Utterly and irresistibly scrumptious, these are holiday rolls for one and only one reason--they're time-consuming to make. The first time I baked these, with 100% white flour and refined white sugar, I'd never have started if I had known how much work it would involve. Once I tasted the results, though... I developed this slightly more healthful – and still incredible– version which takes even more work, but is still worth it.
This recipe uses only unrefined sweeteners (except for 2 T fructose) and 100% whole wheat flour without refined flour or vital wheat gluten. It makes incredibly light rolls and sticky buns and because of the butter, eggs, and milk or soymilk, they will be inhaled!
I grind my flour myself so amounts may vary with store-bought flour. I do not usually partake of butter at all, dairy not being a friend to me, but on special occasions, I use butter in certain recipes that require it for heavenly taste – my Aunt Phyllis's meltaways, Kitty's mandel bread, scotch shortbread, and these cinnamon rolls. If you substitute margarine, I'm sure they are very good – with butter, they are awesome! And think of it this way – these rolls are so rich it is not necessary to spread them with butter, so...
Take out of the fridge and put in a small bowl:
2 large free-roaming, wandering all-over-the-farm eggs
to bring them to room temperature.
Be sure a
¼ cup (half of a stick) butter (for best flavor, don't substitute margarine)
is refrigerated so it will stay cold.
Scald:
1 1/2 cup milk, soy milk or rice milk
Turn off heat and add:
1/2 cup butter (it is vaguely possible that part vegetable oil, part water might work as a substitute, or to replace part of the butter. These rolls are so much work and so delicious that I didn't want to ruin even one batch by taking a chance – experiment at your own risk and let me know if you succeed!)
1/4 cup honey (or pure maple syrup)
1 tsp salt
Butter will melt in the hot milk. Cool to lukewarm
In a small bowl, sprinkle:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
on
1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
with a little bit of honey or sugar to proof – if it foams up in a few minutes, you're good to go. If it doesn't, the yeast isn't viable, so try a newer package of yeast.
Combine in a large, rinsed-with-warm-water bowl:
the 2 aforementioned room-temperature eggs (if they are not yet room temperature, put in a small bowl of slightly warm – water for a few seconds till they warm up)
2 cups very finely ground hard whole wheat flour (whole wheat bread flour) (coarsely ground won't do, nor will soft wheat a.k.a. "pastry" flour)
lukewarm milk mixture
yeast mixture
Beat with mixer 1 minute at low and 2 minutes at medium, or with a spoon until very smooth.
Slowly and patiently mix in up to 3 cups additional whole wheat flour with spoon or hands until just pulling away from bowl. Use as little flour as possible.
KNEAD
Kneading until the gluten is fully developed is very important for 100% whole wheat dough. Up to 3-4 tablespoons more flour or 1-2 tablespoons more water can be added during the first few minutes only of kneading as needed. Keep in mind the dough should have substance but should also not be stiff or even comfortably workable - yet.
Knead this very sticky dough using dough scraper (they have them at Cooking.com
, by scraping dough with dough cutter (or wide metal spatula) from the board alternately with lightly kneading with the "sticky" hand. It will be sticky for a long time but it will get much less so. Do 600 strokes, about 20-30 minutes depending on your athletic prowess (do not go over 30 athletic minutes, not including rests, or dough – and kneader - might get exhausted), until the gluten is developed, elastic enough to stretch paper-thin without tearing, and dough is whitish with brown specks.
After 15 minutes into the kneading, add to kneading mixture the aforementioned:
¼ cup (half stick, 4 T) cold butter, cut up or grated
and mix this in as you knead the dough the remainder of the time. When the dough is elastic and satiny smooth, it looks "excited" with gluten strands stretching all over the place – there is no mistaking this. Using too much flour and not kneading sufficiently will keep the dough heavy, dry, and low when it bakes.
Times are different with an electric dough-kneader; be careful not to overknead.
FIRST RISE
Fold the dough into a round. Put it into a large ungreased bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Put the bowl in an unheated gas oven with the door propped slightly open (or other warm, draft-free place), and let rise approximately 1 1/2 hours. The dough may take longer to rise because of the eggs. The dough is ready if it doesn't fill in with a wet-finger poke, and overinflated if the dough sighs and sinks in. Overinflated is not a disaster but not desirable either.
