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cinnamon rolls
“We had to wait so long, but they were worth the wait. They tasted delicious. I even licked the extra frosting.” —Sonia, 9
Prepare Ingredients
For the Dough
For the Filling
Gather Baking Equipment
For the dough: In bowl of stand mixer, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Lock bowl in place and attach dough hook to stand mixer.
Add water, 4 tablespoons softened butter, and egg to flour mixture. Start mixer on low speed and mix until no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead dough for 8 minutes. Stop mixer.
Sprinkle extra flour on clean counter and coat your hands with extra flour. Use rubber spatula to scrape dough onto floured counter and use your floured hands to knead dough for 30 seconds. Move dough to clean portion of counter and use your hands to form dough into smooth ball.
How to Knead Dough Ball
- Place heel of your hand in center of dough ball and press down and away from you.
- Fold dough over. Rotate dough and repeat steps 1 & 2 until dough looks smooth, about 1 minute.
- On clean counter, use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.
Spray inside of large bowl with vegetable oil spray. Place dough in greased bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1½ hours.
While dough rises, spray inside bottom and sides of 9-inch round metal cake pan with vegetable oil spray. Line bottom of cake pan with 9-inch parchment paper round.
For the filling: In medium bowl, use clean rubber spatula to stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
When dough is ready, melt 2 tablespoons butter in small microwave-safe bowl (click here to learn how to melt butter). Transfer dough to clean counter and shape, fill, and roll up rolls (following photos, below).
Shaping Cinnamon Rolls 1 of 2
- Pat dough into 16-by-8-inch rectangle with long side parallel to counter’s edge. Use pastry brush to paint melted butter evenly over dough. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough, leaving 1-inch border at top.
- Use bench scraper to cut dough into eight 2-inch-wide strips.
Shaping Cinnamons Rolls 2 of 2
- Roll each strip away from you into tight log.
- Place roll, spiral side up, in parchment paper–lined cake pan. Arrange 7 rolls around outside of cake pan and place 1 roll in center.
Use bench scraper (or your hands) to scoop up any filling left on counter and sprinkle it evenly over rolls. Spray sheet of plastic wrap with vegetable oil spray. Cover cake pan loosely with greased plastic and let rolls rise at room temperature until puffy, 30 to 45 minutes.
When rolls are ready, discard plastic from cake pan. Place cake pan in oven. Bake until rolls are golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.
Use oven mitts to remove cake pan from oven (ask an adult for help). Place cake pan on cooling rack and let rolls cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run butter knife around edge of cake pan to release rolls from pan. Drizzle with glaze, if using (see “Food for Thought,” below). Serve warm or at room temperature.
Food for Thought
Glaze It Up
If you want to make your rolls just a little more special, add a glaze!
To make glaze: In small bowl, whisk together ½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ (powdered) sugar and 2 teaspoons milk. (Glaze should be thin enough to drizzle from end of spoon. Add up to 1 teaspoon additional milk as needed to adjust consistency.)
Use spoon to drizzle glaze over warm rolls.
Easier Rolling
Traditionally, when making cinnamon rolls, you slather softened butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over a big rectangle of yeasted dough and then roll it up into a long, tight log. Then, you cut the log into pieces to get individual rolls. We found that it was pretty tricky to roll up a giant rectangle of dough. Instead, we cut individual strips of buttered and cinnamon-sugared dough and rolled them up one at a time—so much easier!
