Friday 3 February 2012

Becky's Cinnamon Rolls (and Kathryn's, Sam's, Sheri's, Amy's, Cait's and Jess's!)



I've had a lot of requests for this recipe, so I'll just pop it here for everyone.

This is a bit of a trademark family favourite of ours (along with Hot Rolls and Doughnuts, although the doughnuts haven't been done in a while!) taken from one of Mom's old 70s cookbooks (aren't they the best?!?) called Make-a-Mix Cookery.  A couple of years ago Mom found some 2nd hand ones for sale on Amazon (they're not in print anymore) and bought one each for me and the sisters who were still living in England.  This is ever so slightly adapted from the exact recipe in the book.  So here it is.

4 1/4 cups plain flour                  1 1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup sugar                              2 beaten eggs
1 tsp salt                                      1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup skimmed dried milk      
1 sachet dried yeast

Mix together all the dry ingredients.  In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients.  Combine wet and dry.  Mix and knead (at least 5 mins, the longer you knead it the better) until you have a soft but not too sticky dough.  You will probably need to add more flour (you may need an awful lot more flour - don't worry if you do, it all varies with different brands of flour and also atmospheric conditions of where you live). Coat your ball of dough with a little margarine, place in the mixing bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  Leave to rise for at least 1 hour until the dough has doubled in bulk. Make the cinnamon glaze in the meantime:

2 tblsp margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
(You can also add raisins, chopped nuts, grated apple etc etc if you want)

Melt the margarine, add the sugar and cinnamon.  When your dough is done rising, punch it down.  Take half and roll it out on a floured surface into a rectangle shape (doesn't need to be perfect!) until it's about 1 cm thick.  Spread the cinnamon glaze on, roll up, put a little water along the finishing edge to help seal it together. Cut slices about 2 cm thick and place on a greased baking dish. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Leave to rise for 45mins/1hr, then bake for approx 15 mins at 180C.
Allow to cool for 5 mins, transfer to a wire rack, then glaze with:

1 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
About 2 tblsp milk

Tips:
When putting them on the baking sheet, don't worry that they might expand and touch each other.  I actually deliberately put them close enough so that this will happen - it means you get nice soft edges when you pull them apart, instead of a crust.  An optional extra if you're doing this is to rub a little marg onto the outside of the roll before you start slicing it - it helps them break apart more easily when they're cooked.
Watch them closely when cooking - they'll be done when they've *just* gone golden.  If you leave them even for only a minute longer they will go a darker brown and have more of a crust, rather than being soft and delicious. Not the end of the world if that happens though!
Best eaten on the same day (whilst still warm!) but will keep for a day or two.
Can be frozen in their made up state, but before the second rising.

And any of my sisters/mom feel free to add any other tips you have for making them in the comments below :D

Next time I make them, I'll try take pictures as I go to add to this.