Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

I believe it's time to write out my first food post. I'm so excited to share with you all my experiences in the kitchen area. To be honest, I'm not very fond of this part in the house for not being experienced in this area that much. I'm always on the lookout for inspirations and ideas and try my best to get into the spirit of cooking...

 

I'm a huuuge cinnamon lover. I love the taste of it and the wonderful aroma! It seems rather soothing to me for some reason and fills me up with joy! I'm always secretly adding it into certain foods to add a little bit of flavor to it. This cinnamon roll recipe works wonders for me. It's really simple and works every time. They come out very soft, fluffy, and with a touch of goldness all around. The kids really enjoy gobbling it all up, good thing there's plenty to go around! ;-) I got this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens cookbook I used to have. So do try it out, you'll be amazed by how delicious they are!

Ingredients:

For The Dough:
Flour 6 1/4 - 6 3/4 cups
Yeast 1/2 oz
Milk 1 1/2 cup
Butter 1/2 cup
Sugar 1/2 cup
Salt 1 t.s
3 Eggs

For The Filling:
Sugar 3/4 cups
Butter 1/2 cup, melted
Cinnamon 4 t.s
Flour 2 t.s.
Nuts (optional) 3/4 cups, chopped

For The Icing:
Powdered Sugar 2 cups
Vanilla Powder 1/2 t.s.
Milk 2-3 TB

Instructions:

Dough
In a large bowl, combine 3 cups flour and the yeast. Using a saucepan, heat milk, butter, sugar, and salt until warm and butter has almost melted. Remove from heat. Add butter mixture to flour mixture and then add the eggs. Beat. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as possible. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead in remaining flour. Shape into a ball and place into a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise for about an hour or until it doubles in size.

Once it has doubled up, punch the dough down, divide it in half, place each half in seperate greased bowls, cover and let rise for about 10 minutes.

On a floured surface, roll out each half into about 12" squares. Spread half of the filling and half of the nuts over each square. Roll up, and pinch the edges to seal it up using a little water if necessary by dipping your finger in it.

Slice into 8 equal pieces and place onto a greased pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place the pan in the refrigerator for approximately 2 hours. Once this time has passed by, remove from fridge, uncover and let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Or another option is that you can let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour. Break any surface bubbles with a greased toothpick.

Bake for about 20 -25 minutes or until lightly golden. Let it cool. Drizzle with icing.

Filling
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, butter, cinnamon, flour, and nuts (optional).

Icing
In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and vanilla. Add enough milk to make of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over rolls.

Notes from my experiences:
This is the recipe I always use when I make cinnamon rolls, but I have made some slight changes that work best for me. You can try these modifications or make some that suits you better.

First of all, sometimes I add a little bit more yeast to make my rolls double up quicker and look fluffier at the same time. I think the waiting process takes some time and I get very impatient. I don't think that this really affects anything else that much so I just usually go for it. I would make it to about 1 oz. yeast instead.

Secondly, I double up the filling recipe as well without doubling the dough recipe. Since I'm very fond of the taste of cinnamon, I like the taste of it to be strong in every little bite. Also, it seems to make the the cinnamon rolls a little bit juicier I guess. Sorry, can't find a better word to describe it.

Thirdly, when I slice my rolls out. I don't really measure 8 equal rolls. I just simply go with the flow by approximating and try get more slices out of it. It makes much more than 8 rolls in my opinion.

And lastly, I bake them on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet, this way it'll be easier to cleanup. I also found out that if I don't let them get too golden then they'll be much more softer and chewier. So first I let the bottom get juuuuuust a little bit golden, then I broil them from the top until they're juuuuuuuuust a little bit golden as well. My ending results turn better this way.