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Homemade Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Made with the finest, all-natural ingredients, these are completely amazing cinnamon rolls, sure to wreck diets and inspire devoted culinary love wherever they go.
The cornerstone of this recipe is the soft, moist and tender sweet dough. Flavored with milk and honey, it incorporates a simple cooked flour roux to hold in moisture. The roux and an extended kneading time are the secret to a pillowy, light texture.
These skip the standard super-sweet powdered sugar frosting, and go instead for a richly flavored, creamy glaze that rounds out the cinnamon and makes the flavors sing. Don’t be put off by the white chocolate base for this wonderful glaze, even tasters who dislike white chocolate didn’t realize it was there and absolutely loved this frosting.
Your Schedule is Everything: Having a Proofer on hand for these rolls helps take the guesswork out of timing a breakfast or brunch. Using the Proofer to get the butter melty-soft makes it easier to knead it into the dough. And that crazy good glaze is actually made right in the Proofer while the rolls bake. Easy and foolproof.
Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Yield
12 Cinnamon rolls in one 9 x 13” (23 x 33 cm) rectangular pan.
Alternatively, by using the Proofer Accessory Shelf, the recipe can instead be divided between two 9” (23 cm) round cake pans. Place one pan on the rack and one pan on the accessory shelf.
Timing
Most of the work on these rolls can be done the day before baking. On day 1 the dough can be made, chilled, rolled, cut, and then the rolls are refrigerated overnight. In the morning, pull the rolls out of the fridge about 2¼ hours before serving time, then proof and bake.
Alternatively, the rolls can be made all in one day. After the first rise, chill the dough only for the minimum time of 1 hour. Then roll, fill, and cut the rolls. Skip the overnight time in the refrigerator and shorten the final proof to 70-75 minutes (the dough will be warm and will take less time than refrigerated dough). All in, start these rolls 5½-6 hours before serving time.
Milk & Honey Sweet Dough
| Ingredient | Volume | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Unbleached flour, 12% protein | 2 C spooned | 250 |
| Milk | ¾ C (180 ml) | 182 |
| Instant yeast | 1½ tsp | 4.8 |
| Salt | ¾ tsp | 4.5 |
| Honey | 3 T | 60 |
| Egg yolk | 1 yolk | 15 |
| Water | 1 T | 15 |
| Butter, very soft | 4 T | 57 |
*Use a strong unbleached All-Purpose flour (such as King Arthur AP) or a Bread Flour (such as Gold Medal Better for Bread).
Cinnamon Pecan Filling
| Ingredient | Volume | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Butter, melted and cooled | 4 T | 57 |
| Light brown sugar | 2 T | 27 |
| Cinnamon | 2 tsp | 12 |
| Vanilla | ½ tsp | 2.5 ml |
| Egg white, cold | 1 white | 32 |
| Pecans, chopped | ¾ C | 85 |
Cinnamon Mocha Glaze Topping
| Ingredient | Volume | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Fine quality white chocolate bar* | 3 oz or ⅔ of a 4.5 oz bar | 85 |
| Butter | 2 T | 28 |
| Cinnamon | ¼ tsp | 0.65 |
| Coffee or Espresso (brewed) | 1 T | 15 |
| Powdered sugar | 2 T | 14 |
*Lindt or Green & Black’s white chocolate bars are delicious in this recipe. White chocolate chips are formulated not to melt and won’t work well here.
Equipment
- Brod & Taylor Baking Scale
- Brod & Taylor Folding Proofer
- Mixing bowls
- Stand mixer
- Small saucepot
- Whisk
- Silicone spatula
- Rolling pin
- Plain dental floss
- One 9 x 13" (23 x 33 cm) pan, or two 9" (23 cm) round pans
Instructions
Make the Roux. Measure the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the milk to a small saucepan and whisk in 3 Tbs (45g) of the flour from the mixer bowl. Heat over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until uniformly thickened and bubbling, about 20-30 seconds after the mixture first begins to boil. Cover and chill until cool to the touch.
Set up the Proofer and check on the butter. The butter will incorporate more easily with the dough if it is so soft that it’s gone all melty at the edges. It can be warmed in the Proofer at 85°F (29°C). To prepare for rising the dough, lightly oil a container and mark it at the 4 cup (1 L) level.
Mix the Dough. Add the instant yeast and salt to the flour in the mixer bowl and stir to combine. Add the water, cooled roux, honey and egg yolk. Mix on low speed until flour is moistened. Once the dough comes together it should stick to the sides of the bowl. If necessary, add 1 more tablespoon (15 ml) water to achieve the right consistency.
