Homemade Cinnamon Rolls in the Bread Maker

I really love cinnamon rolls. When I was in high school, my girl friend and I would go to the mall every weekend to spend our babysitting money on new clothes. Without fail I always made my way over to the Cinnabun store and ordered a large cinnamon roll with a side of extra frosting. It was my favorite treat.

So for as much as I love cinnamon rolls, I rarely make them (ok, almost never—I think I made them once). Truth be told, making my own dough just scares me. Mainly because of how labor intensive I think it is and about 75% of the time, it doesn’t turn out. Plus, who has patience to wait for something to rise? Not me.

For some reason last night I got up from the couch and decided I was going to make cinnamon rolls. (This type of neurosis is absolutely no surprise from my half sleeping husband). I have been wanting to make these for months and I figured I had everything at my fingertips; I might as well make a trial run and get some practice. It’s all about facing my fears these days.
I used my bread maker for my rolls but you can certainly do this without a bread maker. I have provided directions for both.

The verdict: These turned out great! Nice and gooey in the middle, spicy cinnamon flavor, and the frosting had a great cream cheese flavor. I was surprised to find that these were not that difficult! I even saved half of them in the freezer for another day! My father-in-law stopped by this morning to sample one and told me they were the best he ever had. I think he is a little biased.

Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe courtesy of Recipe Zaar

Ingredients
1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
1 cup warm milk (I used low fat and that worked just fine)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

FILLING
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons Saigon cinnamon
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

ICING
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt


Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in the warm milk. Pour into bread maker.

2. Add flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla to the bread maker. (I added mine in that order you can check with your manufacturer’s instructions—mine didn’t provide any so I just made sure I put the liquid in the bottom since it had the yeast to make sure it was the farthest from the salt). As long as the machine is going to mix right away, it probably does not matter. Set machine on Dough.

3. If you don’t have a bread maker—just mix everything in a large bowl. Knead the dough into a ball with floured hands. Put it in a bowl and cover to let it rise in a warm place for about an hour (it should double in size)

4. Pull risen dough out of bread maker or bowl and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to be about 21x16 and ¼ inch thick. (If your dough is really soupy—mine was….just add more flour and kneed it a few times until you have the consistency that allows you to roll it out.)



5. Make the filling by mixing together the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

6. Spread filling on top of dough evenly.



7. Working from the long end, roll the dough.



8. Cut into 1 ¾ inch slices and place on a lightly greased baking pan.



9. At this point you can choose to cover with plastic and put in the refrigerator or freezer for later or you can bake them now.




10. Preheat oven to 400, you can put the rolls in the oven to let them rise a bit more while the oven preheats. If the rolls are coming from the refrigerator, you can put the baking dish from the refrigerator right to the preheating oven as well.



11. Bake 10 – 12 minutes. Mine took about 15 because mine came from the refrigerator. They should be somewhat golden brown on the top and gooey in the center.



12. Make frosting while they are in the oven, mix butter, sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla together with a mixer until smooth.



13. Pull rolls out of the oven and top with frosting.

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