Lovely winter day everyone! The weather has been absolutely crazy in Czech republic lately - last week I could have worn sweatshirt only and now it's snowing again?! I don't know how you fight this cold snowy weather, but when it comes to my way of fighting this weather, there are only 5 words that come to my mind - bed, book, tea & cinnamon rolls. I am a foodie, I know - sorry, not sorry. Before we get to the recipe, let me give you one brief warning first: When you bake these, you might need to fight your family members to save few pieces for yourself. When I bake these and my parents are at home, they usually eat the whole thing even before it gets cool. Now that you have been warned, let's get to the recipe, shall we?
Ingredients:for the dough:
400g flour (semi-coarse)
1 yeast (42g)
200ml milk
70g unsalted butter
1 egg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
40g sugar
for the filling:
70g unsalted butter
1,5 tbsp ground cinnamon
80g sugar
First of all, you will work with yeast, because you want it to grow a little bit before mixing it with the dough. I usually use normal yeast, not dry version of it, because I think that it works better, but feel free to use dried yeast, although the amount needed will probably be different than for normal yeast. When it comes to yeast, bear in mind that it needs 2 things to grow - warmth and sugar. Heat the milk a little bit (not much, approx body temperature) and mix in all the sugar. Then crumble the yeast into that mixture and let it grow for few minutes.
Meanwhile melt the butter and let it cool down a little. You will be mixing it together with flour, cinnamon and egg and if the butter is too hot, it would not do any good to that egg, trust me. Once you have mixed all the ingredients together, add milk with yeast and stir the mixture until well combined.
At this point, just cover the bowl with cloth and let the yeast do it's job for approx 2 hours and go watch some movie or something. :)
When the dough is ready, just roll it until approx 0,5mm thick. Now prepare the filling by simply melting he butter and mixing it together with sugar and cinnamon. Pour this mixture over the rolled dough and distribute it evenly all over the dough. At this point just roll the dough and cut the roll into pieces (approx 5-7cm width). When you have all your rolls transferred onto baking sheet (and yes, they tend to break apart if you do it before transferring them, tried&tested), just cut them in middle by blunt edge of knife to create the specific shape and put them in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes on 220°C.
Note: You can glaze the pastry as soon as you take it out of the oven with slightly whisked egg (both, white and yolk) to make it look shiny and pretty. However I don't like to do this because a) I am too lazy, and b) I can still taste the egg unlike most of people and I quite don't like that taste difference. Taste before looks! Always!
Note: You can glaze the pastry as soon as you take it out of the oven with slightly whisked egg (both, white and yolk) to make it look shiny and pretty. However I don't like to do this because a) I am too lazy, and b) I can still taste the egg unlike most of people and I quite don't like that taste difference. Taste before looks! Always!
Enjoy cosy time in bed with tea, book and cinnamon rolls like me, yay! :) Btw, I can give my recommendation on that book too, very nice relaxing and catchy book.
