Granini's Cinnamon Rolls

Granini's Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe

I use a basic Parker House Roll recipe as the base of my dough.

Dough

1 package yeast 

1/4 cup water, slightly warmer than room temperature

1 cup scalded milk

2 Tablespoons shortening (I use unsalted butter)

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 well beaten egg

3 1/4 cups flour

Filling

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, softened

3/4 to 1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup raisins

Topping Part 1

Cooking Spray

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Topping Part 2 (optional) (Cream Cheese Frosting)

1 cube (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup coconut milk (optional)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup of cream (I use half and half) -- adding in slowly;  you may not need it all

Instructions

Dough

1. Scald the milk:  In a small saucepan, heat the milk until it simmers and starts to rise up the sides of the pan.  Take off the heat, add in the shortening, and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Soften yeast in warm water.  
3. Combine milk, shortening, sugar, and salt.  
4. Add yeast and egg.  
5. Gradually stir in flour.  Beat vigorously.  Cover, and allow to double.
6. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll until approximately 1/4 an inch thick.

Filling

1. Spread softened butter across entire surface of the dough.
2. Sprinkle on cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar.
3. Sprinkle on nuts and raisins.

Putting it together

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Gently roll the dough along the long edge, to make one long tube.  Don't worry if any filling falls out.  You can simply pop the "Fallen Out Filling Goodies" onto the bottom of the baking dish before you add your rolls.
3. Slice into 2 inch pieces.  Feel free to cut the rolls into smaller 1 inch slices / chunks for smaller rolls.  We just love the jumbo mega sized rolls.  Set aside to prepare your dish.
4. In a 9x13 glass dish, gently spray with cooking spray.  
5. Topping 1:  Pour melted butter into the bottom of the glass dish, and jiggle the dish so that butter reaches all 4 corners of your dish.
6. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top of the melted butter.
7. Now's the time to scoop up any leftover flour / sugar / nuts / raisins that have fallen out of your cinnamon rolls while you were rolling them up, and add that goodness to the baking dish.
8. Place your cinnamon rolls on top of the melted butter / sugar.
9. Pop into the oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
10. Prepare optional Topping 2 (Cream Cheese Frosting).
11. Once the rolls are baked, remove from the oven.  

For Sticky Buns 

(cinnamon rolls without frosting)

Immediately flip each cinnamon roll over onto its tummy, revealing the cinnamon sugar coating goodness on the (now) top.  Mmmmm!  Serve while piping hot, but make sure to blow on each bite so you don't burn your tongue!

For Frosted Cinnamon Rolls 

Aka: Optional Topping 2: Cream Cheese frosting

So the kiddos and the hubster love having cream cheese frosting on the top of their cinnamon rolls.  I think it's a bit much, and prefer the rolls as sticky buns, but alas, I spoil them rotten.  

While your buns are baking, prepare the Cream Cheese frosting.

1. Place softened cream cheese into a standing mixer.  Mix for 30 seconds until smooth and creamy.
2. Add in powdered sugar, salt, and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.
3. Slowly add in your coconut milk and vanilla.
4. Slowly add in the cream.  You may not need all the cream.  Just add a little at a time until your frosting is the desired consistency.
5. So if you prefer the frosting on top of your rolls, once your buns have come out of the oven, do not flip them over (leave them with the sticky goodness on the bottom), and immediately spread on the frosting so that it melts.  Serve while piping hot!

For those of you who like pictures:

Pictures

Prepare your Parker House Roll Dough

Roll it out and spread on your softened butter

 Sprinkle on the brown sugar.  I never measure.  I just sprinkle on however much I need.

 Sprinkle on the white sugar.  Again, I don't measure. I just sprinkle on.

Sprinkle on the cinnamon.  I use a LOT.  But again, I don't measure.  

Sometimes I add in a dash (just a dash) of nutmeg as well.  Depends on my mood.

I like to bake my nuts for about 5 minutes in the oven before popping them on my dough to get them smelling all nice.  I also like chop up my nuts much finer than I did here.  I didn't do it here, so you could see how bigger chunks of nuts would limit the number of nuts in each roll.  Nuts are obviously a preference here.  Feel free to use hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts or skip the nuts altogether!  And you can also use golden raisins if you prefer.  Perhaps cranberry craisins would be a nice touch?  I've never tried.  Mmmm.... you could even add in a sprinkle of orange zest if you opt for the craisins!  Mmmmmm.  I should go try that now!

Roll it all up.

Nice long roll. 

 Chop into big chunks for mega rolls.  Smaller slices for "normal" sized rolls.  Some people like to roll out their dough really thinly, and then cut them REALLLLLLLY small so that the same amount of dough can be enjoyed by more people.  But I like my cinnamon rolls mega sized.  So I simply make more than one recipe if I have more than 8 people eating my rolls.  Yummo!!

Spray with cooking spray.  Add in melted butter.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar.  Don't worry about mixing it together.  It'll take care of that itself while baking.  Notice the wee bits of flour and sugar on the left side -- that's the leftover yummy stuff from my cutting board.

My mega rolls all spaced out ready for the oven.  

Give your rolls a wee bit of room.  They will spread. 

I opted for a new tactic:  I prepared my dough the night before, and let my rolls sit in the fridge over night, and then allowed them to warm up to room temperature the next morning before baking.  I don't normally do this, but I wanted to see what would happen if I prepared them the night before so I could have an easier Christmas morning.  They rose a bit while sitting on the counter.  Normally I just pop them straight into the oven.  Seems like they worked out just fine letting them rest in the fridge over night! 

Golden brown and hot out of the oven.  

See the yummy golden caramel bubbling in there?  mmmmm!

 I immediately flipped them so that I could have caramel sticky buns.  When I'm doing just sticky buns, I tend to scoop more of the sticky goodness from the bottom of the pan, and schlop it on top of the caramel sticky buns.  Extra yumshusness.

But the hubster and kiddos wanted frosting.  So that's what they got!!!  

Mmmmmmm.  Cinnamon Rolls!!!

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I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

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