Ever rolled in the dough?
It's kind of fun! I'm sure money would be great to roll in too.. but we are talking about Cinnamon Roll dough here today.
Want to learn how to make them yourself? Or just have a peek at how it rolls in another kitchen...
Come on ... let's do it!
First, I want to give Ree Drummond credit. She's the mastermind behind the recipe. You know, The Pioneer Woman?!
I get all giddy inside when her name gets brought up because I just wanna live on her ranch. 😂
I'm going to go over the recipe here, but This is the book the recipe is in....
In a large sauce pan, Begin with 4 cups of whole milk. .. ok I have to say this... not all milk is created equal...don't ruin this by cracking your head on the concrete when you bring home 1% milk and someone throws your cinnamon roll in the trash. ... go for the best, full fat whole milk you can buy. (Raw milk is my number one vote...) Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup vegetable oil(I use light olive oil)
Stir while heating to 100°.
100-110° is luke warm bath water temp if you don't have a thermometer... warm enough for a comfy baby bath. Don't get it too warm or it will KILL the yeast... And that's the death of your rolls before even getting started! Basically, Knock the chill off and warm it up enough to dissolve the sugar.
Sprinkle 4 1/2 teaspoons of active yeast on top (That's 2 packets if you buy it that way)
Let it sit on top for a few minutes. It will begin to foam up. Something like this:
Now turn the heat off and prepare your flour.
You'll need:
8 cups of bread flour
You can use regular flour if that suits your fancy... but I like the fluffiness the bread flour brings to the table.
Just pour the 8 cups flour straight into a large bowl, stand mixer, or Bosch mixer if you're a lucky owner. shameless plug for the mixer in my personal kitchen
This time we did it all by hand, since the kitchen owner didn't own one... that's fine... it makes for an amazing upper arm workout.
Pour the milk/oil/sugar/yeast mixture into the flour and get that stir on, baker!
By mixer, just a few minutes... by hand, until it's all wet with no dry flour left.
Cover the dough with a clean cloth and allow it to work its own magic in a warm place....maybe an oven with a proofing setting, but no warmer than 100° Let that goodness double in size over the next 50 to 60 minutes. You did put it in a big enough bowl, right?? The above photo is my dough Rising, covered in an oven that did have the "proof" setting. I'm teaching one of my Dad's friends how to use her oven... I love tutorials on baking! Isn't she lovely? Mrs. Janet has a beautiful new home in Greers Ferry, Arkansas. I am a guest in her kitchen, and she gave me permission to use these photos. So while you're waiting on the dough to rise... you can melt lots of butter.. don't be stingy either. Cover the bottoms of your pans with a thin layer of butter. You can use any kind of pan you desire. If you wanna keep them all for yourself, cookie sheets will hoard them all onto two large ones. For sharing, the round give-away tins are perfect. After you've melted all the butter in the neighborhood, and you've lightly buttered your baking pans... you can wash dishes, fold laundry, or sing the alphabet really slow. Wait, forget the laundry... I don't want to ruin the baking experience by throwing in my least favorite chore. Once Your dough has risen for almost an hour and it's doubled in size, we will ... Punch down the dough. Punch it! Take out the center with your fist!! After you've relieved the tension and the dough is deflated.... Mix together: Add it to the dough.. and knead. (Mixers, just turn it on and sip some sweet tea while us draft horses pull the wagon). Simply push down, pull it to ya, push down, turn it over, repeat. Just squish it all together over and over for about 5 minutes. If the dough is still too sticky, sprinkling flour a little at a time does the trick. The dough should end up nice and touchable without being sticky. At this point, you can freeze or refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days... or move forward with the recipe. Divide the dough in half. Just eyeball it unless you wanna be fancy and use a scale. Roll the dough into a long rectangle. We are doing both halves in the photo, but you can do one half at a time. hint: refrigerate the other half while you work Now we can use that melted butter... cover the dough with melted butter. Do. Not. Be. Shy! Enough to cover, but not run off the sides. Now cover that butter with organic Saigon Cinnamon. Now cover that Organic Saigon Cinnamon with sugar.... Now Back to BUTTER.... Begin to roll from the far edge towards you to make your Cinnamon Roll Log. Roll her up like breakfast is countin' on it!! Slice into 1 inch rolls... a knife will suffice... but the trick here is to use dental floss. Slide it under, cross it over and pull until its cut all the way through. I apologize for no photo of the floss method.... I was trying to teach, take photos, and keep it all straight so she could make them herself when I wasn't around... maybe I can add that later. Place them on the baking sheet with enough space to rise... they should not touch. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days... OR You may cover and freeze the cinnamon rolls on the cookie sheet. Once frozen, place into freezer bags. To cook either frozen or refrigerated: Here's a shot during the baking process: While the rolls are baking at 325 for 15-20 minutes, Make your icing. I make a different icing than the Pioneer Woman, simply because I do not care for maple flavored icing. If you do, I'm sure her recipe is amazing and you should google it. (Or get her cook book!) I use: If you know a Mexican vanilla smuggler, can we be friends? You can also swing your icing in different ways by adding your own favorite flavoring. Be bold, try something different. Orange and lemon are both good! Life Hack: There was a request for raisins on top, so we threw a few down... You can easily add items like raisins, cooked-diced Apples, etc. right before you roll up the log. There was a snatchin .... And a grabbin.... mmmmMMmmmmMMMmmm Happy Rollin in the Dough!!! Questions? Have any pointers? I love helpful hints!! Until the next bake shop... Jeejee P.S. please do not over bake your cinnamon rolls. Just watch for a slight light tan to form on the outer sides.
Mine just sits on the stove, away from drafts from the AC.
Use REAL UNSALTED BUTTER
Salted butter burns. Ain't no body got time for that! And for that matter, don't use margarine either. Honey, if you're gonna eat a cinnamon roll, enjoy it from the inside out and use real butter. Not oil colored and flavored to resemble butter. There should only be one ingredient on your butter box... "cream" being that one main ingredient. Everyone can pronounce "cream", right? Get to melting!
We had a crowd waiting for these rolls, so hoarding was acceptable.
Okay well, don't break your bowl.
1 cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder, 1 scant teaspoon baking soda, and 1 Tablespoon of salt.
You'll want to time it if you're doing it by hand because 5 minutes is an eternity When you are kneading dough by hand.
(Don't ask questions, you're in too deep now).
Pour more melted butter over the top so you can make an ooey gooey texture... this can't be dry, so butter your buns baby!!
Options At this point..
Bring to room temp, bake at 325° for 15-20 min (oven temps vary, so watch for a light golden brown to start on edges).
1 bag of powdered sugar
1 stick butter (room temp, or remainder of the neighborhoods melted butter)
1 cup of whole milk. (CAUTION: you use more or less as needed to make it as thick or thin as you like)
2 tsp high quality vanilla extract.
Stick a baggie in a mason jar and pour the icing into it. Clip off the corner and squeeze onto the rolls, while they're fresh out of the oven.
