Cinnamon Scrolls

This past year has been a year of many cooking firsts. Whilst I have always had the ability to cook, I didn’t really use recipe’s that I though would be complicated, or had ingredients that I hadn’t used before.

My first hurdle earlier this year was learning how to make my own pastry (as opposed to getting it pre-rolled out of a freezer). My first attempt was a bit of a fail, but now as I have done it over and over again, I learned what can and cannot be done, and that it isn’t all that delicate.

This weekend I made dough, using Yeast for the first time. I had been reminiscing about childhood foods, and one that stands out to me were the Cinnamon Scrolls from my high school canteen. These were my absolute favourite thing from the canteen. The dough was light and fluffy with a touch of cinnamon, and the best thing about them was that they were drenched in icing.

The recipe I used was from Bill Grangers Sydney Food cook book. Whilst they did fill my cinnamon scroll void, I felt that they could have been a little lighter and fluffier (maybe a longer kneading next time?).

Iced Cinnamon Scrolls
2x 7g sachets dried yeast
¼ cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk
125g unsalted butter, cubed
4 cups plain all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
¼ cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup currants (I omitted)
1/3 cup sultanas (I omitted)
80g unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp warm water
½ tsp vanilla essence

For the dough, Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Place milk, cubed butter in a medium saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Add sugar (caster) and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, and milk and yeast mixtures. Stir until a smooth dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes, working in extra flour if dough is too sticky. Add the currants and sultanas (if using) at the last two minutes of kneading.

Place the dough into a large lightly floured bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Keep the bowl in a warm area and allow to rise for 30 minutes to an hour. The dough should have doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and on a floured surface roll into a 23 x 60 cm rectangle. Brush generously with melted butter, reserving some for later, and sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface. Roll the dough up, to make a log. With the seam-side down, cut the roll into 2cm thick slices and place on baking trays 1.5 cam apart. Brush the tops of the rolls with the remaining butter. Cover loosely and leave to rise until doubled again.

Preheat oven to 180˚C.
Bake rolls for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes then drizzle with icing.

For the icing, Dissolve icing sugar in warm water and add vanilla essence in a mixing bowl. Stir until smooth. Add extra water if the icing is too thick to drizzle.