Cinnamon Rolls, almost like my mother made

Un-iced and not overly sweet, this cinnamon roll is a perfect dessert, breakfast or anytime snack. Recipe below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]Y[/su_dropcap]ou know how sometimes someone says a thing to you that unexpectedly puts everything in a whole new light? That opens a doorway where, for the longest and most wearying time, you’d just seen the same dull wall?

Well, my mother used to make the most wonderful cinnamon rolls. Hers were not the swollen, heavily iced creatures that are so popular today. Her cinnamon rolls were just lightly sweet, modest in size, golden and simple. I loved them so much! I’d been trying to make them for years, with various degrees of failure. I made a lot of interesting, usually edible things, but nothing close to the original.

Then the other day, I was talking to my sister, who, I want to note, does not bake. We were reminiscing about some of our mom’s brilliant achievements as a baker. Her honey cakes, her pies, her challahs and onion rolls were things of legend. “And her cinnamon rolls,” I said “I’ve never been able to get even close to that.”

My sister, who, did I mention? does not bake, said, “She used her bread recipe.”

Reader, it was like the curtains had been thrown open and sunshine was rushing in. “What?” I said feebly.

“It was just one of her bread recipes.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “Huh.”

So this recipe is basically my mother’s challah recipe, cut in half (I used a very similar version for our Chocolate-filled Challah.) I used instant-rise yeast because I started after dinner and wanted to have the finished product as soon as possible. But next time I will try this with regular yeast for a slower rise and maybe even let it rise overnight in the refrigerator, to see how the flavors develop.

Oh, and is this exactly my mother’s recipe of yore? Not quite. But it’s close. Very close. I’m finally sneaking up on it.

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Cinnamon Rolls

Un-iced and not overly sweet, this cinnamon roll is a perfect dessert, breakfast or anytime snack.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Servings 12 rolls

Equipment

• two baking sheets, nonstick or lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats

Ingredients

• 1 package instant rise yeast (you can also use regular yeast, allowing extra time for the dough to rise)
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 4-1/2 to 5 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil (use the mild stuff, not the big-bodied, precious kind)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon
• melted butter
• 1 more egg white

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, add the instant rise yeast, the salt, and 4-1/2 cups of flour and stir together lightly with a fork.
• Put the milk in a small saucepan and heat it gently—you just want to warm it to a bit above body temperature. Add the olive oil, vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar, and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat. Then whisk in the 2 eggs. Pour all of this into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until things start to incorporate. It will be shaggy.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it. If it feels sticky, add more flour. Once it is supple and lively, form it into a flattened ball—put it in medium, oiled bowl and cover lightly (I used waxed paper gently set on top). Put it a warm place to rise. Let it rise until it doubles in size—about an hour or 75 minutes if you are using instant yeast. (If you have more time, use regular yeast, which will take about 25% longer to rise, or let it rise overnight in the fridge.)
• Turn the dough out onto the floured surface again and knead for a minute or two. Then stretch and roll it out into a rectangle, about 12 by 18 or so inches. At first, the dough may take some convincing, but keep having at it with the rolling pin—fairly soon it will become easy to roll it out to the size you want.
• Mix together the other 1/2 cup of white sugar with the cinnamon. Paint the surface of the dough with melted butter, then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. Use it all.
• Next, roll the dough into a log. Roll from one long side to the other—you want a long noodle. I found it was helpful to gently lift the dough as I worked forward, which helped the cinnamon sugar stay fairly stable.
• When you’ve formed the log, it’s time to slice the individual rolls. IHaving an actual ruler at hand. is a good idea at this point. I cut this into sections around 1-1/2” long, but you also want to take into consideration the volume of each roll—I found that the log sort of tapered at each end, so I cut the slimmer pieces a wee bit longer. Gently place each roll on the baking sheet, with one of the cut sides down. This should yield about 12 rolls.
• Gently cover the rolls with waxed paper and let them rise about 45 minutes. Brush tops with the egg white.
• Bake cinnamon rolls, one sheet at a time, in a 375ºF oven for 10 – 11 minutes. Halfway through, take out the sheet and turn it 180 degrees so the rolls bake evenly. They are done when they are lightly golden.
• Cool on a rack, and that’s it. Have them when they are still warm. When they are cooled, bag them up and store them—they can be gently nuked the next day, or frozen.