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Photo Credit: Renee Marchol Cherry-Almond Cinnamon Rolls |
Did you have a tough week? Treat yourself to morning cinnamon buns by throwing together this dough in a mixing bowl and wake up ready to “roll”.
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Photo Credit: SmartyGirl Renee Marchol cinnamon roll dough |
You can get away with letting it rise for 8 hours unattended. Alton Brown provides a great overnight cinnamon roll recipe. However, you can also follow the method I used below. Disclosure: I have not been paid to endorse any company, blog, brand or product.
Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients:
6 cups bread flour
3/4 cup shortening
1 stick melted butter
1 cup powdered nonfat milk
2 cups warm water
1 TB yeast
1 cup white granulated sugar
3 TB ground cinnamon plus 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup ground almonds (optional)
1 cup cherry jam and 1/2 tsp rum (optional)
2 eggs
Prep Time: 10 hours
Bake Time: 1 hour
Quantity: Makes rolls for two 8″ x 8″ square pans.
Line 8″x8″ square baking pan with parchment paper.
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Photo Caption: SmartyGirl Cinnamon Buns |
If using ground almonds, toast in a dry skillet for one minute. Allow to cool and combine with 1 egg white and 1 TB of sugar. If you’d like to add cherries to the almonds, stir cherry jam with rum and add to the layer when rolling the buns.
1. In a large glass mixing bowl, combine flour with the cup of sugar with yest, powdered milk and water.
Add room temperature eggs and shortening.
2. Allow to rise for two hours. Deflate and re-cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for four hours. Deflate. Repeat.
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Photo Credit: Renee Marchol Sectioned Dough |
When the dough is ready, it will feel wet and elastic.
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Photo Credit: Renee Marchol Dough in Rectangle Shape for Filling |
3. Flour a board and cut the dough into golf ball sized pieces. Stretch each piece into a rectangle shape.
4. Brush with melted butter. I melt my butter in the microwave for 45 seconds.
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and almond crumble.
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Photo Credit: Renee Marchol Unbaked Cinnamon Roll Dough |
Roll into a snail shape and place onto the parchment paper with the spiral side showing. If you have leftover butter, pour over the top of all the rolls and sprinkle with leftover cinnamon sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the rolls have cooked all the way through so no doughy parts remain. If you notice that the top is becoming overly crisp, protect the top with a sheet of oven-safe foil and continue baking. Serve them hot and decorate with your favorite icing.
Note: If you make a double batch of dough, you can store one batch in the freezer. Turn a freezer-safe, one gallon zip top bag, inside out. Spray with butter spray. Fill with raw dough and freeze until needed. To thaw the frozen dough, bend the block of dough to break off a piece of the frozen dough. Then use the defrost setting on the microwave.
Variation for Quick-cooking Danishes
Defrost two hand-fulls (i.e. 1 cup of dough) from your batch in the freezer
- add 2 egg yolks mixed with 1 TB water into the dough
- add 1 TB shortening and 2 TB coconut oil to the dough
- omit the almonds
- don’t bother rolling
Preheat Oven for 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
1. Spray a disposable oven-safe pie pan with butter-flavored spray. Place the portion of defrosted dough onto the tray.
2. Spray top of dough with butter spray. Measure two tablespoons of sugar mixed with one tablespoon of cinnamon to dust on top of dough. I’ve been using the dry maple sugar from Trader Joe’s for my danishes.
3.Cover with foil and set on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 stick melted unsalted butter
1 TB light sour cream
Spread the baked pastrywith icing while warm. Note: True danishes have a lovely rich cream cheese based filling but if you are lactose intolerant like me, a drizzle of light sour cream icing is easier to digest.
Contact me if you have a good icing recipe. You can find alternate cinnamon roll recipes on About.com. I brought a double batch to a church potluck for Cornerstone West Los Angeles this Sunday.
What’s on your breakfast menu for next weekend?