Knead Intensively for an Ethereal Texture. Raise mixer to medium-low and knead for 5 minutes. The dough should still be sticking to the sides of the bowl. Add the butter in four parts, kneading until each piece is incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Once all the butter is incorporated, knead for 10 more minutes on medium-low. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl, although it may still stick on the bottom.
Ferment the Dough. Check that the Proofer is set up with water in the tray and the temperature at 85°F (29°C). Scrape the dough into the oiled container, place in the Proofer and allow to rise until doubled, about 75-80 minutes.
Fold and Chill. Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and stretch and fold all four sides to the middle, creating a square package. Wrap loosely and chill (a relaxed, cool dough will be less sticky and easier to roll out without adding too much flour). After 30 minutes, deflate the dough and re-wrap. Chill 30 more minutes or until it’s convenient to roll the dough, up to 24 hrs.
While the Dough is Chilling, Make the Filling. Butter the bottom and sides of the pans and chop the pecans finely. Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla until well combined. Quickly whisk in the cold egg white to thicken and emulsify the mixture.
Roll and Fill the Dough. Lightly flour the top and bottom of the dough, then roll out to a 12 x 14” (30 x 36 cm) rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, extending all the way to the edges on the short sides and leaving a small bare border on both long sides. Sprinkle the nuts over the filling. Starting from a long side, roll the dough into a log and press lightly to seal the seam. Use plain dental floss to cut the roll into 12 pieces. If using a knife to slice rolls, it may be easier if the log is chilled first. Arrange the rolls in the pan with smaller rolls in the middle. Cover and chill overnight.
Proof the Cinnamon Rolls. Set up the Proofer with plenty of water in the tray and set the thermostat to 90°F (32°C). Proof the rolls until the dough springs back slowly when the side of a roll is dented with a finger, about 90 minutes.
If using two 9" round cake pans, place one pan on the bottom rack, and one on the accessory shelf. Halfway through the proofing time, rotate the pans from top to bottom.
Preheat the Oven. Place racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375°F (190°C).
Make the Glaze. Break or chop the white chocolate into pieces and put in a small bowl along with the coffee, cinnamon and butter. When the cinnamon rolls are fully proofed, remove them from the Proofer, then turn the thermostat up to 120°F (49°C). Place the topping mixture in the center of the rack and close the lid.
Bake the Cinnamon Rolls. Cover each pan of rolls with aluminum foil to seal in moisture and encourage the fullest oven spring possible. Place in the oven on the lower rack. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the foil, rotate pans 180 degrees, and place on the upper rack to encourage browning. Bake 15-20 more minutes, until nicely browned and the rolls reach an internal temperature of 190°F (88°C).
Cool and Top the Rolls. When the cinnamon rolls are done, remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. While the rolls are cooling, whisk the melted glaze ingredients until they emulsify and are thick and smooth. Add the powdered sugar and whisk until smooth. Unmold the rolls onto a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the warm rolls.
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3 comments
I don’t know why no one has ever responded. These are the best cinnamon rolls out there. They are moist and have a true depth of flavor from the coffee in the glaze to the cinnamon in the filling to the sweet buttery dough pulling everything together. They take time, but great things do take time. And to top it all off, the recipe is presented for everyone, with weights and volume measurements. Very well done!
Wow. I have made a cinnamon roll or two in my time, but these are at a whole other level. These are the lightest, most tender, that I have ever had and that you can imagine. They really are, delightfully, a lot less sweet than most. I was surprised that the small amount of coffee in the glaze really did add to the flavor, and yet without being a punch of notability. Yes, they took time but oh so worth it. The dough was v e r y slow to rise. No problem, just be patient if that’s so, and you will be rewarded. Now, for my deviations: my dough chilled in the refrigerator for 48 hours just because I couldn’t get to it sooner. I also at the start, had short cutted and cheated by using the dough cycle of my bread machine, adding all ingredients as I normally would for any other recipe. No harm, no foul, with either of these since these proofed out to their utmost splendor. Thank you for this fantastic recipe.
These rolls are amazing! I followed the extremely clear recipe carefully (well, pretty carefully – I used a knife to cut them from the log) and was rewarded with delicious, moist pastry that was still great the next day (not dried out) after spending the night in a metal tin. The long knead and the unusual roux step paid off. As others say, these take a little while the day before, but my wife called these the best cinnamon rolls she’d ever had.