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until stiff. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough springs back 3/4 of the way when pressed lightly with your finger. Avoid adding more flour to your worktop after the initial bit, or the rolls will become dense.

Place in a clean bowl that has been lightly oiled with vegetable oil. Lightly oil a bit of cling film, and cover the bowl so the dough doesn't dry out. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Alternatively, if you are making these the night before you want to bake them, you can let them rise in the fridge for 8 hours.

Butter a 23cm deep cake tin and dust with granulated or caster sugar.

When the dough is doubled in size, turn out onto your work surface. Roll out to a 40cm X 25cm rectangle. Melt the butter and mix with the sugar and spices to create a paste. Spread over the rolled-up dough.

Tightly roll up the dough, starting with the long side, and pinch the roll closed at the end. Cut into 1 1/2 inch rolls and place closely together in the tin. Cover again with cling film and let rise (called proving for the second rise) until double their original size (30-45 minutes). The rolls are fully proved when they do not spring back when you lightly press them with your finger.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180ºC. When the rolls are fully proved, bake them for 30-35 minutes.

When they're baked, remove from oven and prepare your glaze by sifting the icing sugar, and stir in the vanilla and milk 1TBSP at a time until you get the consistency of a glaze. Pour over the still-warm cinnamon rolls. Serve and enjoy!