Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I love cinnamon rolls, but am honestly too lazy to make them. I know, I’m a terrible person! 

I had been wanting to make sourdough cinnamon rolls for several weeks, and finally decided to make them last night. (Saturday) 

I looked at several recipes online, and they all looked super complicated. I purposely didn’t look at King Arthur Flour, because I wanted to try a recipe from somewhere else. (I don’t know why… ) But after I looked through several recipes, I finally looked at the KAF sourdough cinnamon roll recipe. It was the simplest looking recipe, and I’ve loved every sourdough recipe of theirs that I have tried. I used their ingredient list, but used my own method. 

Combine all of the ingredients except the salt and yeast. In a stand mixer, knead for about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the salt and yeast over the dough, and allow to rest for 20 minutes. (Don’t knead in the salt and yeast yet.) This 20 minute rest is called autolyse (I'm not going to remember that, so I don’t expect you to either… just a piece of random sourdough information that none of us will probably ever use.)  After the 20 minutes, knead dough for another 3 minutes. Leave the dough in the mixer bowl, but remove the hook attachment. Let the dough rise for 3-4 hours. During that 3-4 hours, fold the dough 3-4 times. Maybe once every hour….the timing isn’t necessarily important. The folding just insures you’ll have a strong dough that’s elastic. When I made this, I mixed up my dough right after dinner, and did the folding in-between dinner and bedtime. I actually forgot I was making cinnamon rolls until I was almost asleep! I had to wake myself up and go finish the cinnamon rolls. If you’re like me, you may want to set a timer or reminder on your phone to make sure you don’t forget that you were making cinnamon rolls. 

Once the 3-4 hours is up, it’s time to roll the dough out. Roll it out into a rectangle. The dough should be slightly thinner than your pinky. (That’s the magic thickness.) You will need to roll this out on a floured surface. The dough is a stickier dough. 

Spread the butter on your dough, go all the way to the edges. Sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar mixture, but don’t go all the way to the edge. Leave about half an inch all around the edge. Starting on the long side, start rolling the roll. Try to keep it as tight as possible. Once your roll is complete, it’s time to cut. I normally use my fingers to gauge how tall the rolls should be. Three fingers is what we like. Cut the rolls, and lay them in a greased pan. Cover with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge over night. 

In the A.M. remove rolls from fridge, and turn the oven on. Now with our oven it is kinda impossible to control the temp. But the ideal temp would be 350. Bake until the rolls start to brown. 

While the rolls are baking, mix up your icing. Once the rolls are done, spread the icing as soon as you remove from the oven. 

Now it’s time to enjoy! 

Amber Wells 

Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