Two Hour Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Whenever I think of my greatest food weakness, I always narrow it down to freshly baked bread. The delirious, glorious smell of fresh bread has always sent me into a complete tailspin. During my early twenties, I spent a summer during university working the storefront of a family-run bakery in Regina and it was pretty much a dream come true for me and my deep love of carbs. A good portion of my summer paycheck went back to that bakery and I would stock up on their homemade bread, dinner rolls, poppy seed loaf, and their daily cinnamon buns.
While I do love all things bread, I don’t make it at home very often because I have the worst luck with homemade dough. It always ends up being too sticky or too heavy and then it would be even more temperamental when I got the rolling pin involved. You name a problem, I went through it. And when you’ve dealt with as many bad batches of homemade dough as I have, it becomes very discouraging very quickly.
BUT, let me tell you about this phenomenal Two Hour Homemade Cinnamon Rolls recipe I found in my Grandma’s handwritten notebook. Against all odds, I could not believe how ridiculously easy it was to make. And that’s coming from me, someone who has suffered through countless, horribly, sticky “what the heck did I do wrong?” batches of dough. This dough came together so quickly, rose beautiful and I almost cried tears of sheer happiness when I was able to roll and slice each perfect little cinnamon roll with ease. It was such a crazy miracle to me that I had to take photos before the second rise (below and on Instagram) to document the historic moment. My dough curse is (possibly? likely!) broken!
Another thing I really liked about my Grandma’s recipe is that the instructions said to make the cinnamon rolls on large cookie sheet (i.e. baking sheet) rather than squished together in a pan. More room to rise and bake evenly! I’m also pretty “take it or leave it” when it comes to icing, and I wasn’t in the mood to dirty up more dishes, so I didn’t bother with this batch. However, if icing is your jam, my go to recipe is 2 cups of icing sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter/margarine and 2 tablespoons of milk.
Two Hour Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients:
Dough
- 2 packages (1 1/2 tbsp) of dry active yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 4 cups flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup oil
Filling
- 1/4 cup melted butter/margarine
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar
Optional
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
- In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Do not mix. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Add 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt, egg and oil to the yeast mixture. Using a standup mixer or handheld beaters, beat the mixture until smooth. Add remaining 2 cups of flour and continue mixing until a soft dough forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and place in a warm area away from drafts for 40-45 minutes until the dough is double in size. My favourite place to let dough rise is in the oven (just don’t turn it on).
- Punch down the dough, remove from the bowl and knead once or twice on a clean, floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a large rectangle that is roughly 1/2 inch thick. Brush the rectangle with melted butter/margarine and sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture. If using, add chopped walnuts.
- Roll the rectangle into a log tightly towards yourself (starting with the edge farthest away) and pinch the edges together when you reach the end. Slice the log into 12-15 rolls and place on a large, lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise for another 25 minutes until the rolls have double in sized. During this second rise, begin preheating the oven to 350*F.
- Bake the cinnamon rolls for 25 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Serve immediately.
