GG’S Cinnamon Rolls

Hot, gooey, delicious cinnamon rolls have been a hallmark of my family’s Holiday celebrations for generations. This is the cinnamon roll recipe has been handed down for over 80 years. From my family to yours, enjoy!

Making a yeast dough may seem intimidating at first, trust me though, you’ve got this! I’ll share some tips and tricks to get you going and just promise you will have some fun and they will turn out fine.

Yeast

The first trick to working with yeast is making sure you have fresh yeast. Yeast can store for a long time, especially if refrigerated, however I have managed to kill my yeast. The easy solution is to buy fresh yeast from the store. Yeast starts to activate when it is warmed up and given a food. For this recipe I am using sugar and warm water to get the process going; make sure you mix everything in a container that gives your yeast room to grow! I always use a 4-cup glass measuring bowl.

The water temperature is important. If it is too hot you can kill your yeast! My Great-grandmother taught me her tried and true method for finding the right temperature for lukewarm water: start with hot water and slowly adjust the temperature of your tap water down until it is just cool enough to continue running on the inside of your wrist. If your yeast is dead, you won’t get very much activity and very little bubbling at this step. With good, active yeast your solution will bubble and froth and grow quickly. By the 15 minute mark, you should have a container filled with happy yeast.

SHORTENING?

I have tried several fats over the years in substitution for the shortening in this recipe with varied success. Shortening has perhaps gotten a bad rap, with its saturated fats and the fact that it is hydrogenated vegetable oil and not a whole food. An easy substitution if you are adverse to shortening is to substitute one-for-one with butter. It does change the texture and creates a slightly more dense end product.

KNEAD THAT DOUGH!

This is hands-down my favorite part! I enjoy making something with my hands, it gives me a wonderful sense of accomplishment. This also feels like the love-injection step. Every rocking motion and flip of the dough is care and attention that I am lovingly putting into the final product.

If this is your first time kneading dough here are some tips:

1. Prepare a large working area and sprinkle with flour. My Grandpa always used a large wooden cutting board. He was famous for these cinnamon rolls! I have newspaper clippings of him crafting these his signature treat. I always just use my kitchen countertop dusted thickly with flour to knead my dough. I’ve also done a decent job working the dough in a large bowl! The biggest trick is to find a smooth surface and have flour at the ready to prevent sticking.
2. Knead the dough with the heel of your palm. Put some muscle into it! Take the ball of dough onto the floured surface. With one hand gently hold the dough in place, with the other hand push into the center of the dough and away from your body. Your movement should compress and stretch the dough. With your holding hand, pick up the dough and fold it over itself. Repeat the pressing movement. Continue pressing, stretching, and folding until the dough smooths out and feels more elastic. This step is important as it activates the gluten in the flour and sets up the protein matrix that allows the dough to trap and stretch with the CO2 that the yeast creates during rising.
3. Stop after about 10 minutes. Depending on how vigorously you are kneading, it usually takes me 5-10 minutes to reach my desired end result. When I first learned this recipe, I was taught to count to 100. A count for each fold. Either way, you want to work your dough until it is smooth and elastic. Dough should not be sticky and will softly spring back when poked.

FLOSS- YES, DENTAL FLOSS

Trust me- this is a life-saver! If you don’t have a simple waxed floss on hand- i’ve used kitchen twine in a pinch, but its not as magical. Here is how it works:

Take a length of floss about 18 inches long. Lift the end of the rolled dough log and slide the middle of the floss length underneath by about 1 inch. Grab the ends of the floss and lift up and around the dough log. Making sure the floss is touching at the top of the dough log, cross the ends and pull them away from each other causing them to cut through the dough. This technique will give you gorgeous, perfectly round cinnamon rolls every time with little effort!

HOW TO ADJUST TIMING

Room temperature has a huge affect on how quickly your dough will rise, as does the barometric pressure. If you want to speed up the process, heat your oven by setting it to the lowest temperature for a few minutes and then turning it off. You want the oven temperature to be no more than 139 degF, so be careful! Another thing to try is finding the warmest spot in your kitchen/house and tucking your rising dough in there to try and speed things along.

If you are wanting to slow things down, then you can stall your dough’s rise by putting it into the fridge. This can be done with the first rise or the second. Make sure to wrap your bowl or baking pan tightly with plastic wrap to keep the dough from drying out. The dough will still rise in the fridge, just at a much slower rate. When removing the dough, you will want to plan for about 30 minutes to 1 hour for the dough to reach room temperature and then calculate the remaining rise time based on where you are in the recipe.

I usually use the refrigeration method when I’ve made half the recipe into dinner rolls for an evening meal and then wanted hot cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next day. After filling the baking pan with my cinnamon rolls, I let them rise for about 1/3 the total normal time. They will have just started to get a little bit puffy but not gained substantial height. Wrap tightly and refrigerate at this point. The next morning give yourself an hour for the rolls to reach room temperature and rise a little bit more before popping them in the oven.

The timing offered here is a suggestion, so keep that in mind and check your rising dough periodically!

MAKES DINNER ROLLS TOO!

As my family has a soft-spot for treats, this recipe is invariably turned into cinnamon rolls more frequently than dinner rolls hence the recipe name! However, the base dough makes absolutely delicious, soft and buttery dinner rolls that are gone before the baking pan gets cold.

Here’s how to make them. After punching down the dough after the first rise, roll it out on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into circle with a biscuit cutter. Dip the cut rounds into melted butter then push your thumb into the center of the round and flatten the middle a bit turning it into a oval while folding the two halves of the oval into each other like a clamshell. Place into a 9×13 backing pan and continue until you have filled the pan, giving only a little bit of space between each roll. If desired, sprinkle a small amount of flake salt on top, like Maldon Sea Salt.

WHERE’S THE FROSTING?!?

I grew up eating these cinnamon rolls with a simple vanilla frosting (included with recipe). Since I’ve had my own kitchen and free reign to experiment, I’ve developed a cream cheese frosting that my kids now much prefer. Here is the link if you want to try it: link here.

If you are like my husband, you’ve already burned your tongue and simultaneously discovered that frosting on a hot roll melts into a sugary glaze. If this is what you are going for then by all means don’t let me stop you! If, however, you like to maintain the frosting as its own glorious crown to your baked perfection, then wait for them to mostly cool before frosting.