Mini Chocolate-Cinnamon Rolls

I'm so excited with a week break I have from work.  Yes, it is a Thanksgiving break for me and what do I have in mind?  My plan is to bake and cook!  I'm trying to squeeze in as many baking activities in a week, plus some cooking for Thanksgiving day for my family.

So far, I've managed to make these mini chocolate-cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  They're bite-sized morsels that I don't think it is a sin that they are categorized as desserts.  I slather these buns very well with butter and cinnamon-sugar.  Then chocolate chips were added liberally all over.  Then I rolled them as tight as I can, not an easy feat because the dough is pretty thin, but it can be done!  When it's still warm, the melted chocolate is a delicious addition to these buns.

When they're this small, my family can eat about 5 at once for breakfast.  I'm surprised that I only ate 3 but then I ate another 2 for desserts :D

The week will get busy so I better share this today!

Mini Chocolate-Cinnamon Rolls

Makes about 40 small buns


Dough:
1 cup water
1/4 cup dry milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups bread flour
3/4 teaspoon bread machine or instant yeast

Filling:
1 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened; divided
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided

Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons milk, more if needed to make a flowing consistency


I used bread machine to make my dough so place the ingredients for the dough into the bread pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Select Dough Cycle.

For the filling:  combine ground cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl.

Once the cycle is done, remove dough to a lightly floured board; cover with a large bowl and let rest 10 to 15 minutes.

Divide the dough in half.  Roll out each half to a 20-by 7-inch rectangle.  Spread one rectangle with 3 tablespoons soft butter to within 1/2 inch of the edges.  Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture then scatter half of the chocolate chips over the dough. 

Beginning at the long side, roll jellyroll-style.  Pinch to seal seam.  Cut into 20 1-inch pieces.  Place these, cut side up,  on a large baking sheet lined with parchment or sprayed with cooking spray.  Repeat procedure with remaining dough.  Cover and let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for 30 to 40 minutes, or until doubled in volume.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degree F.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until buns start to brown around the sides.  Allow to stand for a few minutes while preparing the glaze.

For the glaze:  combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl and whisk until well-combined.

Drizzle the glaze onto the buns while they are still warm.


Source:  adapted from 300 Best Bread Machine Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt

Pineapple Upside-Down Cinnamon Rolls

I've always wanted to try something different with familiar recipe, eating the same old sounds boring to me.  Well, I found it in this cinnamon rolls recipe; instead of normal cinnamon rolls, I treated my family to the pineapple upside-down cinnamon rolls.  And you know what, it's actually delicious!

The basic sweet dough recipe is already fantastic, it's a very soft dough that's easy to handle.  It can be made using a mixer or bread machine--which is my go-to machine to make bread dough.  Bread flour is my preferred flour to make sweet dough even though the original one uses all-purpose.  The quantity of pineapples was changed slightly to 2 cups instead of 1 1/2 cups.  I do like it that way so there's an equal amount of pineapple to the rolls, otherwise I would have eaten only rolls and no more pineapples.  

And because I wanted to bake it in the morning for breakfast, I proofed the two pans in my fridge overnight.  The morning of, take those pans out and set in the oven with a pan of boiling water placed on the rack underneath the pans.  Let it proof for 30 minutes and then bake.  

If you have cream cheese frosting, this is also good with it!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 18 small rolls

Pan Sauce:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 cups canned pineapple chunks (juice reserved)
1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
9 maraschino cherries, cut in half

Dough:
Flour for dusting
1 recipe Cinnamon Roll Dough--recipe follows

Cinnamon Filling:
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the pan sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir in the brown sugar until it melts.  Stir in the pineapple chunks and juice and cook until the sauce starts to bubble and thicken, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the salt, remove from heat, and divide the sauce between two 9-inch square pans.  Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.  Arrange half the cherries, cut side up, in the bottom of each prepared pan.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and cut in half.  Roll each half out to an 8 by 12-inch rectangle.

For the filling, combine the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.  Set aside.  Spread each half rectangle of dough with half the melted butter and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar.  Roll up the dough, starting with a short end, to form a tight 9-inch cylinder.  Cut each cylinder into 9 slice. Place each slice, spiral side up, in a prepared pan.  Cover with tea towels and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until the rolls have risen and browned. Transfer to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving platters.

Cinnamon Roll Dough

Makes 6 jumbo, 12 large, 16 to 20 medium, or 48 mini rolls

1 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature 
3 1/3 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading and dusting
2 1/2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast

In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the milk, butter, sugar, and salt.  Microwave on High for 1 minute or until warm.  Whisk in the eggs.

