Cinnamon Rolls a la The Housewife, MD

Holidays are approaching fast and you can’t help but imagine the smell of cinnamon hovering all over and filling your tastebuds. One of my favorite cinnamon rolls are from a popular bake shop that is a vivid reminder of childhood and holidays. When we go visit relatives in our province, we stop by at a gasoline station along the freeway at this shop and buy a couple of box as our souvenir, or I think we buy 3 because the spare one is for the road. 😀

The first attempt for this recipe was when I was trying to make a Pan de sal (a popular, traditional bread from our country, will post recipe soon), and having had a spare dough, I made a cinnamon roll which was husband approved! I reckon, why not devise a better recipe so I’ll get 5 stars from the hubby.

I got the idea and the recipe while scrolling through my instagram feed, and watched an abridged video from Tasty and saved it. Since I had the spare dough, I did what I can with my available ingredients at that time. When my pantry is filled and ready for the ingredients, I adapted the recipe from the Tasty website and from the Epicurious in YouTube.

Materials:

mixing bowls
rolling pin
beater, spatula
sieve
measuring cups and spoons
2 cake pans

Ingredients:

A. Dough

6 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt (my available salt: Himalayan salt)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups whole milk, warm to the touch
½ cup granulated raw sugar
1 packet of active dry yeast

B. Filling

¾ cup butter, softened
8 tbsp softened cream cheese
¾ cup coconut sugar (or any light brown sugar)
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

C. Frosting

4 oz or 8 tbsp softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Procedure:

Wet ingredients: stir together the milk, granulated sugar, melted butter and yeast. incorporate well and set aside for 10-12 minutes until bubbles are forming over the mixture
Dry ingredients: sift 5 cups of flour, baking powder and the salt. incorporate all the ingredients.
Slowly pour the wet ingredient into the dry ingredient and fold until homogenous.
cover the new mixture in the bowl with a towel or cling wrap and set aside for 2 hours for the first rise. Place the bowl in a room temperature so as the dough can rise.
Prepare the filling: add together the filling ingredients and mix well until it becomes pasty. Set aside.
Once the dough is ready after 2 hours, add another cup of flour to the dough and knead in from the bowl so as to mix the added flour. You may sprinkle additional flour if necessary to lose the stickiness from the surface and from your hand.
Once dough homogeneously formed and less sticky, on a clean, flat surface, sprinkle flour and place the dough on the surface. Knead in the dough for 10 minutes.
Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough in a rectangular shape with a width of about 1/2 inch.
Over the flattened dough, spread the filling prepared.
In a lengthwise fashion, carefully roll over the dough with the filling.
Cut the rolled dough with approximately 1 1/2 inch distance. Make 8-10 rolls.
Place the rolls in the cake pans. Avoid crowding the pan by putting 4-5 rolls on each pan.
Cover again with towel or cling wrap and place on a room temperature to rise for at least 1 hour for the second rise. If second rise is intended for long hours, may place in the fridge overnight or if longer, may freeze up to a month. With the longer period, baking duration may take 30-40 minutes.
Pre heat oven to 180ºC.
Prepare the frosting: Incorporate all the frosting ingredients and refrigerate before serving.
Bake for 25-30 minutes in 180ºC.
Cool down.
Once ready, may pour the frosting to the bread.
Cut, serve and enjoy!