Cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

For dough

• 530 g all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 7 g dry yeast
• 80 g white sugar
• 80 g softened butter
• 1 cup or 230 ml milk
• 2 tsp freshly ground cardamom*
• 1 tsp of salt

*Use mortar and pestle to crush cardamom seeds as it's much more aromatic than pre-ground cardamom. I personally discard the pods.

For filling

• ground cinnamon
• brown sugar
• softened butter

I eyeball my filling amount so I can't provide exact measurements. Just make sure that you cover all the area with filling thoroughly. Oh and also, don't add too much butter, or it will melt and drip onto the baking tray...

For icing (optional)

• 50 g cream cheese (get one that has a slightly salty flavor to balance out the sweetness)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp softened butter
• ½ cup powdered sugar (add a bit more if it's too runny)
• salt to balance out the sweetness, if needed, to taste

Plus one extra egg and a bit more white sugar for glazing.

Directions

Before you start doing anything, activate the dry yeast first to make sure it's good. To do this, pour your yeast in a bowl along with some slightly warm (not hot, or it will kill the yeast) milk, a bit of sugar and a bit of flour. You can take those out of your overall amounts. Leave for around 10 minutes. After some time you should see a layer of bubbles on the surface, if you don't see it, or they look lackluster, throw it away.

In a large bowl, mix the egg, milk, salt, sugar, cardamom, then add your activated yeast and start slowly mixing in the flour. Knead the dough a bit, then take it out, stretch it a bit and start folding in softened butter. It will be messy for a while, you might want to sprinkle a bit more flour just so you can handle the dough easier, but resist the temptation of adding too much flour. A dough scraper will come in handy here if you have it.

Knead it for a while until the butter is fully incorporated at least, then leave it in a bowl, cover it and let it rest and ferment until it doubles in size. Small tip — lightly brush the bowl with oil before you put your dough there so it's easier to take it out later. It can take anywhere from two to three hours usually if your room is warm enough. However, you never really know with yeast dough so do check on it periodically and don't rely on time as a determining factor whether it's ready.

After your dough has doubled in size, take it out, squeeze the gasses out of it, knead it a bit again, then roll it into a somewhat thin (maybe half a centimeter in thickness) rectangle. Start spreading your fillings, but make sure to leave a few centimeters free of any filing on one of the longer sides of the rectangle so that when we roll it, it's easier to connect that part. First spread some softened butter, then sprinkle onto it some cinnamon and brown sugar. I like to add a lot of it so everything is covered.

After you're done, start rolling it... into a well, roll. Roll it in a direction from start to that edge we left untouched previously. Make sure it's tight. Stick the other edge we left free onto our roll.

Slice off the edges of a roll. Don't throw them out of course, they are still very tasty. Start slicing your rolls, I like mine to be approximately 4 cm to 5 cm tall. I strongly recommend you use a special big serrated knife for bread cutting, that way you will slice it without smearing the filling so it looks prettier. Also don't just press the knife, or you'll ruin the look of the sliced part, actually try to saw it off like you would a log of wood; I hope that makes sense... Oh, and wipe your blade every few slices if it becomes too sticky.

Lay the sliced rolls onto a baking tray with baking paper, with plenty of space in between them as they are going to expand quite a lot. Cover them with food wrapping so they don't dry out and leave them to rest for another half an hour to an hour, for a final fermentation. After they are done rising, get yourself another bowl and whisk one egg, then use a baking brush to generously glaze your rolls with the egg wash.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C and bake the rolls for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Also, just before you take out your rolls — make sugar water glaze. Simply mix 20 ml water with 40 g white sugar and bring to boil until the sugar dissolves, then remove from heat and brush the rolls with it after you take them out of the oven.

This is also the part where you can make the icing if you want to. Just whisk together milk, softened cream cheese and vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar. You can also add extra salt to taste, don't be afraid of adding it! Load your icing into a culinary icing syringe if you have one, or if you don't, a small plastic bag with a tiny hole at its edge seam will do. Do not apply the glaze to still hot rolls, or it will melt. Instead, wait for them to cool off slightly. That's it.

Credits

Dough recipe originally found and adapted from: this recipe blog post by Chainbaker.

Icing idea is from Tasty's recipe video on YouTube.

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