Place the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add the liquid ingredients.  Mix on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time, until the dough forms a soft mass and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook.  With the mixer on low, knead the dough with the dough hook.  Sprinkle the dough with a tablespoon of flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the sides of the bowl.  When the dough is smooth, not sticky, and springs back when you press it with your finger, you've kneaded enough (4 to 6 minutes).  Place the dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has almost doubled.

For bread machine dough:  Place the liquid ingredients in the pan of the bread machine after first step.  Add the flour, then the yeast.  Select Dough cycle, and press Start.



Source:  adapted heavily from I Love Cinnamon Rolls by Judith Fertig

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

One day I went to my parents' home and they were baking something in the oven.  I smelled some smokiness coming out of it and decided to wait until it was done.  It turned out to be just several sweet potatoes that they were baking.  "Here, have a piece, " offered my dad.  I was not very hungry by then but the smell of just baked sweet potato roused my appetite.  I peeled off the skin and sinked my teeth into its soft and hot flesh.  That was when I realized I was hooked.  This leads me to eating baked sweet potato for snack from now on.

Ever since my dad shared his baked sweet potato, I'm reintroducing myself to the appreciation of eating plain, baked in-skin sweet potato.  Hot from the oven, nothing equals to its natural sweetness; this is one root vegetable that has now become my favorite.  And not to mention it is a very healthy vegetable, dubbed as number one nutritional star of vegetable, loaded carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.

But, even though I love it plain, I love it even more in cinnamon rolls.  Since I bake it quite often, I have some leftover that was ready to be made in cinnamon rolls.  My son have been begging me to make cinnamon rolls for ages, it was finally a dream came true.  Now, which recipe would I try?  I had been eyeing Yukon Gold cinnamon rolls from Bon Appetit a while back and thought that would be a great base recipe to make it to sweet potato cinnamon rolls.  I had to tweak the recipe since I wouldn't start with boiling the potatoes in the water.  What I had was approximately the same amount of baked sweet potato for the recipe and went to the next step.  The rest of the instruction will be in the recipe below.

What I got from it was one of the best cinnamon rolls ever.  The texture of the dough was soft and melt-in-your mouth without overly sweet.  What I also like when making this was that I could let the dough rise for the second time in the refrigerator till the next day.  Come morning, it's time to pop the rolls in the oven.  Breakfast is ready when the rolls come out of the oven, hot and smelling amazing, and slathered with sweet icing.

So choose your sweet potato, plain or iced? ;)


Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 12

About 1 pound sweet potatoes

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For the dough:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 large eggs

4 1/2 cups (or more) bread flour

1/2 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)

3 1/4-ounce envelopes active dry yeast (scant 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons sugar

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For the filling:

1 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature

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For the glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons (or more) whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

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Preheat oven to 400F.  Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes and place in on the middle rack.  Bake for about 1 hour or so, or until the they are soft when pierced with a knife.  After it's done baking, let cool for a while until they can be peeled.  Cut into 2-inch cubes and add butter and mash until butter is melted.  Whisk in eggs, then 1 cup flour; mash until very smooth.  Let sweet potatoes stand until barely lukewarm.

Make the dough:

Pour 1/2 cup warm water into large bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment; stir in yeast and sugar.  Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.  Add sweet potato mixture into the yeast mixture; mix on low speed until well blended, 2 minutes.  Mix in 3 cups bread flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well.  Since the sweet potatoes are not cooked in water, you might want to add some water if the dough looks too dry.  My experience when making this was that sweet potatoes are much moister and didn't need any more water.  Beat until sticky dough forms.

Spread 1/2 cup flour on work surface.  Scrape dough out onto floured work surface.  Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is very sticky, about 8 minutes.

Coat large bowl with butter.  Transfer dough to bowl and turn to coat.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel.  Let dough rise in warm, draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Make the filling:

Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in medium bowl. Using fork, mix in butter.

Bake the rolls:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425°F (do not preheat oven if you plan to rise it in the refrigerator). Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Turn dough out onto well-floured work surface. Roll out dough to 24x16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough. Starting at 1 long side, roll up dough jelly-roll style, enclosing filling. Using large knife dipped in flour, cut roll crosswise into 12 pieces. Transfer rolls to baking sheet, spacing rolls about 3/4 inch apart. Cover baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes (rolls will be very puffy).  Or you could let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Bake cinnamon rolls until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool rolls 10 minutes on baking sheet.  If the rolls are refrigerated, get it out 30 minutes before baking.  Preheat the oven to 425°F, and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Make the glaze:

Whisk powdered sugar, melted butter, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla, and coarse salt in small bowl. If glaze is too thick to spread, add more milk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls as needed. Spread glaze over warm rolls.

Source:  adapted from Bon Appetit, March 2009.