Take out
¼ cup (half stick, 4 tablespoons) butter to soften.
2ND RISE
Deflate the dough gently in the bowl (press tenderly, do not punch) and tuck the edges under with rubber spatula, cover again, and let rise about half the time of the first rise.
When ready, the dough won't spring back when poked with a wet finger, and it will not have reached the overinflated stage of sinking deeper. The dough will be smooth and should no longer be very sticky (but will still be OK even if a bit sticky.) The dough will be very pliable and elastic – you could twirl it like pizza dough and it wouldn't break.
Make a mixture of:
1/4 cup softened butter
2 T fructose or sugar
Or make the butter mixture according to what you decide to make – cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, or a combination:
If you are using only half the dough for cinnamon rolls, use only 2 T softened butter mixture for the cinnamon roll part.
If the other half is for sticky buns, use remaining 2 tablespoons softened or melted butter without the fructose for the sticky bun part.
Butter amounts can be flexible – some butter is needed, but use the smaller amount if you wish, and use more if your holiday spirit includes breaking wildly free from constraints! The original recipe this is adapted from called for a full ¼ cup butter per half – I halved this and it wasn't quite as crispy, but it is still sinfully, incredibly rich and delicious.
SHAPING
Gently turn ripe dough onto board (floured if necessary). Deflate the dough, divide it in half, form it into a round, and let rest 10 minutes.
For Cinnamon Rolls:
Roll half the dough into a 20x13" rectangle, pressing out air bubbles.
Spread one tablespoon of softened butter mixture gently onto the rectangle. Fold the dough rectangle in half. Roll again to size, then spread with the remaining tablespoon butter mixture. Fold in half again and roll out to size last time. This procedure gives the rolls the buttery, "flaky" effect.
Sprinkle generously with
cinnamon/sugar mixture (any type of unrefined dry sugar plus cinnamon to taste)
and lightly with
pecan pieces, as many as you would like.
Roll up the dough rectangle tightly to make a 20" long roll, sealing the edges and ends by pinching. Even up the rolls by stretching slightly. Press out any air bubbles. Cut in 1" slices. Place rounds on lightly greased cookie sheet spread apart or crowded together, whichever you prefer. Sprinkle generously on top of the rolls:
cinnamon-sugar mixture
Do the other dough half as above, or:
For decadent sticky buns:
Flatten the dough not too thin with rolling pin, pressing out air bubbles, roll up as for jelly roll, slice thickly (2 inch slices), and fill up a baking dish or two pie plates on a mixture of:
melted or softened butter (2-3 T)
pure maple syrup (2-4 T)
vanilla (1/2 tsp)
pecans (large handful)
Press the rolls firmly into the pecans. Flatten the tops gently as they will become the bottoms.
Alternate version: dribble maple syrup or honey on the tops of the sticky buns before baking and serve them glazed and right-side up ("upside down").
PROOF
Cover the cinnamon rolls and/or sticky buns with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise about half the time of the 2nd rise. When dabbed with a wet finger, the dough should fill in very slowly (don't wait till it doesn't fill in at all). Temperature can be a bit warmer. In the time it takes to prepare the other half of the dough, the first proofing batch might already be ready to bake.
Pre-heat the oven to 375 (or adjust to your oven's temperature – mine works best at 350 and it is a hot oven).
Put cinnamon rolls in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes if spread out on cookie sheet or 15-20 minutes if crowded together.
Sticky buns bake for 30-40 minutes tucked close together in ceramic deep-dish pie plates. Cooking times for sticky buns may need adjustment to get the right browned butter on the button and moist filling inside (that is why they should be larger than cinnamon rolls).
Do not disturb for the first 10 minutes of baking to allow for uninterrupted rising; then you can take a peek if you think they might be done. Turn one of the middle rolls/buns over – if the bottom is nicely brown, they are done. Or, try breaking open a middle roll and taking a bite – a terrible job, but someone's got to do it.
Let the sticky buns stand 5 minutes before removing as butter mixture will run.
These rolls are best if eaten straight out of the oven. If not eaten the same day, put cooled rolls/buns in the freezer wrapped well in foil, freezer bags, or plastic containers and pop into the oven or microwave for 20 seconds for a quick re-heat.
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