Annie's cupcakes: CINNAMON ROLLS

Hello, I know I was to do this post like 2 days ago, but I was soo tired and I tweeted that I'm really sorry, but school fagged me out. Ugh.. To the point! I baked the cinnamon rolls, though and I wanted to show you a few stages of baking them, share the recipe and a few tips of my own!

So as I said before, the recipe's by Laura Vitale and you can find on her site. There's also a VIDEO of her preparing this, which, I think, is really helpful ;)

here's the recipe

CINNAMON ROLLS

Makes 14 to 16 Rolls ( I actually did those 16 + baked the ends, that she simply cuts off! They were cute, like small versions of those "big" ones! )

Ingredients:

Rolls:

1 Package of Dry Yeast
¾ cup of Whole Milk (she emphasizes that it's this 3,2% milk and I did buy and bake with it, so I haven't tried to go around and use my normal skim milk)
¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
¼ cup of Water, warmed up to 115 degrees (it's simply warm water, don't worry about how warm you water actually is. That's what I did, at least)
¼ tsp of Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
1 tsp of Salt
¼ cup of Unsalted Butter, melted (1/4 cup is about 55g)
4 cups of All Purpose Flour
¼ cup of Melted Butter, to brush over the top before baking (don't melt 1/2 cup at once! Because you'll brush over the cinnamon rolls after something like 3h, so butter won't be melted anymore! Unfortunatelly, you have to melt it two times. And remember to leave the rest of butter outside the fridge . According to the recipe you'll need in total 5/6 cup of butter = about 188g, but I didn't need 1/4 cup = 55g to brush over the rolls, I just put a bit, maybe like 20g and it was just enough!)

Filling:

1/3 cup of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature (about 75g, but I used less)
¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp of Ground Cinnamon (you can add of course a but more, if you love cinnamon just like me :) I think i added about 2 tbsp)

What to do?

1) In a small bowl, combine the warm water and 1 tsp of the granulated sugar, sprinkle the yeast over the top and let it sit for about 5 minutes (until it starts to foam up!)

2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook (it's great if you have a GOOD mixer with the dough hook - like KitchenAid aaaaah I want it! :< - but the weaker mixers are not doing well with the yeast dough... So what I did is mix it together just a little - because then it just starts to get into my mixer... don't ask - and threw the dough and not incorporated flour out on the table and just pinched the dough with my hands. It wasn't hard to do it, maybe it wasn't as smooth as "a baby's bum" as Laura calls it, but it wasn't a problem), mix the egg, milk, salt, sugar and melted butter. Add 2 cups of the flour and the water, vanilla and yeast mixture, mix until its all incorporated and slowly add about 2 more cups of flour. Turn the speed up to medium and let it mix for about 5 to 7 minutes or until you have a smooth dough.

3) Oil a large bowl with some vegetable oil and set aside. Take the dough out of the mixer and pull it together with your hands to form a ball. Place it in the oiled bowl and oil the top of the dough with a little vegetable oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot to rise for about 2 hours.

4) In a small bow, mix together the brown sugar, granulated sugar and cinnamon for the filling, set aside.

5) When doubled in size, punch the dough down and roll it out onto a floured surface into a 15x9” rectangle. (take out your baking pan and roll out the dough to be as big as it is) Spread the soft butter over the top and sprinkle evenly over the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Cut into 14 to 16 slices (make sure they are even) and place them cut side down in a well buttered 9x13 baking pan . Cover with plastic wrap and let put them back into a warm spot to rise for another 1 ½ hours.(I put the cut rolls in two baking pans and they were much prettier more ROUND, because they had more space. Actually what I did is I put one baking pan with 8 rolls in a warm place for 2h and second in a frigde to rise during the night. What I found out the next morning when I baked the rolls is that those from the fridge where better than the ones I ate in the evening, more fluffy :) So if you want to have fresh rolls in the morning- because they are the best just after taking out from the oven - put covered in plastic wrap baking pan with unbaked rolls to the fridge for the night - they will rise slowlier there but they will rise :))

it doesn't have to be pretty and perfect!

that's how they rose

6) Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees. (about 175 degrees of celsius)

7) Once risen, brush them with some melted butter and bake them for about 30 or until golden brown. (Mine were in the oven for about 20 and were just perfect! So be careful, 30 in my oven would burn my beauties!)

8) While the cinnamon rolls cool for a few minutes make the glaze. Mix all the ingredients of the glaze in a bowl except for the milk, once the cream cheese is all mixed, slowly add the milk until you get a runny glaze consistency. Immediately pour the glaze over the cinnamon rolls and enjoy!