How to make homemade cinnamon rolls: the perfect recipe

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Cinnamon rolls are among the most popular desserts in American cuisine, the classic welcome gifts you bring to new neighbors as soon as they arrive. And in honor of these classic American homemade desserts, today we offer you the traditional recipe of the cinnamon rolls, which in reality are nothing but rolls of soft brioche dough, topped with butter, cinnamon, raisins, which are then rolled, cut into pieces and baked. You can bake and serve them all together in a cake that resembles the rose cake or bake them individually on a baking sheet.

The icing on the cake is obviously the final frosting made with cream cheese and icing sugar. That is inevitable, indeed it is the best part of cinnamon rolls since you can customize it with fruits, spices, syrups, citrus peel or even cognac, rum or port wine. The possibilities are endless.

Ingredients and doses for making cinnamon rolls

• 600 grams of flour
• 12 grams of baking powder
• 5 grams of salt
• 300 ml of milk or almond milk
• 100 grams of butter
• 70 grams of sugar or honey

For the stuffing

• 140 grams of butter
• 90 grams of sugar
• 12 grams of ground cinnamon

For making the frosting

• 140 grams of cream cheese
• 20 grams of butter
• 10 grams of honey
• 4 drops of vanilla extract
• milk to soften if necessary

How to make the perfect cinnamon rolls

Melt the butter in a water bath.

Heat the milk on low heat: 3 minutes maximum, it must not be boiling.

Good, now let’s get ready to make the cinnamon roll dough. As always, start with the flour, sift it and put it in a large bowl, then add the salt, baking powder, sugar and stir again.

Add the milk and the melted butter and mix, you can also use your hands. If you don’t want to sweat, use a planetary mixer with a dough hook.

Now you should have a compact and elastic dough, so add 20 grams of flour to make it even drier and more elastic and start kneading it on a pastry board with your hands. 5 minutes is enough.

Make a ball with the dough, cover with a cloth and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Now let’s move on to the preparation of the filling, very simple. Take a bowl and pour in the 90 grams of sugar and cinnamon and mix.

Let’s go back to the dough: flour the pastry board and roll out the dough until you get a rectangular elastic dough.

Take the butter and pour it over the dough, helping yourself with a brush. You have to cover the whole surface of the dough, be generous, there is never enough butter when it comes to cinnamon rolls. Take the sugar and cinnamon mix and distribute it evenly over the buttered dough.

Now you just have to roll the dough, starting from the long side of the rectangle, which must, therefore, be in front of you.

Make a nice roll, squeezing well, but without crushing the dough. During cooking it will swell, so don’t worry.

Take a sharp knife and cut into many rolls, almost like swivels. You can also use dental floss if you don’t want to risk crushing the dough, but a well-sharpened knife is fine. With these doses of ingredients, you should be able to get at least 12-14 rolls from the dough. It always depends on how thick you want them to be.

The rising of the cinnamon rolls

Put the parchment paper on a baking sheet and lay the cinnamon rolls on top, then cover with a kitchen towel and let these little cakes rise for 1 hour. Always remember to leave some time for the rolls to rise, it is a fundamental phase if you want to make them soft and fluffy. If you are in a hurry, you can also shorten the leavening time to 40 minutes, but not less, please. The key to making them rise is to not press the dough too much, let them some space to rise, not only time!

Baking bad

Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 160 degrees, with a static oven. As soon as it reaches temperature, bake the rolls and cook them for 25 minutes. How to understand when cinnamon rolls are cooked? They must become golden, just browned, but never too dry, do not make the mistake of cooking them at 180 degrees for a long time, you would ruin them. They must cook, ok, but remain very soft and barely moist. When they are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool for just 10 minutes, but no more, in the meantime we will prepare the frosting.

How to make an irresistible icing for cinnamon rolls

By now the most is done, don’t worry! Put all the ingredients, i.e. honey, vanilla, cream cheese, and butter in a mixer and blend at medium speed, for 2-3 minutes: you must obtain a thick, spreadable cream. If it is too dry, add a drop of milk. Almond milk is great to add a nice and aromatic touch.

As soon as the vanilla frosting is ready, touch the rolls and if they are not burning, apply it immediately. It should be put when they are still hot and not cold, but do not put it immediately as soon as it comes out of the oven, give it time to cool down for 10 minutes.

What wine goes well with cinnamon rolls?

We have a lot of butter, sugar and cinnamon in these delicious desserts, so pair a strong sweet wine like Recioto di Soave, Albana di Romagna Passito, Centesimino or a super delicious Port wine. Calvados and cognac are great too!