Cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven will not only make your house smell amazing they will have everyone waiting to grab them as the smell is intoxicating.
Warm cinnamon rolls, straight out of the oven, can you imagine anything better with a cup of tea or coffee? I’m not sure I can! There is something very moreish about a cinnamon roll, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like them. I find the most difficult thing is stopping at only one!
We use a brioche bread dough for our cinnamon buns, a dough that is enriched with both milk and butter. For that reason we have held back on the sugar in the dough, it is only slightly sweetened. Furthermore there is a lot of sugar in the cinnamon/sugar filling mix. Brioche dough tends to be quite sticky which is why we’ve used a stand mixer with a dough hook. However do not be tempted to add more flour as this is a wetter dough than a normal bread dough.
The first prove for this dough is roughly 60-90 minutes, during which time the dough should double in size. Once the dough has risen place it on a lightly floured surface and roll out to a rectangle before sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar.
Can I prepare these ahead of time?
Cinnamon rolls can be eaten any time of the day but they really do taste wonderful fresh for the oven. I think they make the perfect breakfast or brunch sweet treat. Simply prepare the rolls to stage 6 in the recipe card. Once the rolls have been cut and placed in the greased oven-proof dish, cover them and place them in the fridge overnight. The bread will prove overnight in the fridge. Next morning remove them from the fridge and allow them to come to temperature on the worktop for about 1 hour. Then simply bake them in the oven as per the recipe.
This is why they are great to serve at a weekend Brunch or indeed on Christmas morning. They can be prepared ahead of time, and then popped into the oven while you get on with other things.
Alternative servings:
We both enjoy cinnamon rolls with cinnamon and nothing else. However you can easily add some dried fruits to the rolls, simply sprinkle over the dough after you’ve added the sugar and cinnamon.
This recipe adds a little orange drizzle icing to the rolls. We feel this adds a hint of orange without making the buns overly sweet. However you could easily swap the orange for lemon or even a little stem ginger syrup. Alternatively warm up some apricot jam and brush the jam over the warm rolls as soon as they come out of the oven.
Pin the recipe for later:
Other recipe suggestions:
Other great recipes for the festive season include our Tourtiere Pork Pie our Panettone Bread & Butter Pudding, or our Leftover Turkey Pie. For other ways with brioche then our Brioche Rolls are perfect anytime of year but perfect for serving at a brunch get-together. Hosting your own brunch then take the stress out of it and head to our Ultimate Guide to Brunch. Here you’ll find all our brunch recipes together with some great advice on how to get started.
Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 40 g caster sugar
- 250 ml full fat milk (slightly warmed)
- 60 g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- 1 egg
- 10 g salt
- 1 packet fast action yeast
Filling
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon (more or less can be used if you like)
- 4 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 3-4 tbsp soft butter
Drizzle Icing
- 80 g icing sugar
- juice of 1 orange
Instructions
- Weigh out the flour and sugar into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add salt to one side of the flour and yeast to the other so they do not come in direct contact with each other. Mix gently on a low speed.
- Add the milk, egg and butter and mix with dough hook on medium speed until a soft dough forms, about 6-8 minutes. As this is an enriched dough it will be sticky - DO NOT add more flour or your dough will be too dry.
- Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured board and form into a ball. Then place the dough into a lightly floured bowl, cover the bowl with clingfilm or a damp tea towel and let prove for about an hour or more until almost doubled in size.
- Once proved, place the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently roll the dough into a large rectangle. After each roll, turn the dough a quarter of a turn to ensure it is not sticking to the surface.
- Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Next, spread the soft butter generously over the rolled dough. Top the rolled dough with the cinnamon sugar mixture taking it as close to the edges as possible.
- Starting on the longer end, roll the dough as tightly as you can to form a sausage shape. Cut into 12 even sized pieces and place in a butter greased 8x10 sized oven proof dish. Cover and leave to prove again until doubled in size. **At this stage you can refrigerate and finish the next day.**
- Bake in a preheated oven at 200Fan for about 15-20 minutes until golden and bubbling.
- Allow to cool before topping with icing.
Drizzle Icing
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and then add the orange juice. You want a runny consistency but not too thin. If you add too much juice then you can recover by adding a bit more icing sugar, this icing keeps easily in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
- Using a piping bag or a spoon drizzle the icing over the cooled cinnamon buns.
• Please note that the nutrition information provided below is approximate and meant as a guideline only •
Diane
Love love LOVED making these, I made a few school boy errors with the first batch but the second time I made them they were even better. I have not had much experience with dough so I’m delighted that I managed to make them without too much bother. A definite regular for me now!
Lesley
Thank you Diane, this is a trickier dough to work with so you should feel very proud of yourself. I find bread making very therapeutic, there’s a skill to getting dough right. Lesley x