Cinnamon Rolls with ALL the Options for Kit Kit Kit!

[liralen]

These are my cinnamon rolls. They've evolved over time and with experience. Normally, we just have them without the caramel topping or the icing and just the apples... but it's fun to be able to change it up whenever I want something different. The lovely thing is that you can start this recipe in the afternoon or evening before you want them in the morning. I've started these as early as 3 in the afternoon and had them turn out beautifully the next morning.



For the dough:
1 tsp instant dry yeast or bread machine yeast (I would probably use a *whole* packet of regular dry yeast if you don't have the instant or bread machine varieties)
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs melted butter
1 egg
1 cup whole wheat flour
2-2 1/2 cups unbleached hard winter wheat flour (or bread flour)

I throw all those things into the bread machine and put it on "dough". You can just mix everything, knead it until elastic (about 10 minutes by hand, five minutes by dough hook in a stand mixer), and let rise until doubled.

Mix together: 1/4 c brown sugar, 1/4 cup white (castor) sugar, and 2 tsp. freshly ground cinnamon in a bowl.

Prep a 9x13 pan. Punch down the dough, fold it twice, and then roll out into a rectangle. I like it more than a foot wide (maybe 18 inches? Not sure) and about a foot deep. I then spread 1 Tbs melted butter over the whole surface, and then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. You can also add nuts, raisins, or even a chopped apple (I like 3/4 of a Gala roughly chopped with the skin still on) at this point, just spread over the sugar. Roll everything up. Cut into 12 equal pieces.

... sticky caramel option ...
If you want the caramel sticky option with pecans mix the following together:
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs corn syrup
1 cup gently toasted pecan pieces (or any other nut you like to see on a sticky bun)

Spread that into the bottom of the pan. I don't usually do the fruit or nuts with the sticky option, but that's up to you. If you don't, no problem either. Jet can't eat the caramel or nuts with his braces so I've left this option out for a while.
.... end sticky caramel option ...

Place the pieces in the 9x13 pan. I usually do 3 by 4 across the thing... and then I cover it with aluminum foil and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, pull the cinnamon rolls out of the refrigerator and then start your oven to heat to 375 (I am at altitude, so you sea level dwellers might want to make that 350). When the oven is good and hot, uncover the rolls and put the pan into the oven and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

If you did the caramel sticky option, get out a sheet pan and turn the whole thing over and scrape out the remaining goo and spread over the rolls. Then dive in.

Otherwise, let the pan cool for 10 minutes, and while you're waiting you can (if you didn't do the sticky pecan option) make cream cheese frosting. It's dead simple.

4 ounces of cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sifted powdered/frosting sugar

Just throw the cream cheese and vanilla into the stand mixer, beat until fluffy, then slowly add the powdered sugar until it's all absorbed. You can fridge it to make it stiffer if you want, but I kind of just like spooning it over the rolls.

And if you needed reminding. You can eat them now. XD

Comments

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Ooh, these sound delish. I will probably give these a try.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Great! I'd love to know how they come out!

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

OMG When I was growing up, my grandmother was a housemother at a dorm at one of the Seven Sisters colleges up in New England. The cook in her dorm (it was a small dorm, with a fairly formal food service) was famous for her sticky buns - they were the ones with caramel and pecans. My grandmother knew how we adored them, so every time she was headed down for a visit she would have the cook bake a couple of extra batches. That is one of my most vivid food childhood memories - I LOVED those things, and I still love them. The cinnamon iced ones are very nice (in fact we have the ones from the can that you smack open and bake every Christmas morning), but the caramel pecan ones are HEAVEN on earth to me. *drools*

It's a good thing I don't have a bread machine, I'd probably be starting on your recipe right now! (I've really been wanting one - with the arthritis in my shoulders, elbows, wrists, and now in my hands, kneading bread has gone from therapeutic to problematic, depending on how long it has to be kneaded and how stiff the dough is. I should probably start watching Craigslist or haunt a few thrift shops to find one.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It's a great excuse to get a bread machine. *grins*

Neat to know that this invokes such memories... ♥

[merlinofchaos]

If you like the cinnabon cream cheese frosting, it uses lemon extract rather than vanilla, which gives it a distinctly different note.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ooooo... neat! I didn't know that, but that would be tasty, too. Wow... I think they use like cinnamon candies in the filling too, don't they? Or is that someone else?

[merlinofchaos]

That's someone else. Their filling is just a very very high quality cinnamon (korintje, I believe -- it's actually milder than most of the cinnamons we use normally so they can use more of it and get that great flavor) and butter.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oooo.... I have korintje, which is a real cinnamon as opposed to the cassia that most grocery store spice merchants pass off as cinnamon. It is lovely...

Very cool to know! Thank you.