ABC - Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

The ABC bakers are tackling their second recipe from "The Weekend Baker" by Abby Dodge. This time it's a yeast recipe that's a favorite for many: Glazed Cinnamon Rolls. I love cinnamon rolls, BUT... they have to be homemade. Our mall has one of those famous cinnamon roll shops but I have no trouble walking past them and not buying a cinnamon roll that's the size of my head. And with this month's ABC recipe, making cinnamon rolls at home couldn't be easier. They're made with ingredients that anybody can pronounce and they're finger-licking good, especially warm from your oven. Ok, I'll get off my soap box now :o) Let's bake!!

Homemade cinnamon roll with sliced almonds (no glaze) - look at that fluffy interior :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers, please email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com. The rules for the ABC baking group can be found here.

As you've probably come to know from reading my blog is that I like to use the dough cycle of my bread machine for kneading most doughs. This cinnamon roll dough was no exception. Look how beautiful pliable and soft the dough looks.

The dough in the bread machine

I made the dough on Friday night. Of course, I made some changes to the dough (see the "Final thoughts/tips" section). As soon as the bread machine was done kneading the dough (which takes 30 min), I put the dough inside a covered oiled container, and let it rise overnight in the fridge. Actually, I ended up keeping it in the fridge for about 18 hours without any issues. I got this tip from a fellow ABC-er, Karin.

The plan was to serve these warm for dessert. When I took the dough out of the fridge, it was very cold and pretty stiff which made it great to handle (no stickiness or anything). I rolled it out into a rectangle, brushed it with a couple tablespoons of heavy cream (instead of melted butter), sprinkled the cinnamon sugar mixture on top, and rolled into a log.

I like to use dental floss to cut the log into neat slices. You can find a tutorial on how to use dental floss for cutting dough in this post.

Before the final rise

Right after baking

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• My husband loved the unglazed cinnamon rolls. They were sweet enough as-is. He gave them a good 9 out of 10 rating.
• I loved them too. The interior is so tender and soft. The overnight rest in the fridge gave it a great flavor. And the crunch from the sliced almonds on top was a nice contrast. I shared them with a few friends and they all loved them.
• The recipe makes 12 generous cinnamon rolls. They freeze really well. When you're in the mood for one, just nuke it briefly in the microwave and then re-crisp them in the oven or toaster oven at 350 for about 4-5 minutes.
• Changes to the dough:
• 1) used 1 cup of 1% milk + 1-2 Tbsp water (instead of 1 cup whole milk)
• 2) used 2 oz (4 Tbsp) of butter + 1 oz vegetable oil in the dough (instead of 4 oz butter)
• 3) replaced 25% of the white flour with King Arthur Flour White Whole Wheat flour
• 4) added a splash of vanilla extract to the dough
• Changes to the filling:
• 1) replaced 6 Tbsp of melted butter with 2 Tbsp of heavy cream
• 2) used 1 Tbsp of cinnamon instead of 2-1/2  tsp (per Abby's recommendation)
• Topping (glaze replacement):
• 1) used an egg wash of egg whites, water, and orange blossom water
• 2) sprinkled the unblanched sliced almonds on the cinnamon rolls prior to baking
• My cinnamon rolls baked for 32 minutes at 350F.
• You can find the recipe for these delicious cinnamon rolls in The Weekend Baker. If you don't own the book, you can also find the recipe on Cookstr.
• Don't forget to check out the cinnamon rolls by the other ABC bakers. You can find links to their posts here. 
• I'm submitting this post to Susan's weekly round-up of yeast recipes at YeastSpotting.