Bread-Dough Cinnamon Rolls

Folks-

I make two different kinds of cinnamon rolls on a regular basis, bread-dough and pie crust. Both are good, but rather different. I'll post instructions for the pie crust cinnamon rolls later. Now, one of my family's favorite breakfast treats!

Bread-Machine Cinnamon Rolls

1lb batch:

2/3 Cup Water

1/2 Egg

2 Cups Flour

3 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Dry Skim Milk

1 Tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Butter

1-1/2 Tsp Dry Yeast

1-1/2lb Batch:

1 Cup Water

1 Egg

3 Cups Flour

1/4 Cup Sugar

3 Tbsp Dry Skim Milk

1-1/2 Tsp Salt

5 Tbsp Butter

2 Tsp Dry Yeast

Filling:

1/2 Cup Butter, melted

1 Cup Cinnamon Sugar

Put ingredients into a bread machine in the order the manual instructs (usually the order above) and set the machine to Dough Mode. When complete, roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Mix melted butter and cinnamon sugar together and spread on dough. Roll dough into a  cylinder and using a sharp knife, cut into 1 inch segments. Place segments into a greased pan giving them 1/2 to 3/4 inch space on all sides and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately frost or glaze. Allow to cool for 3-5 minutes and serve hot.

Tips: These can be frozen prior to cooking. I find a full batch is too much for my family to eat before they start to go stale. I divide a 1-1/2 lb batch into thirds, put the cinnamon rolls into a pie tin sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, and freeze them. To bake them, put the pie-tin into a cold oven and immediately set the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20-30 minutes--until they just start to turn golden brown.

You can absolutely make 2 or 3 lb batches of these by doubling either of the recipes above, if your bread machine is big enough. Combined with the freezing tip outlined above, this has allowed me to bake 5-8 large trays of these in a single day before taking them to my co-workers as Christmas gifts.

If you don't have a bread machine, you can make it using a stand mixer with a dough hook, or by hand. Heat the water to 90-100 degrees fahrenheit, mix in one teaspoon of the sugar, then sprinkle the yeast over it and allow to bloom for 2-5 minutes. After mixing it together, place in an oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and allow to raise in a warm place until doubled, 1-2 hours. Punch down and make the cinnamon rolls.

If you don't have powdered milk, each tablespoon of milk powder is about 1/3 cup of reconstituted milk. So in both of these recipes use milk instead of water if you don't have powdered milk.

This dough makes more than cinnamon rolls. Use orange marmalade, strawberry jam, or blueberry pie filling instead of cinnamon sugar for those kinds of rolls, and use a vanilla frosting on them. Or after rolling it out, you can cut the dough into doughnuts and deep fry them for raised doughnuts (roll them in cinnamon sugar or pour a powdered sugar and water glaze over them), or cut them onto 1 1/2 x 3" rectangles and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown and top with a thin chocolate or maple frosting for chocolate or maple bars.

Ongoing experiments: So I decided to try making a 1 lb batch today in the stand mixer and adding 1 cup of potatoes reconstituted from flakes (hot water only.) Result: The stand mixer worked just fine, but I think it was too much potato, and I should try 1/2 cup for a 1 lb batch, or 3/4 cup for a 1.5 lb batch. I ended up adding about 1/4 to 1/2 cup additional flour to make the dough hold together, and it was still a bit too moist when making it, to the point that I didn't roll out the dough, I just flattened it with my hands. The resultant rolls were almost too delicate, moist, and rose too much. So, I'm on to something, but not there yet. Though I'm curious how this would have come out as doughnuts. I may try refrigerating the dough after letting it raise.