Shaker Gourmet: Cinnamon Rolls

An old family recipe to start the new year! This recipe comes from Shaker Ledasmom who says:

"I don't know who my great-grandmother had it from. These are not huge poofy cinnamon rolls, but little ones a couple of inches across. Traditionally, meaning this is the way I do it, they are eaten by unrolling them a bit at a time and spreading butter on the unrolled part until you get to the center, which is not easily unwound. It is an all-day recipe, or two-day recipe, but most of that is in the rising; the recipe can be fit in around whatever else you may have to do. Here is the recipe as my mother sent it, with my additions in parentheses."

Cinnamon Rolls
A) 2 cups milk
2 packages dry yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
4-5 cups flour for a soft dough/thick batter

Let this rise to double - first rise

B) Cream 1/2 cup butter with 1 1/4 cup sugar. Add to dough from (A) with 1 egg and 1 teaspoon salt.

Let rise - second rise

C) Add flour to make like a bread dough but not as stiff (dough should be quite pliable and workable; you are going to be rolling it out). Knead. Punch down once and let rise - third and fourth rises

D) Roll out thin (in batches, not all at once, unless you are very good with a rolling pin and have nothing on your table--I would say the piece of dough, after rolling out but before rolling up, is about 14 inches by, say, 16, giving the properly small rolls after they are cut) and cover liberally with melted butter; sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and let rise - fifth rise

E)You slice the rolled-up log of dough into pieces about one inch long, which are placed in your buttered pan on end, so they look like sugar-cinnamon pinwheels. They are placed so they are touching, but with little gaps between - when risen, the gaps fill in. We use glass pans a couple of inches deep, cake pans, etc. Let rise.

F)(when risen and puffy) Cover with butter and 1 teaspoon flour, sugar and cinnamon (Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with a bit of flour and a reasonable amount of sugar and cinnamon. This produced the characteristic deep-brown tops num num num). Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Ledasmom adds: "Freezes well (It does. Right in the pan after cooling, with a good tight cover of foil; then you can pop 'em right in the oven to reheat). Can use brown sugar either inside or out. I can't guarantee that these are as delicious to everyone as they are to me, but they are well worth trying. The tops, bottoms and any sides that were against the sides of the pan get wonderfully brown and tasty."

If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com