The very first time I ate cinnamon roll was when my friend Ufuk baked it years ago, when I was still living in Istanbul. I had heard about it but never got to eat it. And one day Ufuk came to my place with his freshly baked, sticky rolls. If I remember correctly, he was not 100% happy about them, but for me, they were just delicious.

 
Later on, after I came here, I ate the Finnish version of cinnamon rolls named korvapuusti. It was not as sticky as the previous version but was equally delicious.

 

 
This recipe, however, is a very sticky and sweet version. I followed almost word to word the recipe in Joy of Baking. I just made a few changes, such as not using powdered sugar in the glaze or using milk instead of cream for brushing the rolls.

 

 

And this recipe is for my dear Ufuk, whom I miss every single day. The last time I saw him was last August, when I was in Istanbul for about roughly 20 hours. I had tears in my eyes looking after him when he left the cafe we were sitting together in Nisantasi, to go home…

 

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Ingredients:

 

(makes 14 rolls)

 

For dough:
5 cups / 1200 ml flour (divided into 2 equal parts, of 2.5 cups each)
2 tsp / 10 ml dry yeast
1 cup / 240 ml milk (I used whole milk, täysmaito)
1/3 cup / 75 gr. / 80 ml butter
1/3 cup / 80 ml granulated white sugar
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml salt
3 eggs

 

For filling:
3/4 cup / 180 ml brown sugar (dark or light)
1/4 cup / 60 ml flour
1 tbsp / 15 ml ground cinnamon
1/2 cup / 113 gr / 120 ml butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup / 120 ml milk (I used whole milk, täysmaito)

 

For glaze (optional)
1/2 cup / 120 ml milk (I used whole milk, täysmaito)

 

 

 
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1. In a mixing bowl, put 2.5 cups / 600 ml flour and yeast, beat them for half a minute.

 

 

 

 
2. In a medium pan, put milk, sugar, salt and butter. Put the pan on medium heat and stir constantly. Heat the mixture until it becomes a little warm, there may be a few butter pieces not melted but this is ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
3. While continuously beating the flour / yeast mixture, add melted butter mixture (I put the melted mixture into a cup so that it was easier to pour). Continue beating until all the butter mixture is fully incorporated.

 

 

 
4. In a small bowl, crack the 3 eggs. While continuously beating the flour / butter mixture, add eggs, one by one. After adding each egg, beat the mixture until the egg is fully incorporated, and then add the second etc.. In the end you should have a smooth and quite liquid mixture.

 

 

 

 
5. (At this phase I switched to dough hooks but if you don’t have them, you can perfectly continue with whisk attachments, or even with your hands.) Start adding the rest of the flour to the mixture gradually. I put about 1/2 cup / 120 ml flour every time. You can do it however you like. After every time you add flour, beat the mixture and wait for the flour to be fully incorporated. When you have a mixture that is close to a nice dough, stop to continue kneading by hand (if you are not already doing this whole step by hand).

 

 

 
6. Flour your counter / tabletop. Put the dough on the floured surface and start kneading until you have a smooth, elastic, non-sticky dough. Lightly grease / butter a bowl and put your ball of dough inside the bowl, cover it with a stretch film and leave it in a warm place to let it rise. It would take about 1-1.5 hours for the dough to rise properly and to get doubled in size.

 

 

 

 
7. While waiting for the dough to rise, prepare the filling. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon and just mix them with your hand a little.

 

 

 

 

 
8. Add cold butter that was cut into cubes and mash them using a potato masher (or any other tool you have that is fit to mash this). Mash them until you have a completely blended mixture.

 

 

 

 
9. When the dough is ready (aka almost doubled in size), flour your work surface again.

 

 
10. Take the risen dough. Punch it a few times with your hand to get the air out of the dough. Put the dough on the floured surface and roll it roughly into a rectangle, about 1.5-2 mm thick. I cut the sides of the rectangle afterwards to make it a more proper rectangle.

 

 

 

 

 
11. Put the filling onto the rectangle and spread it as equally as possible. Leave 1 cm space from the edges without filling. Take a brush and lightly brush the edges with milk.

 

 

 
12. Roll the dough along the short edge (hence the name, cinnamon roll, jeee!). Cut about 1 cm thick pieces.

 

 

 
13. Butter your oven tray, or a pyrex tray like mine in the photo. Put the cut rolls on the tray and cover them with a stretch film for a second rise, about 30 minutes, in a warm place.

 

 

 
14. Preheat the oven to 190C.

 

15. When the rolls rise for a second time, take out the stretch film and brush their surfaces with milk.

 

 
16. Put the tray in the oven, in middle rack and bake the rolls for about 30 minutes. The surfaces should be lightly browned and a toothpick inserted inside the buns should come out clean.

 

17. When the rolls are baked, take them out of the oven, brush them one more time with milk. Leave them to cool and then take out of the tray. Serve with some coffee – I am a tea person but with these rolls, the best thing is a soft and smooth coffee…

 

Ahh, I can smell them in my heart, as I am writing these sentences right now!!! I should bake this again soon!