Cinnamon Rolls

It's not often that I come across cinnamon rolls. Good cinnamon rolls, mind you. The one in my dreams is a luscious golden-brown colour, still piping hot from the oven, wafting a delicious comforting cinnamon scent. Most importantly, it has to be of a decent size . After all, one of the joys of savouring a cinnamon roll is being able to sink your teeth into a thick yeasty goodness and take a huge bite, while knowing that there're still a few more mouthfuls of delight waiting for you. And as the sugar and cinnamon filling hits your tongue.... Mmm...

As you can tell, I like my cinnamon rolls.

Few of the cinnamon rolls I've had met my expectations. But then again, I haven't been to America, where my friend says cinnamon rolls are ubiquitous. So gradually as the years passed, I stopped looking for them. Truth be told, life's too short to cry over a lack of cinnamon rolls. There's plenty of other culinary distractions around to take one out of one's misery. This went on, until one fine day, during a trip to London. My friends and I were strolling along the streets, minding our own business, when suddenly the long-forgotten smell of fresh cinnamon rolls accosted my nostrils. Before long, I was a hunter on the lookout for that elusive prey.

That was when I spotted it: Cinnabon. A store selling nothing but cinnamon rolls? It must be good! And so it follows that I dragged my friends into the store and promptly satisfied my craving. Yum! It was absolutely delish!

It's been a few years since that Cinnabon treat. As much as I would love to, I can't just fly to London on a whim. But I can certainly bake whatever I want! As fate would have it, as I was searching for recipes online, I came across this recipe for Cinnabon Knock-off Cinnamon Rolls from Tartelette. How apt!

Baking them was easy enough. The best part was watching how the rolls expanded in the final rise. They looked perfect and the spirals were so pretty! My excitement only mounted further once they were in the oven, as the kitchen was soon filled with the smell of cinnamon-y goodness.

I managed to get 18 proper cinnamon rolls from one batch (I say proper because the ones from the ends are always a mess), so I gave some to friends and everyone loved them. Now this is definitely a keeper!

Cinnabon Knock-off Cinnamon Rolls
from Tartelette

For the dough:
1 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar (I used granulated white sugar, since I didn't have any brown sugar)
2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the icing: (I skipped this part, but you can include it if you like)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.

Mix together the sugar, butter, salt and eggs. Add flour and milk and mix well.

Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands lightly dusted with flour. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. (If your kitchen is too cool for proper rising to occur, simply preheat your oven to 150 degrees C at the start, then turn it off and leave the dough in the oven to rise. Works everytime!)

Roll the dough out flat on a lightly-floured surface, until appropximately 21 inches long and 16 inches wide. It should be about 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and position a rack in the middle.

To prepare the filling, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the softened butter evenly over the surface of the dough, making sure to cover every corner. This will act as a glue to ensure that the cinnamon-sugar mixture adheres to the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the surface.

Working carefully from the longer end of the dough (21 inch side), roll the dough down to the bottom edge, much like rolling a swiss roll. Make sure that the rolls are tight and there are no spaces between the layers of dough.

Cut the rolled dough into 1 3/4 inch slices and place them in a lined baking pan, ensuring sufficient space between each roll. Let the rolls rise again until doubled in size, about 30 min.

Bake for 10 min, or until golden on top.

To make the icing:
While the rolls are baking, mix the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Add the icing sugar and mix on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, then add the milk and vanilla. Mix on high speed again until the icing is smooth and fluffy.

When the rolls come out of the oven, let them cool for about 10 min, then coat generously with the icing.

Enjoy!