Okay, these are a treat! But still pretty frugal and way better tasting than storebought cinnamon rolls.
I used to use my bread machine all the time. I would regularly make pizza dough in it, bake bread, and periodically make these fantastic cinnamon rolls. Now that it is just two of us in the house, I find myself using it less and less, however I still pull it out for treats like these cinnamon rolls that have become a Christmas morning tradition. I figure the machine paid for itself many years ago. I could mix these up in my Kitchen Aid mixer but it’s easier just to dump in the ingredients when it’s convenient at some point on Christmas Eve, then I make up the rolls and refrigerate them for tomorrow morning. Since we’re just 3 tomorrow, I made two pans up tonight, one with 5 rolls and the other with 8 or. I’m freezing the larger one, then will bring it up to our large family gathering tomorrow and share with the others on the 26th at our large breakfast.
Tomorrow, I’ll pull these out of the fridge first thing and let them warm up and rise while we do stockings and such, then bake so they’re ready for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange juice, and cinnamon rolls.
Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Dough
- 3/8 cup milk
- 3/8 cup water just make sure the total is 3/4 cup liquid
- 1 egg
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 Tbs softened butter
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
- 5 Tbs butter
Topping (to put on the bottom of the pans)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbs melted butter
Filling
- 2 Tbs sugar
- 1 Tbs cinnamon
- 2 Tbs brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raisins optional, we leave them out
Instructions
- Put all the dough ingredients in your bread machine and set to the dough cycle. When it beeps continue.
- Melt the 5 Tbs butter and pour into a 9x13 pan or two 8 or 9" round pans. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
- Roll the dough out on a floured board to a 8x14" rectangle. Brush the dough with 1 Tbs melted bowl.
- In a small bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon, brown sugar. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mix on the dough, the distribute the raisins across the dough.
- Starting from the long end, roll up and pinch the ends to seal the seam. Cut into 1 1/2" sections. (An easy way to do this is to use dental floss! Just slide a foot long piece of dental floss underneath the dough and pull up and cross over then pull together to slice the dough cleanly. Place the pieces cut side down in the pan(s).
- You can refrigerate overnight or freeze up to 1 month at this point. Just cover with foil and put in the frig or freezer. Before baking, allow rolls to come to room temperature then proceed with the second raising.
- Cover and let rise in a warm oven or other warm spot for 45 minutes or so, until doubled. You can warm your oven by turning it onto the warm cycle for 3 minutes then turning it off. Leave the interior light on to help keep the oven warm.
- Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Take the pan(s) from the oven and invert onto a plate or large serving dish so the sticky part is on top.
[…] We don’t have any firm food traditions for Christmas dinner. Christmas breakfast is always cinnamon rolls, sausage, scrambled eggs and orange juice (with champagne now that the girls are grown!). We varied […]