Soft Cinnamon Rolls

Written By Christ-Ansy Omeler

INGREDIENTS:

Cinnamon Roll Dough:

  • 1 cup of buttermilk (warm, 105°F)

  • ½ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (divided) 100 g

  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

  • 2 large eggs (room temperature)

  • 6 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted)

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 5 cups bread flour 600 g

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • Heavy cream

Cinnamon Sugar Filling:

  • 1 cup of brown sugar 200 g

  • 2 ½ tablespoon of ground cinnamon

  • 6 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

  • ¼ cup of unsalted butter (softened)

  • 2 cups of powdered sugar 240 g

  • ½ teaspoon vanilla bean

  • A pinch of salt


INSTRUCTIONS:

Cinnamon Rolls Dough:

  1. Warm milk in the microwave for 45-60 seconds. It should be warm, but not hot to the touch.

  2. Mix warm milk, 1 tbsp of yeast, 1 tbsp of sugar together in a bowl and let sit until mixture becomes frothy (about 5 minutes)

  3. Once frothy, mix in melted butter, the rest of the sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs.

  4. Then mix in flour, cinnamon, and salt until combined in a doughy ball.

  5. Knead dough by hand in the bowl for about 5 minutes.

  6. Once finished kneading, put into a large rectangular greased-up bowl (a bowl with oil spread around it) and let sit in a warm area (I had put mine in the microwave) for 2 hours to rise.


Cinnamon Sugar Filling:

  1. While dough is rising, you can go ahead and mix together all of the ingredients for the cinnamon sugar filling until thoroughly combined.

  2. Once combined, set aside.

Now, I advise y'all to wash and clean those dishes, put away all the ingredients that we no longer need away, and swipe down the counter top again, just to make sure it stays clean.

While you wait, go watch a movie, plan for your future, read, drink some water, exercise, etc.


Back to the Cinnamon Rolls Dough:

Before starting, I would advise you to go ahead and clean a counter top (with soap and water) because we will be working on the counter top with the dough for this recipe.

  1. Once dough has finished rising, it should have visibly doubled, sprinkle some flour on the counter top and punch the air out of the dough.

  2. Now we will be rolling the dough into a large rectangular shape (24×12” rectangle). The dough should be rolled not to thinly, but pretty thin (about 1/4 inch).

  3. Next, cut up the sides to make the dough even when we roll it up.

  4. Take the Cinnamon Sugar Filling we set aside, and spread it out evenly on top of the dough, making sure to leave about 1/8 an inch with no filling so it does not spill out on the sides.

  5. Now we're rolling up the dough. Tightly and evenly roll up the dough on the longer side until it's rolled all the way up.

  6. Cut up the dough into even pieces (mine came out to be exactly twelve pieces, 2” long). You can do this also by marking it up to make sure all the pieces are even before you cut.

We're almost done! Phew

7. Okay now, take a greased-up 9×13 inch pan and put the cinnamon roll pieces into it, making sure to leave even spaces between each cinnamon roll.

8. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise yet again for 1 hour at room temp. At the 30 minute mark (half way through), turn on the oven to 350°F.

9. Drizzle rolls with heavy cream.

10. Put the cinnamon roll dough in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until it is a light shade of brown on the top.


Cream Cheese Icing (Optional):

While the Cinnamon Rolls are in the oven, we can do the Cream Cheese Icing

  1. Whisk together the cream cheese and unsalted butter in a bowl until softened and whipped like.

  2. Once whipped, add in the powdered sugar, vanilla bean, and salt and mix.

  3. Set aside for Cinnamon Rolls and keep at room temperature.

Once Cinnamon Rolls come out the oven, immediately brush the rolls with simple syrup. Wait 5 minutes, then slather on the Cream Cheese Icing on top of the rolls.

Let cool down and Enjoy!


NOTES

Instead of putting the Cinnamon Rolls all on one pan, you can put them in a cupcake pan, separately for your individual enjoyment. These came out for me nice, and soft, and the cream cheese icing was a nice touch, not to sugary. If you don't want more sugar on your Cinnamon Rolls, you can omit the Cream Cheese Icing as well. How did it turn out for you? Let me know! If you would like a visual step-by-step, you should head on over to my Instagram page!


As always, bought to you by the wonderful, beautiful, amazing Christ-Ansy :)

Christ-Ansy Omeler
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