If the very mention of cakes, biscuits, and pastries gets you salivating, you are highly likely to spend most of your time at the local bakeries. To relish the baked goodies, you also want a great ambiance, so you head to the cafes as bakery products are served with coffee or tea in a fancier way. Well that is the picture that comes to your mind of a modern swanky outlet selling exotic fancy baked items. Everybody is out at the displayed counter calling for macaroons, cheesecakes, eclairs and all which is a rage today.

If you were to stroll down the lanes of any old city, you would chance upon several old unusually attractive bakeries who still whip up the delicacies which might be minimalistic in appearance but the alluring fragrance definitely pulls you towards them. Those are the memories that I have of the small old bakeries of Ahmedabad. The bakery biscuits, Khari biscuits, rusks and buns from these bakeries were the ones commonly served during tea time at home during my childhood. Of all these from the bakery, the Danish roll topped the list of my favorites. Yes, the local bakers would call it “Danish roll”, the same modern-day Cinnamon roll. The only difference was it didn’t have cinnamon but had black raisins. The black raisins quantity in the rolls over the time slowly reduced to just one or two raisins in a roll, sometimes none…. yes, its true if you find it hard to believe. Very soon it was replaced with tutti frutti, but my love for the rolls remained.

The sweet rolls were presumed to be originated from Sweden or the Northern Europe. The sweet roll is a yeast leavened sheet of dough onto which sugar and raisins or cinnamon are sprinkled over a coat of spreadable butter, which is further rolled into a scroll, cut into individual portions and baked. These individual portions are further glazed or iced before serving.

Homemade Sweet rolls are one of the best breakfast or brunch, or tea time snack around. This version of rolls is light, soft, lightly packed with sugar and raisins baked to a beautiful golden brown and finally drizzled with a sweet sugar glaze. I have tried to recreate the same version of the rolls that I used to have during my childhood days. So, I would not recommend to make any changes to the recipe, that is, leaving something out or take shortcut by substituting one ingredient to another.

There are many recipes for cinnamon rolls but this recipe I am sharing is critically accurate and I have tried to communicate effectively and efficiently. So, I would suggest to follow this recipe verbatim.

Ingredients: –

For the dough

1. Plain Flour – 2 and ¾ cups
2. Granulated sugar- 3 tablespoons
3. Instant or dried yeast -2 teaspoons
4. Milk-½ cup
5. Water- ¼ cup
6. Butter (salted) – 3 tablespoons.
7. Egg-1 no.

For the filling

1. Butter Salted ¼ cup – (50 gms approx.)
2. Raisins (black or regular dried)- ¼ cup
3. Granulated sugar – 4- 5 tablespoons. (approx.)

For the Glaze

1. Icing sugar- 1 cup.
2. Vanilla powder-1 teaspoon
3. Water/milk-2-3 Tablespoons.

Method:-

• Dough-Take flour in a large mixing bowl. Take yeast in another small bowl with water and mix, keep it aside covered for 7 minutes and allow to froth.
• Heat milk, sugar and butter until the sugar dissolves and butter melts. Allow this mixture to cool.
• Break an egg to the butter mixture and mix well.
• Pour this mix along with the yeast mix to the flour. Knead with your hand for three to four minutes till the dough is well combined and soft.
• Place the prepared dough in a lightly greased bowl and set aside to rest.
• Take the rested dough and flatten onto a lightly floured surface. Make a cross or a plus indent with the rolling pin. Roll out from the edges of the indented dough to a square shape.
• Roll out further to spread n stretch to a square or rectangular pattern.
• Filling-Spread the softened butter onto the dough and sprinkle the sugar and raisins.
• Roll up the dough tightly into a scroll.
• Cut it into even pieces and place into a greased pan or a tin.
• Cover this pan with a cling wrap or a tight lid and set it aside in a warm place to rise.
• Allow it to rise for half an hour or forty-five minutes. Turn on the oven to preheat to 375*F.
• Remove the lid or cling wrap and transfer the pan with the risen rolls into the oven. Bake till dark golden brown for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Remove the rolls from the oven and prepare the glaze.
• Glaze-Mix powdered or icing sugar with vanilla powder and mix in the water until smooth. Combine well and drizzle this glaze over the warm rolls. Allow the icing to seep through the ridges and allow to set at least for 15 minutes before serving.

Read on before you start baking

The consistency of the dough should be very soft but not sticky, similar to that of Indian Parathas.

After the dough is kneaded it needs to be rested for minimum of 5 minutes and not more than 10 minutes before rolling out into a sheet.

The recipe serves 9. Always use a deep baking pan to make the rolls.

You can use cinnamon and brown sugar for filling. The rolls can also be iced using cream cheese frosting. The addition of an egg is very crucial as it gives the texture to the rolls so please do not skip it.

If you live in colder places or plan to make it during winters, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and turn off after 10 minutes. Head on to prepare the dough and place the rolls in the oven to rise. This will also speed up the rising process to not more than 20 minutes.

You can also use vanilla extract or essence to the glaze in place of vanilla powder. I used the vanilla powder as it gave a nice vanilla zing to the rolls.

Are you feeling inspired now? I am sure, you are. Now you can get to baking!   Don’t forget to buzz me with your feedback taking a minute off your busy cooking schedule. Join the FACEBOOK page to get more updates on recipes, ingredients and simple cooking tips. If you find this small space interesting, invite your friends to join the page too.

Happy Baking and be healthy.