Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls - Made as a surprise morning treat for a close friend (and to celebrate of a (nearly) perfect exam grade 98 on supply chain - yay! :)

A good friend of mine (and roommate) Brittany was having a bit of an off day - if you're a baker you already know what I'm thinking.. yep, she needs something sweet - that will make everything better! (and will give me a chance to dig through the recipe box to find something fun I've been needing an excuse to try ;)  

Recently I celebrated my 23rd birthday and in honor of the holiday I bought myself an Alton Brown DVD set. Okay, maybe thats not really a splurge. But its not a commodity good either (although, now I might argue otherwise :). All the same it was a valid purchase, after all it was my by birthday. Anyhow, one of the episodes is all about making cinnamon buns. I usually make a quick version (from Fine Cooking) that uses cottage cheese and is done in about an hour, including baking time. The Fastest Cinnamon Buns is undoubtedly a fantastic go-to recipe!! I love it and would highly recommend it but I have since befriended recipes that use yeast and Alton Brown's cinnabuns looked delicious. Alton Brown usually never fails - I mean its almost a 99% guarantee that his recipes are going to be outstanding so I was shocked when I read the reviews on Food Network's website. People were complaining about the dough being too stiff. Ah! okay, maybe I'll try his buns some other time - for now I need to find something that works.  And so I did. 

I give you: Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

 from Pink of Perfection

After a few trial and error runs she crafted this recipe - which is truly delicious! The dough is soft, fluffy, a little chewy and just melts in your mouth.  She prefers an icing made with powdered sugar, milk, butter and maple syrup. I loved it but I think next time I'll add a little cream cheese to make it a bit thicker. Everyone said they wanted more icing. Also, I'm a huge fan of nuts so I think they'd be a superb edition but, since my roomies aren't nutsy kind of people, I omitted them. Per usual I've posted the recipe along with some of my changes and remarks. I'll definitely be making these again - so I'll keep you posted!

Makes 12-15 rolls

dough
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour** see my notes
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs

filling
1 1/3 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

glaze (its a bit different than the original recipe)
1 cups powdered sugar
3 tsp maple syrup
2 tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoons (or more) milk
1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt *i omitted this

Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Stir in butter until melted. Let cool until lukewarm. (about 90-100F degrees)

In the bowl of a standing mixer with the dough hook attachment, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add eggs and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. (I only used about 4 1/4 cups).  When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour as needed - but be careful not to add too much flour because you'll get cinnamon rocky rolls instead of soft fluffy ones!

Cover the dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together filling ingredients. (I think this method would have been better- what you see below is where I melted the butter, spread it and then sprinkled on the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture but it seemed like so much so I left about 1/4 of it out - The end result was good but would have been even better with the remaining sugar so next time I'll do it her way)

Roll out dough into approximately a 9×12 inch rectangle. Spread dough evenly with filling mixture. Roll up dough from the long end and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls (I made about 15) and place cut side up in a 9×12″ baking pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Cling wrap is Glad's best invention yet- I despise saran wrap and avoid it when possible!)

The next morning, remove cinnamon rolls from refrigerator and let sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to take the chill off. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  ** One thing I did differently than the original recipe called for was an idea from Alton: I proofed my rolls. Place a pan full of boiling water on the lower rack of your oven and place the rolls on the upper rack. Set oven to lowest possible temperature and leave the rolls to proof for about 10 minutes. Then, remove the tray of water, crank up the heat to 375F and bake for about 20 minutes. (it only took around 17 in my oven)

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together glaze ingredients, adding more milk to thin glaze, if necessary. Remove rolls from oven, and pour glaze over hot cinnamon rolls. Serve warm. Store in air tight container and reheat in microwave as needed.

Notes & Comments

• Careful not to overwork the dough! or add too much flour.
• I think nuts - maybe chopped pecans would be fantastic rolled up in these gooey buns!
• Experiment with different icings: try adding some cream cheese, orange zest or other flavorings
• These reheat great in the microwave for about 20 sec and they're soft and chewy again! (I'm not so sure how they would freeze though- maybe not the best)
• You can try dark brown sugar for the filling instead - although I just like the milder flavor of light brown sugar

And just for the record - I have never understood why Pilsbury calls spiral-like cinnamon goods "cinnamon buns" and the ball-like cinnamon goodies "cinnamon rolls" - I guess like a dinner roll? Go figure, but as far as I'm concerned what you see here is a cinnamon roll : )  ENJOY!!  

Nutritional Facts: (makes 15 rolls- including my version of the icing)

Calories 373, Fat 12.6g, Carbs 59g, Fiber 1.6g, Sugars 28g,  Protein 5.9g