I called my mom to ask for the family cinnamon roll recipe. She just sent me a picture of faded pen, missing ingredients, and water spots. I had to translate that into a working recipe.
I love my mom’s cinnamon rolls. I know there are plenty of good cinnamon rolls out there but hers is special. When I was looking for a recipe to use for my first Tangzhong conversion I knew I had to try it with these. I’ll get to that in the next post. This post is about my mom’s cinnamon rolls.
Recipe
Prep time 4 Hr, bake time 18-25 minutes
- 3/4 Cup Shortening
- 1 Cup Milk
- 1 Cup lukewarm water
- 2 packets instant yeast (Recipe calls for yeast cakes)
- 2 Tsp salt
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1 Egg beaten
- 7 1/2 Cups Flour
Heat milk and shortening until lukewarm (105°F).
In a small bowl or measuring cup dissolve yeast into 1 Cup lukewarm water.
Using a stand mixer or large bowl beat shortening, milk, salt, sugar, and yeast water together. Mix until all ingredients are intigrated.
Add 1 beaten egg. Begin adding flour and stirring the mixture. You will need to add 6 cups of flour to the mixture, mixing constantly. The dough should be wet but firm.
Measure out 1 1/2 cups sifted flour into a bowl. Spoon out a healthy amount on to a pastry board or surface you can use as a workspace for kneading the dough.
Using a silicone scraper drop the dough on the flour. Sprinkle another good helping of flour on top and begin kneading flour into the dough, constantly re-flouring the board and the top of the dough as you work it.
Continue the process until at least one full cup of flour has been worked into the dough. This may take the full 1 1/2 cups of flour. The dough should get to the point where it is just a little tacky but not wet or sticky.
Place the dough in a large greased mixing bowl and let rise. When the dough has doubled in size (Take a picture when you put it in the bowl). Punch it down, fold it, and kneed it once or twice, then flip the creases to the bottom side and let rise again. Repeat this process a second time.
After rising and being punched down a second time, soften a stick of butter (not fully melted) and set aside. Mix together 1 Tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup white sugar. (You can use brown sugar or some mix if you like but my mom only uses white sugar.)
Upon rising a third time, punch down the dough one time but do not knead. Flip the dough on to a floured work surface for rolling. Roll the dough a couple times, flour the top and flip so the flour side is down. This will keep the dough from sticking to the work surface.
Roll the dough in to a 8-10 inch wide, 1/2 inch thick strip.
Butter the top surface using the softened butter then sprinkle an even coating of the cinnamon sugar mixture across the top of the dough. Roll along one of the long edges toward the other to make one long tube.
Cut int 2 inch long sections. Place rolls loosely in to a 9in. x 12in. cake pan with at least 2 inch tall sides.
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
Let Cinnamon rolls proof one last time. They should gain about half again their size and squeeze each other, filling the pan.
Bake for 20-30 minutes. Check after 20 minutes but depending on exactly how much flour the dough absorbed will vary the cook time. When the cinnamon rolls are golden brown on top they should be ready but watch the center to make sure they are all fully baked.
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan before flipping and separating.
Top with some cream cheese frosting and enjoy!