Scrumptious Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

With Christmas round the corner I find myself craving festive spices and tasty treats. Cinnamon rolls are just what I need so I have been playing around to come up with my own easy recipe.

Tips with Dough

Cinnamon rolls are made with an enriched bread dough and there are a couple of things to remember when making a dough:

Activating the yeast – if you have a dough that doesn’t rise then you probably didn’t activate the yeast properly. Yeast is a living thing and as such will be killed off by too much heat. At the same time no heat and it won’t activate- this is why the temperature of the liquid you add to yeast matters. It needs to be lukewarm / tepid. In this particular recipe you need to let the milk cool to a tepid temperature before it is added to the flour and yeast. Additionally if your yeast hasn’t been stored correctly or is too old it won’t work.

Kneading the dough: kneading is a really important step for any yeast dough in order to develop the gluten. Ten minutes is usually about right just make sure to time yourself when you are kneading. If you are not confident then check out this video on how to knead dough.

Cinnamon Roll tips

The key to a good cinnamon roll is the filling. In these rolls I use a cinnamon butter with ground almonds. I cream the butter, sugar and cinnamon together using an handheld electric whisk. Then mixing in the almonds to create a cinnamon butter which is spreadable. I really like the texture that you get by adding the ground almonds to the mix.

When making your cinnamon rolls be careful when rolling them up. Do your best to keep the roll tight, I like to take my time getting this right so the rolls stay together easily.

Before the rounds go into the oven I brush the tops with melted butter. If you are not topping the rolls then also add a sprinkle caster sugar on top before they are baked.

Toppings for Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone has a different preference on what to top your cinnamon rolls with. You can always have different toppings for half the batch. My top three toppings are plain, lemon icing and cream cheese frosting.

A plain topping keeps the rolls simple and keeps the focus on the cinnamon flavour. Having added the melted butter and sugar before baking gives your top a nice texture. If you want a strong hit of cinnamon flavour then add more cinnamon with the sugar on top just before baking. You can also dust with icing sugar just before serving if desired.

Lemon Icing – simply icing sugar mixed with a little lemon juice and drizzled over the top.

Cream cheese frosting – butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and dash of vanilla essence.

What is your favourite topping for Cinnamon Rolls?

An extra treat

I wasn’t a fan of cinnamon when I was younger and my son hates it. Cinnamon is a strong taste so if you have someone in your house that isn’t a fan you can include a few chocolate rolls. When spreading the cinnamon butter filling on your dough leave one end clear and top this with chocolate spread like Nutella, I then also sprinkle over with some ground almonds. This will give you a few chocolate rolls which look great topped with some pistachio nuts.

Fresh Cinnamon rolls are best served warm and on the day you make them. Whilst they will keep for a day or so in an airtight container they dry out quickly so really are best eaten on the day.

They go really well with some toasted grapefruit and a glass of bucks fizz. Or for a Winter festive treat have them with a hot chocolate or even a peppermint mocha!

Print Pin

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon breakfast rolls

Course Breakfast, brunch, Snack

Keyword bread, breakfast, Cinnamon

Prep Time 3 hours

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 10

Ingredients

Dough

• 700 g Strong white bread flour
• 75 g Caster sugar
• 0.5 tsp Salt
• 7 g Fast acting dried yeast
• 325 ml Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 100 g Butter

Filling

• 100 g Light brown sugar
• 100 g Butter
• 25 g Ground Almonds
• 2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Topping

• 20 g Butter
• 2 tbsp Light brown sugar

Instructions

• Put the milk, butter and sugar into a saucepan and gently warm to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. Do not let it get too hot, set aside until tepid.
• Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the salt on one side and the yeast on the other side of the bowl.
• Beat the two eggs and add into the milk mixture.
• Stir the tepid milk mixture slowly into the flour using a wooden spoon. The mixture will be sticky at first but keep mixing.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
• Put the dough into a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.
• To make the filling cream the butter and sugar together with a handheld electric mixer.
• Add the ground almonds and cinnamon to the butter mix.
• Once the dough is risen roll it out into a rectangle around 50 x 30 cm.
• Use a palette knife to spread the filling over the dough, spread it right to the edges.
• Slowly roll up the dough from one of the longest sides keeping it tight as you roll.
• Trim off the ends then cut into 2.5cm rounds.
• Place the rolls onto 2 lined baking trays with space between them. Cover and leave to rise for 45mins – 1 hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
• Melt the butter for the topping in the microwave for 30 seconds.
• Brush the melted butter on top of the rolls and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes. If they begin to brown cover with foil. You may need to bake the rolls in the centre a little longer.
• Serve warm.

Equipment –