Let’s Bake: Cinnamon Rolls

by RogerDecember 19, 2020

Let’s hop into the kitchen to do a little baking today. One of my favorite special occasion treats is homemade cinnamon rolls. With the holidays upon us what better time to roll up our sleeves and get some flour all over the place? We also talk a little about the star of the show, cinnamon, for a spice deep dive. Listen below for the full episode, then scroll down for the recipe and other links!

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

I’m having some trouble with my recipe plug-in (seems to be crashing my site) so for now I am putting this recipe straight into the post:

Prep Time: About 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 12 rolls

Ingredients for dough:
2 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour (about 350g)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
1/2 tsp salt
1 packet instant, rapid-rise yeast (7g)
3/4 cup milk, whole or 2%
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large egg

Ingredients for filling:
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Ingredients for Butter Rum Glaze
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp dark rum
3 Tbsp water

Steps:

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and yeast) into a large mixing bowl.
In a microwave safe bowl or mixing cup, heat milk in microwave until warm. Add butter and mix until butter is melted into the warm milk. You want the milk to be warm to the touch (between 110-120 F).
Add milk, butter and egg into the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is combined. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. The dough will be very sticky at first but will become less so as you knead. You can add a little flour to your work surface to keep from sticking. Roll dough into a ball and cover with inverted mixing bowl, and let rest for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough into a rectangular sheet, about 14 inches wide. Using a table knife, spread the softened butter all over the dough. Evenly sprinkle on the granulated sugar and cinnamon.
Starting at the long edge of the dough, tightly roll the dough up. Trim the ends to square up the roll, then cut into 12 rolls of roughly equal size.
Place rolls on their side in a greased 9×13 inch baking dish. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or loose plastic wrap. Place rolls in a warm, draft-free location and allow to rise until doubled in size. This could take 60-90 minutes, but use the visuals of the rolls as your guide (when they have doubled they are ready.)
Preheat oven to 375F. Bake cinnamon rolls, uncovered, for 22-25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. If the rolls become too dark halfway through baking, cover loosely with aluminum foil for the remainder of the baking time.
Remove rolls from oven. While they cool, assemble the butter rum glaze. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, add butter, sugar, rum and water. Bring to a boil for three minutes, stirring constantly the entire time.
Allow glaze to cool for 3 minutes, then pour over cinnamon rolls. As the glaze and rolls cool the glaze will set. That’s it–enjoy!

Pictures and Recipe Notes

If you are looking for the alternative Vanilla glaze recipe, here it is: