Cinnamon Rolls

Delicious

My mother used to make cinnamon rolls for me and my siblings all the time. We would wake up to the smell of the rolls in the oven. It was one of my favorite ways to start the day. My mom would make a delicious lemon flavored glaze to pour over the rolls, that really added something unique to her breakfast.

Now, I haven’t begun my day with cinnamon and sugary goodness in a very long time. I do most of my baking at the end of the day, never before classes, and it’s a shame. If I ever have the foresight to make the dough the night before maybe I will wake up one of these days to that beautiful scent once again.

Now you’re going to have to make your own dough, but don’t worry. You’re only going to let the dough rise once and after you’re done it’s all easy from there. I used to shy away from recipes that asked me to make my own dough, but it’s really not that bad.

Cinnamon rolls are thought to have been invented in Sweden, but now they are commonly eaten all over North America and Northern Europe. They range in size shape and most importantly filling. These little guys can be filled with whatever you think will taste good baked in a cinnamon sugar mixture nestled between two strips of roll. Raisins and grapes are used frequently, but why not other fruits? Apples would be delicious. When I made them we drizzled honey over a few of them and they turned out lovely.

For the dough you’re gonna need the basic dough ingredients:

• 1 1/4 oz. package yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup milk (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 4 cups flour

and to bake you’ll need:

• a toaster oven
• a microwave would be nice
• a baking sheet
• maybe a rolling pin, but water bottles work nicely too

Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix together the milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg. Add about half the flour and mix until smooth. Add the yeast mixture followed by most of the rest of the flour. Mix until you get a dough consistency, then kneed it for 5-10 minutes using whatever flour you have left over to dust the kneading surface. And the hard part is done! Wasn’t that easy?

rolling the dough

Just put your dough into a well greased (you can use butter or pam, or whatever really) bowl, cover and let rise. Let it sit for at least an hour. You want it to rise to about twice it’s original size. If it gets bigger don’t worry, if it’s not big enough give it a few more minutes. Now my favorite part, punch the dough. Just give it a few good hits to prepare it for rolling.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle. Don’t try to get it too thin or the rolls wont taste right, but too thick and their going to be doughy. This call is up to you. Roll it to your desired thickness, and start to think about what you want in them.

Either way you’re going to need these things:

• 1-3 tbsp butter (melted)
• sugar*
• cinnamon*

*Notice I didn’t put amounts, that’s up to you to figure out. Just grab a spoon and sprinkle some on.

three thirds

After you have a rectangle spread on the melted butter followed by liberal amounts of cinnamon and sugar. Now you get to be creative. If you’re boring roll and bake now, if you want to have fun throw something else in there too. I used raisins on one third, and honey on another.

Next step is to roll them up, cut them into pieces, and bake them at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Make a glaze from powdered sugar, milk, and butter to drizzle on top before serving. Just mix said ingredients together until you get a glaze like constancy. Too thick add milk, too thin and sugar.

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