Homemade Cinnamon Rolls (health-ier version)

I’ve made those cinnamon rolls twice before I got my bread maker. Each time they came out looking and tasting pretty good, but I wasn’t thrilled with the effect in general. Neither my husband. We ate them with cream cheese frosting which actually made them more enjoyable.

Last Saturday I decided to give them one more chance and I was craving cinnamon rolls.

I got up MUCH too early and I though it’s a perfect time to make those as the process takes about 2 hours. This time I used help of my dear friend, the bread maker 🙂 and that was the best decision I could ever made. Those “nothing special” cinnamon rolls came out as THE BEST CINNAMON ROLLS I have ever had !!!

Fluffy, soft inside and with a crunch on the outside. Those previous two times I made them they weren’t half that big and fluffy. I guess I am not as good in hand kneading as I though I was. In addition in my entire apartment there is no place warm enough for the dough to raise. A few times working with yeast dough I tried to leave the dough in warm oven but that didn’t work for me at all.

Look at those beauties. They were so good that I didn’t have to make any frosting just a little bit of butter spread over hot rolls and that was it.

This recipe is adapted from Chef in Training. I changed a few things to make them more healthy. 

Ingredients for the dough: 

2 cups milk

1/2 cup olive oil

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup bread flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 Tbsp. salt

1 packet (2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast

1/3 cup flax seed meal

1/4 cup chia seeds

Ingredients for the filling:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, divided in half

10 Tbsp. brown sugar (more or less), divided in half

4 Tbsp. cinnamon (divided in half)

Directions:

For hand kneading directions go to Chef in Training ‘s Cinnamon rolls post. 

I used bread maker. 

Mixed milk and brown sugar in a sauce pan and heat it up just until the sugar is dissolved and milk is slightly warm. Transfer to bread maker. Add olive oil, salt, all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Sprinkle yeast on top. Set the bread maker on “dough”. During the second kneading open the bread maker and add 1/2 cup bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, chia seeds and flax seeds meal.

After it’s done (in my bread maker it takes 1h 10 min), divide the dough in half. I never use rolling pin to roll the dough out. I use my hands to stretch it in into about 11 inch x 9 inch rectangle shape. 

Don’t be greedy and spread a generous amount of softened butter (in my case it’s about 2 Tbsp, sometimes a bit less sometimes more – it depends on how big the rectangle is) over the surface of rolled out dough. Rub half of the brown sugar over the dough. You might start with 4 Tbsp. and if you decide it’s not enough add more until the surface is covered. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. of cinnamon. Feel free to add more.

Starting from the longest side fold the dough towards you.

Cut rolls into 1 1/2 inch (2 inch is fine too) pieces.

Put them into greased pie pan or on a baking sheets. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Repeat with second half of the dough.

Bake in 375 for 18 minutes for pie pans or 12-15 minutes for baking sheets. 

This time I used both: pie pan and baking sheets to compare which is better. 

I used two 9 inch pie pans. In the first one I put 8 rolls in the second 7.

7 seems to be a perfect amount as you can see on the picture above.

Rolls on baking sheets were 1,5 inch apart.

… and while in the oven they leaked out the filling:

Rolls baked in pie pans where clean and nothing leaked out. They came out bigger and fluffiest, too. 

They were so delicious and with the perfect amount of sweetness that we didn’t need any frosting at all. I spread a little bit of butter while still hot to make them more moist and not so dry on top. 

I still highly recommend the cheese cream frosting from the original recipe. It’s so good that every time I make it I eat half just by itself.

This Little Lady ate 4 of those huge rolls on the first day and she kept asking (in her own language) for more.

“too much tv” face

I had to hide them as I was afraid she’s gonna get sugar rush. That’s there is the best indicator that the rolls were really good. Before, she wasn’t really a big fan of those. She would eat a half of one small roll and she was done, she didn’t want more even on the second day.

Now I know that the secret for a perfect rolls is in the bread maker 🙂

oh… and if I just had a coffee… those would be just perfect, but for now milk will do the job – it has to 🙂

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15 thoughts on “Homemade Cinnamon Rolls (health-ier version)

    1. Polish Mom Photographer Post author

      Nadine, I think that the bread maker is actually not necessary to make those. I works for me better than hand kneading, though. My mom would always use hands and her baked good were always big and fluffy. But from what I remember we had one great spot near the central heating in the kitchen that would make the dough raise SO BIG!! I do not have anything like that here.

      Reply
  1. claire

    my daughter has just discovered cinnamon rolls – her dad’s naughty treat, usually!! and as she’s the baker of the family, i’ll show her the recipe, so thanks for that!!
    i’m so glad they turned out so well 🙂
    thanks for coffee x

    Reply
    1. Polish Mom Photographer Post author

      I hope you all will like it! Those are really delicious.I’m quite new to cinnamon rolls myself, but these days I really love them, especially homemade with some healthy additions. They couldn’t be any better!

      Reply

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