Dec 4, 2005

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

The smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls is enough to get anyone's mouth watering. I am a huge fan of Cinnabon and wanted to make my own cinnamon rolls at home. This recipe adapted from an old edition of the Watkins Cookbook and I felt it as good a place as any to start with my quest to find the perfect cinnamon roll recipe. I was happy with is the first time I tried it and have never tried another recipe. I will warn you these take 4 hours from start to finish with the time it takes for the dough to rise, but they are well worth the wait. If you are like me and enjoy the Cinnabon cream cheese based icing, you will love my take on the glaze.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls:
1 c. milk
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 stick butter
1 pkg. yeast
2 -3 c. flour
1/2 c. raisins (optional)
cinnamon
brown sugar

Heat milk in a sauce pan until tiny bubbles form around the edge. Pour immediately in a bowl. Stir in salt, sugar and butter. Stir in yeast. Stir in 1/2 of the flour. Beat in rest of flour with a wooden spoon or with your hands. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead just until smooth. Put into greased bowl. Turn dough until it is greased on all sides. Cover. Put in a warm place and let rise 1 - 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Remove dough from bowl and punch down. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick with a rolling pin into an approximately 8 x 12 in. rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins. Roll up like a jelly roll starting with one of the longest sides of the rectangle. Cut into one inch slices with a sharp knife. Put rolls into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Brush with butter and let rise one hour or until doubled in bulk (or you can refrigerate them at this point and take out to rise in the morning but it will take longer to rise if you do decide to refrigerate them). Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes. Ice them and serve as soon as they are done.

Icing
3/4 c. confectioners sugar
3 oz. pkg. cream cheese
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. milk

With an electric mixed, blend sugar, cream cheese and butter until crumbly. Add vanilla and milk. Blend until creamy. Icing will be thin, similar to a glaze, if you'd like it thicker just don't add the milk.

12 comments:

FoodNinja said...

I heart cinnamon rolls... I make them for my wife before she goes to work. Thanks for checking out my blog..

Fran said...

You have a lovely site here. We love cinnamon rolls and go through phases of eating lots of them. There is something so satisfying about anything with cinnamon.

Michele said...

Templar, your wife is a lucky lady, cinnamon rolls are so good!

Thanks for the compliment Fran! I love cinnamon too in just about anything sweet... or savory for that matter :)

Anonymous said...

Four hours sound like quite a commitment, but worth it!

Michele said...

Lisa, it is a long time but what I do is put the dough together and while it's rising I bathe the kids, do the laundry and other things so the time flies. We RARELY have these for breakfast though because I can't imagine waking up at 5 am just to get these started LOL!

domestika said...

Nope, a cook just can't go wrong with cinnamon anything, can you? I tell my husband that if you put enough cinnamon and sugar on top of it, a man would eat ... er... what the dog leaves behind in the yard!
I need you to be my personal chef, Michele! LOL

Michele said...

LOL! You are so right about that! Cinnamon is a true fix all isn't it. You are welcome to come for cinnamon rolls ... or dinner any time! :)

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe and it was terrible; the dough never did rise (and yes, I did put in the right amount and kind of yeast).

Michele said...

I'm so sorry the recipe didn't work out for you. Maybe you had a bad batch of yeast? We make these all the time and they always turn out well. I have given this recipe to several people and they always comment on how will they turn out.

The Healthy Way said...

I'm going to try these. I've had a hard time with other recipies. Does it matter what type of pan you use, glass or metal? Thank you.

Michele said...

I'm sure you'll love them! I have used both a glass pan and a metal pan, both with great success.

Momtimesfour said...

Thank you for this recipe, Michele! We've been making it for years now, and every time, I google to find this page again as my guide. Comes out great every time.