Hot and Gooey Cinnamon Rolls From Your Kitchen
I’ve yet to find a store bought cinnamon roll that can measure up to a well-made, home baked roll, with the wonderful smell of cinnamon wafting through the kitchen. However, the problem for me and I suspect many other bakers, is that baking cinnamon rolls typically requires using yeast. In my years of baking, I have shied away from recipes that required yeast, due to some early failures. In the past, I would try baking rolls or biscuits with yeast and they would never rise properly and I would end up with flat, hard disks, instead of the light, fluffy biscuits or rolls that I envisioned! Fortunately, my husband loves to bake bread and he has helped me overcome my “yeast phobia”. Slowly, I have expanded my baking repertoire to include recipes that have yeast as an ingredient.
In my experience, there are two keys to using yeast successfully in a recipe:
- Make sure that the yeast is fresh and not anywhere near its expiration date
- Ensure that you have the proper temperature when you are “proofing” the yeast. Too cold and the yeast won’t activate and conversely if the water temperature is too hot, it will destroy the yeast cultures and the rolls or biscuits will not rise properly.
I have experimented with quite a few cinnamon roll recipes and have found this Cinnamon Roll recipe by far the best. The cinnamon rolls are large, gooey, delicious and capped off with my favorite, cream cheese frosting! They are best served warm, but you can reheat them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and they are still yummy.
