My grandma learned how to make these during HomeEc in the 60’s, so you know they’re good.
Traditional Roll Dough
This dough recipe is enough for two pans worth of cinnamon rolls.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup warm water (105º to 115º F)
- 2 ¼ teaspoon (1 pack) active dry baker’s yeast
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¾ cup lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup shortening, butter, or margarine, softened
- 3 ¾ to 4 cups all purpose flour (if using self rising flour, omit salt)
Activate Yeast
Dissolve yeast in warm water; wait 5-10 minutes.
Sprinkle the sugar in warm water yeast mixture.
If bubbles appear, the yeast is good.
Mix it
Stir in milk, salt, egg, shortening and 2 cups of the flour.
Beat until smooth
Work the Dough
Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto lightly floured board
Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
Let it Rise
Place in greased bowl and cover it with a towel.
Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
The dough is ready if impressions remain.
Divide the dough in half.
Pecan Cinnamon Roll Topping
Prep the pans with this pecan topping while waiting for the dough to rise.
(The pecan topping can be skipped to make plain cinnamon roles.)
Note, these ingredients are for a single pan.
Ingredients
- ½ cup pecan halves
- ¼ cup (2 oz) unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ½ cup of brown sugar (packed)
Spread and Drizzle
Spread pecans over bottom of baking pan.
Melt butter or margarine; stir in brown sugar and light corn syrup.
Pour mixture over pecans.
Repeat the above for pan number two.
Plain Roles (No Topping)
Spray the pan down with Pam or another cooking spray and you’re good to go.
Cinnamon Rolls
This step is sufficient for one pan of cinnamon rolls.
Rinse, wash, repeat for the second batch.
Ingredients
- ½ recipe Traditional Roll Dough (see above)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon sugar (1 part cinnamon to 12 parts white sugar)
Roll it Out
Sprinkle flour onto a cutting board to prevent sticking.
Roll dough into a 9×22 inch rectangle.
Spread warm butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Roll up the rectangle, beginning with the wide side.
Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well.
Roll the sealed roll over the board to pick up excess sugar.
Stretch roll to make even.
Slice it Up
Cut roll into 12 slices (~1 inch in length)
Grease the pan if not using the pecan topping
Place slices slightly apart in pan or in greased muffin cups
Let rise until double in size
To help the rolls rise in the pan, place in oven set the oven to 100ºF.
The Second Rise
Let the rolls rise 20 minutes before baking.
Bake 375ºF for 30 minutes
Heat oven to 375ºF
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until browning
Flip it
If making pecan rolls, flip pans over immediately after removing from the oven
This lets the syrup drizzle down.
