100th Recipe: Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls

I can’t believe it either! This is the 100th recipe of my own that I have shared on the blog.

This makes me very happy and very surprised. When Jason and I got married, I only ever followed recipes to the letter and I didn’t even start making adjustments to recipes until after a few solid months of being a home cook. The fact that I’ve grown enough to only use recipes for inspiration, or not use one at all, is very exciting. And it’s very freeing! Sometimes I don’t want to use someone else’s directions, I just want to do things my own way!

I still use recipes all the time. That’s how you learn, of course! I usually make sticky buns with a brioche dough when I’m in the mood for this kind of treat, but I’ve discovered those are a little heavy for the morning. In the case of these cinnamon rolls, I looked at several different recipes and was inspired to use vanilla pudding mix in the dough by this popular recipe. I’ve used pudding mix in baking before (it’s actually a key ingredient in one of our best family recipes), and it always makes a beautiful result. Trust me, if you are going to make one recipe of mine, MAKE THESE.

Old Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls

For the dough:

• 2 T. melted butter, cooled
• ¾ c. warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ c. white bread flour
• ½ c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 t. sugar
• ½ t. salt
• 2 ½ t. instant dry yeast

For the Filling:

• 2 T. butter
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar
• 2 t. cinnamon

For the glaze:

• 2 T. melted butter
• 2 T. softened cream cheese
• ½ c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. milk
• ½ t. vanilla extract
• 1 drop lemon extract

-In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, and egg.

-In an electric mixer or food processor fitted with a dough blade, combine the flours, pudding mix, sugar, salt, and yeast. Add the wet ingredients and mix on low speed. Once the ingredients are incorporated, increase the speed to medium and mix until a soft, stretchy dough is formed (about a few minutes with an electric mixer, a minute in a food processor).

-Transfer the dough to a greased bowl. Cover with a towel and let rest in a warm place until the dough doubles in bulk (about 2 hours). While the dough is rising, let the butter for the filling soften on the counter.

-Gently punch down the dough and roll out into a rectangle about 1/3″ thick. Spread the softened butter for the filling over the rectangle.

-Stir together the other two filling ingredients in a small bowl, then sprinkle it over the entire surface of the dough.

-Roll the dough up lengthwise. Slice into 8 even slices with a sharp knife.

-Place the dough slices flat into a greased baking dish, arranging them to touch each other slightly. Cover with a towel and let rest in a warm place for another hour.

-Bake the rolls in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until they are completely golden brown.

-While the rolls cool slightly, beat the glaze ingredients together with an electric mixer until it’s fluffy and has no lumps.

-Spread the glaze over the warm rolls with a spatula. Enjoy! Makes 8 large rolls.

This was my first time using whole wheat pastry flour, and I LOVE it! You can use a higher ratio of whole wheat flour if you like, but I wanted these to be as soft and fluffy as possible so I kept the ratio pretty low. The result was delicious. So delicious that after giving Jason one fresh out of the oven, he interrupted my photo shoot to grab another.

I can’t blame the boy. I may or may not be eating my second one right now.

I’m off to work on some home improvement projects, and then it’s Indian for dinner!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren