Easter Baking : Cinnamon Buns (Rolls)

Cinnamon Buns (Rolls)

The smell of cinnamon rolls just gets to me... remember a friend at a Hotel Management Institute getting me warm cinnamon rolls they had made at their bakery classes ( I had to copy notes for 6 months plus to have access to the bakery class goodies). The smell was heavenly and the roll just hmmmm....

Cinnamon Rolls is a sweet pastry very common in Northern Europe and North America. The roll is though to be invented in Sweden by  Mikheal  Thomlinson and Kjyl Cokeley where it takes the name of kanelbulle (literally meaning: cinnamon bun). On October 4, ?Kanelbullens Day? (Cinnamon Roll Day) is celebrated in Sweden.  There are also other notes I found that mentioned that a Danish pastry cook employed by the emperor of Austria, in Vienna, first came up with the idea.

Kudos to the person who got the idea!

So I decided to try my hand at baking some and wanted the house to smell of freshly baked cinnamon roll on Easter morning. I got this recipe from the JoyOfBaking site.

Dough:
All Purpose Flour - 4 ½ - 5 cups (630 - 700 grams)Active Dry Yeast ? ¼ Ounce (7 grams)Milk ? 1 cup (240 ml)Unsalted Butter ? 1/3 cup (75 grams)Granulated White Sugar ? 1/3 cup (66 grams)Salt ? ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams)Eggs ? 3 large

Filling:

Light Brown Sugar ? ¾ cup (160 grams)All-purpose Flour ? ¼ cup (35 grams)Ground Cinnamon ? 1 tablespoonUnsalted Butter, cold cut into pieces ? ½ cup (113 grams)Light Cream (half-and-half) ? 1 tablespoon

Prepare the filling:
In a medium-sized bowl place brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir to combineCut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or two knives, until the mixture is crumbly. Set Aside

Note: I used Demerara Sugar. The filling turned out like a paste. My guess is that the butter melted due to the heat and the Demerara sugar is quite wet. Hopefully next time I will get the crumbly mix.

Assemble the dough and filling:
Roll the dough into a 12 inch square.Sprinkle the filling (in my case I had to spread the filling) evenly over the rolled out dough.Carefully roll the dough into a log and pinch the edges to seal.Slice the log into eight equal-sized pieces.Arrange the dough pieces in a greased baking pan with sufficient space between each piece. Cover it loosely with clear plastic or towel, leaving room for it to rise.Brush the dough with light cream and bake in a oven for 25 ? 30 minutes at 190 C (i did the baking at 180 C for 30 minutes)You know the rolls are done by inserting a toothpick into one of the buns, and it should come out clean. Also, if you lightly tap on the top of the buns it should sound hollow.Remove from Oven and brush again with light cream.Cool 5 minutes and then move to a baking rack.

Note: I got more than 8 rolls, guess I made the dough into a 12 inch rectangle, instead of square. I also prefer to have them warm, so 30 seconds in the microwave before serving is a good idea. I like the taste of cinnamon, the 1 tablespoon of powdered cinnamon was not quite enough to give the strong flavour of the spice.

Another aspect I liked about this recipe is that you don?t need to get up at 5 in the morning to have the rolls ready to bake in the morning. Once the dough log has been sliced, place it on the baking tray, cover with a clear plastic, and refrigerate for 2 ? 24 hours. Next morning take them out of the refrigerator, remove the clear wrapping, and let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Enjoy them with a hot cuppa of coffee!!!