cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

Dry

• 3 c flour
• 1 tsp salt

Wet

• 1 c milk
• 1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp instant yeast)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 c melted butter

Filling

• 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Hardware

• stand mixer (optional but nice)
• 9”x13” casserole or 10” cast iron skillet
• probe thermometer
• parchment paper to line bottom of cooking vessel

Directions

1. Heat milk in a sauce pan until tiny bubbles form around the edge. Microwave works too. Pour immediately in a bowl.
2. Stir in salt, sugar and butter, let rest until lower than 110F.
3. Stir in yeast.
4. Stir in 1/2 of the flour. Beat in rest of flour with a wooden spoon or with your hands.
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead just until smooth. Alternatively, you could use a stand mixer.
6. Put dough into greased bowl. Turn until it is greased on all sides. Cover.
7. Put in a warm place and let rise 1 - 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
8. Remove dough from bowl and punch down.
9. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick with a rolling pin into an approximately 8 x 12 in. rectangle.
10. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar.
11. Roll up like a jelly roll starting with one of the longest sides of the rectangle.
12. Cut into one inch slices with a sharp knife. If using the a skillet, aim for 1 1/2” to 2”.
13. Put rolls into a parchment-lined and greased cooking vessel.
14. 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).
15. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes. Ice them and serve as soon as they are done.

I ended up using a white glaze without cream cheese for the batch above. For COVID-19 reasons…

Topping options

Icing (Cream cheese)

• 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 4 oz. pkg. cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. butter or milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. milk

With an electric mixer, 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

Icing (White glaze)

• 2c confectioners sugar
• 2 tbsp softened butter
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2-5 tbsp milk (or orange juice)

White glaze is easy to mix by hand so an electric mixer is unneeded. Start with 2 tbsp liquid then add in small amounts more until desired consistency is achieved. The mixture will smooth out after a few moments stirring.