On a roll...

When Mr Happy Larder and I first got married, we fulfilled one of our dreams and went to Africa on honeymoon.  We did a safari in a less touristy part of Tanzania and stayed on the beautiful spice island of Zanzibar.  We saw nature at its most beautiful, made fabulous friends and ate stunning food.  It still amazes me how the cooks in camp were able to create the delicious food we ate with hardly any equipment to speak of..  When bread is baked in a hole in the ground, you know you are somewhere quite remote :-)  One of the things we had for breakfast were the most incredible cinnamon rolls we have ever eaten.  In fact, on arrival at the camp the handful of other guests did not mention the wildlife first but these cinnamon rolls - that's saying something.

Well, cut a long story short - ever since that trip I have been trying to find a recipe for something resembling these rolls at least in taste.  EUREKA!  Yesterday, feeling better, I went up and down the internet and stumbled across a recipe that looked straightforward enough to give it a go.  What can I say?  Not only did I make a small batch (I usually make half the quantity when I first try out a new recipe), we loved this so much that I had to make another batch straight after :-)  If you have enjoyed the cinnamon rock cakes recipe, then you will love these (Pigsmightfly, this should go down a treat in your household)!
I amended the recipe slightly and I hope you like what I have done with it.  It just uses slightly less fat and sugar and I left out the cream cheese icing, drizzling mine just lightly with a mix of icing sugar & lemon juice (totally optional - the second batch was made completely without and that was just as nice).  These freeze really well as well - perfect for a little treat later in the week.

I reckon these will also work really well as savory rolls - maybe filled with pesto instead of the butter/sugar/cinnamon mix... mhm, might have to give that a go...

Have a good start to your week!


Soft Cinnamon Rolls (makes 12)

Ingredients:
For the dough:
240ml milk
4tsp dried yeast
40g sugar
120g butter
400g flour
1tsp baking powder
a little salt

For the filling:
80g butter, melted
100g brown sugar
25g granulated sugar
3tbsp cinnamon

Method:

1. In a saucepan, warm the milk to lukewarm and melt the butter - I did this in one pan and it worked a treat (saving on washing up).
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder and salt and add the lukewarm milk/melted butter.
3. Mix together to combine the ingredients - the dough will be fairly sticky, so you can always add a little more flour to make it easier to handle.
4. Knead the dough a couple of times - you really don't need to spend any time doing this - and shape into a round before placing into a lightly oiled bowl & covering with clingfilm (or a plastic bag).  Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
5. 
   
6. Melt the butter for the filling and in a separate bowl, combine the brown & granulated sugars with the cinnamon.
7. When the dough has risen (to roughly double its size but don't worry if it doesn't quite get there - mine didn't), roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle (roughly 1/4″ thick and 18″x14″).  Make sure it's not rolled too thinly as it will be difficult for the rolls to hold their shape.
8. Spread the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle on the sugar/cinnamon mix - this will be quite a thick layer (yum!).
9. Beginning from the longer side, roll up the dough into a log - then cut the log into 12 even slices.
10. Place the slices, cut-side up and touching each other onto a lightly greased baking tray and leave to rest in a warm places for a further 20 minutes.  In the meantime, preheat the oven to 160degrees (fan oven).
11. Bake the rolls for 15 minutes or until golden in colour.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 - 20 minutes.

Optional:  Drizzle with icing before serving.  Leave off the icing if you are planning on freezing these (you can always add it once defrosted).

These rolls freeze really well - simple defrost and you can also briefly pop them into the oven or microwave if you want them slightly warmed, then add the icing if wanted.


(recipe adapted from wineimbiber.com)