Easter Cinnamon Rolls and My Dad
Easter cinnamon rolls
I want to talk to you about cinnamon rolls. But first, I want to talk about Easter.
Yesterday, I hosted brunch and invited the whole family over, and while I could tell you about the raspberry sorbet rose mimosas, or the egg toss we participated in, what I really want to tell you about is how my dad kept acting like a time traveler.
At one point he asked me for a cup of coffee. When he saw me take his filled mug from the machine in less than a minute, he said “you are able to make only one ONE cup of coffee?”
“Yeah” I said.
He furrowed his brow, looked utterly shocked, and said “What? But HOW?”
My dad was in a car accident when I was thirteen. He has a traumatic brain injury, but still, you’d think the man would have seen a Keurig or Nespresso or something.
Dad and me
I pointed to my coffee machine “With that. You press a button and it makes one cup of coffee at a time.”
“You mean you don’t have to make a whole pot?” He asked, confoundedly.
“That’s what I’m telling you, dad. You’ve never seen a machine like that before? It essentially makes an espresso and you add hot water to make a coffee.”
“But, how do you get the coffee in there?” He asked.
—silence—
“What do you mean?”
“How do you put the coffee in the machine to only make one cup?”
Confusion. Awe.
“Dad. The coffee is already in there—“
“IT’S ALREADY IN THERE?” He cuts me off.
“Yes, the coffee beans are in the machine and when you press the button, the machine measures out enough coffee beans for one cup, grinds it, then makes your coffee.”
“But how does the coffee get in there in the first place?
“I put the beans in. Then you have to refill the water tank and the beans when it gets low” I say.
“Show me” he says, still skeptical.
. . .
Later he’s looking around my living room and says “I can’t believe how big TV’s are now. Where did you find such a big TV?” He’s marveling. He can’t believe it.
Guys, he comes from a nursing facility, not the past.
. . .
But the icing on the cake was, having just heard the word, my dad asked me and Isabella “what is a narcissist?”
I said “it’s hard to explain in entirety, dad. But basically, it’s a person who is very self-absorbed and selfish and thinks mostly about themselves.”
“Yeah” Isabella says “and they don’t care about other peoples feelings. They are always right and they don’t care if they take advantage of other people in order to get their way.”
My dad sat, taking these definitions in, and then after a few seconds said “I think I may be a narcissist.”
He was not trying to make a joke.
He made me laugh, and he made my day.
. . .
Easter brunch
We did have an egg toss. My brother-in-law Patrick brought over raw eggs and told us to pair up in the grass and throw the eggs back and forth, taking a step, making you and your partner further and further apart each time. You get so you’re hurling raw eggs across big distances and, if you’re like Jeremy, falling over in order to catch it. Once your egg breaks you lose. The last team standing wins. Late in the game, my egg bounced out of my hands and landed on the ground but didn’t break. Pat looked over at me and said “Not gonna lie, your not a great catch, Krysta” which was really rude considering we were TOP THREE, gosh.
There was an egg hunt and home Sunday school, and Easter baskets…
The fam
But what I really want to go get back to talking about are those cinnamon rolls because here’s the deal: I make a good roll already. I have used the same Cinnabon copycat recipe for years and years. You can find it if you type the words “Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls” in the search bar here and I really recommend them. They are dang good. But the thing is, they are soft and tender and fluffy, which is a very good thing, however, I was craving some chew. I waned some density. I wanted to pull on the end of the roll and have it unravel and still keep it’s shape.
So I did some research and landed on this recipe and method. First, the dough gets mixed for quite a while which makes the flour tougher. Second, the dough makes it’s first rise in the fridge. A method I’d not encountered before. In the end, this makes for a simple cinnamon roll recipe, if there is such a thing, and makes a very generous batch (16 rolls!) which are also generous in size.
These are tender but not overly soft or gooey in the middle, so take note of that. If you want gooier middles, maybe look up my Cinnabon recipe. These cook evenly all the way through, which makes them real pretty in the pan, because they keep their integrity. These are great rolls to give away because they are so pretty and perfect.
Recipe notes before you begin: The original recipe calls for water instead of milk, but I like my dough to be a bit richer, so I use whole milk. Feel free to use whatever floats your boat. I also add two eggs yolks, something not included in the original recipe, so this is not necessary either. But again, I like the richness.
I made the dough the day before Easter, then let it sit and rise in the fringe overnight. The next morning, I rolled it out, added the filling, rolled it up, cut, and let them rise again before baking fresh. Easy like Sunday morning.
Full disclosure: I made a cream cheese glaze on Easter but it was not as good compared to my stand-by icing, so that’s what I’m including in the recipe here.
TELL ME THESE DON’T LOOK LIKE PERFECTION. I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU.
Easter Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 16 medium size rolls
Adapted from Laurenslatest.com
Dough
2 cups warm water or whole milk
4 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast 2 packets
6 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
6 cups all purpose flour—give or take, see NOTE below
5 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
2 egg yolks at room temperature, (optional, see notes)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons salt
Cinnamon Roll Filling
1/2 cup salted butter very soft but not melted
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Instructions:
For the dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir warm water or warm milk (think baby bath temperature) together with yeast an 3 tablespoon sugar until mostly dissolved. If the liquid is too hot, it’ll kill the yeast so warm, baby, warm. After 10 minutes, mixture should be foamy. (If nothing has happened, throw it out and try again OR buy fresher yeast.)
Add in remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 cups of flour and start to mix with the machine on low to medium speed with the dough hook attachment. Stir in melted butter, egg yolks if using, vanilla, and salt. Add in another 1-2 cups and let the machine work to knead it into the dough, about 2 minutes or kneading on low to medium speed. Add in remaining 2 cups of flour (if needed—see note below) bit by bit, letting the machine knead in the flour for several seconds before adding in more flour. Only add in enough flour to get a dough that is mostly smooth, has cleaned the sides of the bowl, the bottom is still sticking and when you touch it with your hands, it is tacky but not sticky enough to stick to your hands. This whole process should take about 10 minutes.
Scrape the dough out of the bowl and into a well greased large bowl. Roll it around to coat in oil, over and refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight.
Making the Cinnamon Rolls
Flour a clean surface and dump risen dough onto the board. Sprinkle the dough and rolling pin in more flour and start to roll a 24"x18 rectangle (approximately). As you roll, be sure to move the dough around to ensure no sticking. Add more flour as needed.
Using your fingers, spread the soft butter over the entire piece of dough, leaving a 1 inch border along the top of a longer 24" side. Spread the brown sugar over the butter evenly and then sprinkle with cinnamon.
Roll dough neatly into a tight swirl, towards the border of dough without cinnamon or sugar. Bring entire log of dough towards you, moving the seam side down to hold in place. Using a serrated bread knife, cut into 1 1/2" rolls (approximate is fine) and place onto buttered parchment paper on a lightly colored half sheet pan. (You should end up with 16 nice cinnamon rolls and 2 small end pieces that you can squeeze onto the sheet pan too or just toss.)
Cover rolls with plastic wrap and rise 1 hour or until puffed and pretty. I usually warm my oven and let them rise in a warm environment. Just be sure it is not too hot or the plastic wrap will melt. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
For icing, mix all ingredients together and spoon evenly over warm cinnamon rolls.
NOTE: You will probably NOT need the whole 6 cups of flour. I needed about 5, After the first four cups, add the rest of the flour slowly and stop when dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and is still tacky when touched but doesn’t stick to your fingers. Nothing catastrophic happens if you omit the egg yolks. They just make the dough richer. I definitely recommend using them if you use water instead of milk for the base though.
Hope you all had a great Easter!
Krysta