Cinnamon Rolls (Kids)

 24-25 December 2020

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen Kids

We wanted to continue our Christmas morning tradition of cinnamon rolls even though it was just the two of us. I wanted a recipe for homemade rolls that would not take too much time or too many ingredients, that would make a reasonable number of rolls, and which could be executed early on Christmas morning. My search led me, to my surprise, to the ATK Kids section where I found this recipe. It was listed with a difficulty of "advanced" but I figured I could handle it. It is a yeast-roll recipe but I bet that I could let the rolls rise in the refrigerator overnight then bake them the next morning. The directions were very easy to follow.

The dry ingredients—AP flour, sugar, yeast, and salt—were whisked together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Water, softened unsalted butter, and an egg were mixed into the flour mixture then kneaded using the dough hook. The dough was then kneaded briefly by hand into a smooth ball that was left to rise until doubled. After 2 hours 20 minutes it was rolled out to 16"x8", brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with a filling of cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt, then cut into 2" strips. These were rolled up and placed in a round 9" cake pan that had been prepared with parchment and vegetable oil spray. Excess filling was sprinkled over the top of the rolls. They were covered with plastic and placed in the refrigerator to rise over night. The next morning they were removed from the refrigerator and allowed to warm while the oven came up to temperature, 325°. The rolls were baked until golden brown, drizzled with a glaze of confectioner' sugar and milk, and served. Preparation time Christmas eve took about 3 hours, including the 2+ hours rising. Christmas morning the rolls were ready to eat about 70 minutes after they were removed from the refrigerator.

These were really good cinnamon rolls and met my criteria of being easy to prepare with common ingredients and ready to serve at a reasonable time on Christmas morning. It was fun following the detailed, illustrated recipe instructions; printed they came to eight pages. The rolls were not as rich as those made using the recipe for ultimate cinnamon rolls, but they were easier to prepare. These were worthy of our Christmas breakfast, and good as leftovers over the following days.