Cinnamon rolls

A cinnamon roll consists of a dough that spirals over a filling of ground cinnamon and sugar. It is not made with puff pastry or any other type of dough that is marketed, but rather with a flexible cake that you must make on your own. Anyway it is a fairly simple process. 

INGREDIENTS :

For the dough :

• 3 cups of pastry flour
• 1 cup of milk
• Half a cup of normal granulated white sugar
• Half a cup of melted unsalted butter 
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of fresh yeast (which should be stored in a refrigerator) although it can also be done with dry baker's yeast
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

For the filling :

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter ointment
• 3 or 4 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar
• 3 or 4 heaped tablespoons of cinnamon powder

For the glaze:

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup of icing sugar

In a large bowl we break the two eggs and beat them. Next we add the sugar and mix with the metal rods. If we use fresh yeast it is best to dissolve it previously in warm milk and after half an hour, add it to the eggs with sugar. If we use dry yeast, the milk is poured and then the yeast, mixing well.

We pour the liquid butter, the vanilla essence and a pinch of salt (the salt serves to enhance the sweet taste of the dough).

Finally we add the previously sifted flour while stirring with the rods.

The dough will thicken to the point where we should work it with a wooden spoon. When we get to that point it is best to let it sit half an hour covered and with a cloth on top to make it less sticky.

After the rest time, we knead it tightly so that it is homogeneous and airy. The main test happens when we sink the thumb of the finger as if we wanted to leave our fingerprint and when it is removed the dough recovers its previous form in a few seconds.

On a flat surface we sprinkle flour and on it we spread the dough with the help of a rolling pin. It should be quite thin and rectangular in shape.

Then we spread the butter on the dough to the point of ointment with a spatula or similar - I use a silicone one - so that it paints the entire surface.

Mix the cinnamon powder with the brown granulated sugar and sprinkle them on the dough that we have covered with butter, so that mixture will stick.

Now we are going to roll the dough on itself by the greater side of the rectangle, so that we will get a spiral with a very small radius. It is the same as rolling a carpet. We are doing it carefully until we get a kind of roller that we will cut into sections of about 3 centimeters (around 1 inch). Now we see clearly the shape of the cinnamon roll.

We grease a dish that can go to the oven and introduce the rolls. Now we will let them rest until they double in size thanks to the action of yeast in the usual way, in a cool, dry place and covered by a cloth. It is important that we use a tray with walls because if we tried to bake it directly on the baking sheet when it dilated they would lose shape. The walls of the fountain prevent expansion.

Once they have increased in size so that there is almost no space between them we heat the oven to 180 degrees (350 F) and bake them for 20 minutes.

While the cinnamon rolls are in the oven we will make the glaze simply by mixing the cream cheese, liquid butter, milk and glass sugar with the rods.

The moment the rolls come out of the oven, we paint them with the glaze using a silicone spatula or an idem brush and ready to eat.

You will get amazing, fluffy cinnamon rolls, with an incredible aroma and  flavor.