Cinnamon Rolls

Decided to start writing down recipes I tried and liked on my blog so I can keep a tab on it for future uses!

I found this cinnamon roll recipe from Ambitious Kitchen by Monique. I like it because it requires the least amount of granulated sugar (the recipe Tasty provided asked for 1 full cup of granulated sugar, and this one by Monique requires less but is already sweet enough for me). I also opted out of putting the glaze on top for similar reasons.

So without further ado, here’s the recipe with a few tweaks from me! Thanks Monique!

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Ingredients:

-Dough-

3/4 cup of warm milk (30-40 degrees C)

2 1/4 teaspoons of active yeast

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

1/4 cup of unsalted butter, melted

3 cups of bread flour (Monique stressed the importance of using bread flour instead of all purpose flour, and I agree, the texture of the rolls were amazing)

3/4 teaspoon of salt

-Filling-

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature

-Frosting- (Optional, in my opinion)

4 oz of cream cheese, room temperature

3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

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1. Add yeast to warm water and let it sit. After a few minutes, the yeast should foam up.
2. Add in sugar, eggs, and butter to the milk mixture. Mix until fully combined.
3. Add in flour and salt and stir until a dough begins to form.
4. Flour surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes. The dough should form into a nice ball and be glossy.
5. Transfer dough ball to oiled bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and warm towel. Let the dough rise for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours or until the dough doubled in size.
6. Transfer dough onto floured surface and roll into a rectangle.
7. Combine all the ingredients of filling and stir into a paste. (Monique’s recipe asked to spread the butter and cinnamon+sugar mixture separately, but the recipe from Tasty asked to combine all the ingredients first, and I thought that made more sense because it allows a more even spread)
8. Spread the filling paste onto the rectangular dough.
9. Roll the dough up as tightly as you can.
10. Cut the rolled dough into tiny pieces and place the pieces onto a baking pan that’s lined with parchment paper. (I placed smaller pieces on the middle of the pan and larger ones outside because the outside tend to cook faster and this allows a more even bake)
11. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and warm towel and let it rise for 30 minutes.
12. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius. After letting the dough rise for 30 minutes, bake the cinnamon rolls for 20 minutes (or until the edges are golden brown).
13. Optional. After letting the rolls cool, mix together the ingredients for the frosting and spread over the cinnamon rolls.

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Here’s how mine turned out! The flavor of the cinnamon was strong and the bread itself wasn’t too sweet. I loved it!