For as long as I can remember, my family has always had cinnamon rolls for our Christmas Day breakfast. They’re simple to make (even from scratch), but until now I never really put the effort into making them on my own. These rolls are full of cinnamon and doughy goodness, and the cream cheese frosting is perfect! Maybe not the healthiest breakfast idea, but during quarantine is there any better way to treat yourself?
Brioche Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
Equipment
- stand mixer with dough hook
Ingredients
Brioche Dough
- 3/4 cup luke warm whole milk (~100°F) 175g
- 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 10g
- 3 3/4 cup bread flour 570g
- 1/2 tsp salt 3g
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar 55g
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp 168g
- 4 large eggs, room temp
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp 56g
- 1 cup light brown sugar 200g
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon 34g
Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar 140g
- 3 oz cream cheese 85g
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted 42g
- 2 tbsp whole milk, plus more if needed 30 ml
Instructions
Make the dough
- Bloom the yeast by adding it to the warm milk, along with a pinch of the 1/4 cup sugar to be used in the dough. Briefly stir to mix and let sit for 10 min. It should get foamy and active.
- Add bread flour to bowl of a stand mixer. Add the rest of the 1/4 cup sugar, salt, and whisk thoroughly. Set the stand mixer with a dough hook on medium low speed and gently stream in the milk and yeast mixture. Once mostly combined add the eggs, one egg at a time with 10-15 seconds between each to allow them to mix into the dough. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides as necessary.
- Add butter, one spoonful at at time, until it has all been added and the dough is (mostly) homogeneous. At this point the dough hook might be having trouble with the buttery dough, and not mixing it quite well. Just keep with it, helping it along with a rubber spatula as necessary. Once all the butter has been added, Turn the mixer up to medium speed for 6-10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and easily coming off the side of the bowl. I found that once I turned the speed up the hook was better able to grab the dough and really start mixing it together.
- Remove the dough from the bowl with your hands and gently form it into a rough ball with the seam facing down, and place into a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temp for 15 minutes.
- Once the 15 minutes are up, remove the plastic wrap and working your way around the dough, gently grab one side of the dough, stretch it up and over to the other side. Do this all the way around until the dough has formed a rough ball and starts becoming resistant to your folds. This is commonly called a "stretch and fold" and helps develop gluten in the dough.
- Recover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest another 45 minutes before doing another set of stretch and folds. Then place the dough in the fridge for an overnight proof.
- The next morning, make the cinnamon sugar filling by adding the brown sugar and cinnamon to a bowl and whisking until completely combined (note: this will make more than you need! It's always good to have extra cinnamon sugar).
- Lightly flour your work surface before gently releasing the dough from the bowl. Make sure it's just out of the fridge, it's a lot easier to work with when it's chilled. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough out into a rough rectangle, 1/2-1/4 inch thick, depending on how thick you want the layers of your rolls to be. If the dough starts to stick anywhere, lightly flour that spot and continue rolling.
- Spread the 4 tbsp room temp unsalted butter all over the dough, leaving ~1/2 inch border from the edge. Then add your cinnamon sugar mix on top. You should be using roughly 1/3 of the total mix you made. It will seem like a lot, but keep going! Completely cover the dough up to that same boarder you made with the butter. Once covered, gently and moderately tightly roll up the dough from one end to form a long log.
- Cut off the ends with a serrated knife, and then cut 9 1 1/2-2 inch thick rolls out of the dough. You may have some dough leftover, and that's ok, but make sure you check you can get 9 of the size you've selected before you start cutting. Place the rolls into a 9×9 pan (it's ok if they're touching) and cover with plastic wrap. Place the pan in a cold oven with the light turned on to rise for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven (without the rolls in there) to 350°F. Once preheated, bake the rolls for 15 minutes, rotate the pan 180° in the oven, and then bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top. While the rolls are baking, make the cream cheese icing (see below for instructions).
- Allow the rolls to cool for 10 minutes before topping them with the icing.
- Enjoy!
make the cream cheese icing
- Add powdered sugar to a large bowl and add the melted butter. Whisk until roughly combined, and then add the cream cheese and milk. Whisk until completely smooth. Adjust the thickness by adding a little milk or cream cheese as necessary. Be careful, if you're trying to thin it out use just a little milk at a time, a little goes a long way!
