My daughter always asks me why I don’t make pizza on Friday like her grandad does and unfortunately my answer is because I don’t have time when I’m back from work.
I love making bread and bread based things, there’s something so satisfying about doing it all by hand and the smell when they’re baking is just wonderful.
But with a full time job and 2 children I don’t get much chance to do it, so I decided – let’s make bread!
I was initially going to make bagles but I’ve decided to leave these till a weekend or Friday morning so we can have fresh ones when my daughter is home… Now we have cinnamon rolls instead.
Well, to be honest they expanded much more than I thought they would so instead of eating them as an individual roll, you cut a slice as they formed a nice loaf.
I kneaded these by hand, which was a really bad idea as I don’t seem to have enough energy to do that and the cramp wasn’t fun. Next time I’ll just get out the Kenwood mixer with the dough hook. They did get about 15 minutes kneading but I don’t know if this was enough so I’ll have to let you know when I’ve eaten all of it some.
I only made a small batch as everyone is on their post Christmas diets so this recipe just made 6 roles instead of 12.
Yummy squidgy cinnamon rolls (loaf)
Makes 6 rolls or one loaf
- 7g dried active baking yeast
- 7 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 220ml warm water (should just feel warm on your skin)
- 400g strong plain white flour
- 1 egg
- 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 tablespoons caster sugar mixed with ground cinnamon (or use sweet cinnamon, like I did which is already combined with sugar)
Method
Mix up the water, sugar and yeast in a bowl and leave it for a few minutes till it starts to look frothy.
In another bowl add the salt, flour, egg and oil. You can make a little well in the middle but if you’re doing the initial mixing in a bowl you don’t need to worry about it running off the kitchen counter.
Mix the water and yeast mix into the other bowl with the flour. You’ll need to stir till you have no lumps left and it’s starting to look like dough.
Now comes the hard work. On a floured surface knead your dough. It will be sticky and hard to work with but keep going (till your arms hurt and then some more) and it will start to stick to itself and not everything around it.
When it’s been kneaded for at least 10-15 minutes then put it in a bowl that’s been lightly oiled and cover with clingfilm or a tea towel.
Now you can rest and have a cuppa tea as you’ll need to just wait about an hour for it to rise.
After its risen and looks much bigger then take it out, give it a quick knead and divide into 6 pieces.
Roll each piece into a rectangle and spread over the cinnamon sugar mix to each bit then roll it from one end to the other.
Put all 6 little rolls into a non stick or oiled tray, close together but not touching and cover them again to let them rise. This will be 40 mins – hour depending on how warm your kitchen is.
For me I put them too close and they merged and made a very interesting swirl bread.
Pre heat the oven to 180c and bake for approx. 30 mins.
Cool on a rack
You can add whatever topping you like but I went with the classic cream cheese
Cream cheese mixed with icing sugar and a splash of milk. Otherwise you could have this with custard or just icing sugar and water.
I gave it a dusting of cinnamon, as you can never have too much and ta-dah all done.
It won’t last too long as it’s home made bread and also rediculously tasty but keep it in a sealed container.
The Happy Little Baker 