Today I’ve got a guest post from the lovely Emma of A Bavarian Sojourn. A lipsmacking recipe for perfect cinnamon rolls. Get ready to drool!
When it comes to bread, we are a little spoilt in this part of the world. My favourite local kind has to be the humble pretzel (or Brezen – depending on who you are talking to!).
A little like the song about the coconuts, they come in all shapes and sizes too – big ones, small ones, some as big (or bigger than!) as your head (see!?)…
And boy are they good… Crunchy with thirst inducing blocks of salt glued to the outside (clever people those bier hall owners!), and beautifully soft and comforting dough on the inside. They are the one thing food-wise that I know we will all miss when the day comes for us to pack up and move on from here…
And no doubt one day I will try to recreate them too, for I have realised something recently – as you move from country to country like we have, you not only miss things from your own home, but once you can’t get them any more, you begin to miss things from other people’s countries too!
A prime example for me would be cinnamon rolls. Something that I would be happy to (and have been known to) sprint through US airports in the hope of procuring one (or three), before jumping on an interconnecting flight…
Having thought to myself in the past how much the texture reminded me of an English Chelsea bun, I had to wonder how easy it might be to adapt them slightly. And adapt them slightly I have – as well as manage to indulge my complete addiction of all things cinnamon too (it’s very good for you too you know!)…
You could try to reproduce the original icing too (I think it contains cream cheese in the US), but I don’t think these actually need it (what you see in the picture below is icing sugar with a couple of tablespoons of water, mixed to the desired consistency, and a couple of drops of rum for extra flavour!).
Just make sure you eat them slightly warm and fresh. As a bit like the best Bavarian Brezen, they are most definitely at their best within a few hours of production!… Enjoy!
Perfect Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients: (Makes 12-15)
450g Strong white flour;
50g Butter;
175ml Milk
1tsp Salt
3tbsp. Caster sugar;
21g Fresh Yeast (or 7g dried if you are using it!)
1 Medium egg.
Filling:
60g Muscovado Sugar;
60g Unsalted Butter;
1.5 tbsp ground cinnamon
Icing:
50g Icing Sugar;
Water to desired consistency, couple of drops of rum…
Heat the milk and butter in a pan over a low heat, until the butter has melted. Leave to cool until lukewarm. Add the fresh yeast and stir until dissolved (if using dried yeast add this to the dry ingredients in a second)… Tip the flour, sugar and salt (and dried yeast!) into a food mixer, then tip the milk, butter and fresh yeast on top of it. Add the egg, and then mix together to a dough. Knead for five minutes (by machine, or ten minutes by hand). Leave covered with a damp clean tea towel in a warm place for one hour. In the meantime make the paste for the filling. Knock the dough back, cut into two equal halves, then roll each piece into a large rectangle shape (roughly 40 x 15cm)… Spread the filling paste across the dough, and roll each rectangle up (by the shorter side), before slicing. Place each future cinnamon bun onto a lined baking tray and leave covered to rise again for another 45 minutes (they need to join up whilst baking, so don’t place them too far apart!). Whilst they are “resting” again, preheat the oven to 200°C, then bake for 20 minutes (possibly a few minutes more depending on your oven). Remove from the oven, leave to cool for ten minutes before pulling apart. Leave to cool for a little longer still, ice, and then at last you can stuff your face!
If I could perfect these hubby would love me that little bit more
Ha ha, got to be worth a try!
oh wow cinnamon roles remind me of secondary school and the bakery we used to go to on the way to catching the bus home. yum x have pinned for future reference x
Seriously??!! OMG these are a must-do! One of my favourite ever foods. Very similar to my recipe and I do agree with the icing sugar – mmmm!
This brings back memories my grandmother used to make these, they were delicious.
Oh yum these look so nice. I love Cinnabon so I think id really love these!