Yummy cinnamon rolls from scratch with only one rise needed. Perfect!

I woke up this morning and thought “I could really go for a cinnamon roll right now” and instead of popping down the local bakery and buying myself one like a normal person, I decided to make some. But let’s be honest, nothing beats a homemade cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven. Besides, I had everything I needed in the house already.

These are the easiest and quickest cinnamon rolls I’ve ever made. I got the recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, it’s a really great recipe and I barely changed it all. You should definitely check out her blog, I have so many posts bookmarked to try later! If making sweet rolls makes you a bit nervous because of all the complicated steps and a thousand different proving times, this is the recipe for you. You’ll have a hard time getting it wrong and you only need to prove it once.

You have your basic dough with instant yeast and scalded milk. It’s important that if you’re using dairy milk that you scald it, otherwise the proteins in the dairy will kill the yeast and then you’ll get a sucky rise. Or at least that’s the reason I’ve always heard, I’m still learning the science side of baking! This dough only needs one short proving (rising) time which is perfect for me because I want my cinnamon rolls NOW! They rise beautifully too, look at this:

Once you have the dough all together, you just knead it for a few mins (a perfect time to get out your frustrations) and then roll it out into an oblong shape. Get all that filling in there and roll it up then slice it into even pieces, stick then in your dish and let the yeast and warmth do the work. I don’t have a fancy proving draw (one of my biggest disappointments in life), I just turn the oven to 150C while I’m making up the dough, when I’m ready to leave them to prove I loosely cover them with foil, stick them in the oven and turn it off.

Once they’re nicely risen you need to preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5, wait patiently for it to heat up and then bake them for about 25 – 30 minutes. About 15 minutes after you’ve put them in the oven, just cover them loosely with foil to stop the sugar browning too much. You can see from mine where the foil wasn’t covering the back and the sugar got a bit burned.

Leave them to cool for a few minutes. I know you want to dig in straight away but you need to be patient and glaze them first! The glaze is a nice simple one and you can change up the flavours however you like. The original recipe had a coffee glaze but I don’t like coffee so I made mine with cream cheese, yum! It’s just a basic mix of icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract plus whatever flavouring you want. I used some cream cheese I had left over from my red velvet cupcakes and it worked out at about 3 tbsp, you can add more if you like of course!

Now just drizzle that glaze all over your rolls. Don’t be shy with it, bathe them in it! Actually, I tend to be a bit conservative with it and then leave the left overs next to the rolls for people to add more to if they like as I know not everyone has as big of a sweet tooth as I do. Now dig into that warm gooey goodness and enjoy!

[recipe title=”Easy Cinnamon Rolls” servings=”10″ time=”2hrs 30 mins” ]

For the rolls:

• 345g all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 package instant yeast (1 packet = 7g)
• 120ml water
• 60ml milk
• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 large egg

For the filling:

• 45g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 25g white sugar
• 25g brown sugar

For the glaze:

• 120g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp cream cheese, softened

Make the dough

• Set aside 75g of the flour. Then toss the remaining flour, sugar, salt and yeast together in a big bowl. Set aside
• Put the water, milk and butter in a bowl and microwave until the butter is melted and mixture is hot, about 45 degrees C. Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the egg and enough of the reserved flour to make a soft, smooth dough. The dough is ready when it comes away from the side of the bowl and is elastic in consistency.
• Lightly flour your worktop and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes. I use this time to clean up the mess I’ve made!

Make the filling

• Roll the dough out into a 14×8 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter on top. Mix together the cinnamon and sugars and sprinkle it over the dough, right up to the edges. If, like me, you’re a big lover of cinnamon you can sprinkle a little extra cinnamon on top for good measure!
• Tightly roll the dough so you have a big long sausage. Cut into even slices and place in a lightly greased 8-inch round pan, I used a sandwich tin with cake release. Loosely cover with foil and leave to prove in a warm place for about 90 minutes.
• When the rolls are done proving, when they’ve about doubled in size, remove from oven and preheat it to 190C and bake for 25-30 minutes until they go a light brown. About 15 minutes into the cooking time, cover the rolls loosely with foil to stop the sugar burning. Place dish on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Make the glaze

• Mix the icing sugar with milk until smooth, then stir in the cream cheese until smooth. Adjust the sugar and milk quantities to suit how thick you want your glaze. Drizzle all over the rolls and serve immediately.

[/recipe]