Best Cinnamon Rolls with Not Quite Nigella

My love for cinnamon rolls is quite fresh. I’d say we’re still in the honeymoon phase. My eyes light up when I see them and I get butterflies in my stomach when I think about them. I first fell in love with them in Canada, earlier this year. I can’t believe we didn’t meet earlier. I spotted a huge sign near a café where we were living that read ‘Fresh Gooey Cinnamon Rolls’. It was winter and I was intrigued. Would it be a bad gooey or a good gooey? It took me another few weeks to introduce myself to them. But when we met, it was love at first taste. The rolls were soft and the gooey, sugary cinnamon sauce that was swirled between the bread was made for the sweet cream cheese icing that coated them. It was a good gooey! If you haven’t tried a cinnamon roll then you need to change that ASAP. I made a batch of 16 a few days ago and there are only three left…. Whoops! But they were smaller than usual and Mr Eat Canberra helped me so that’s totally ok, right?

I have a feeling that my love for cinnamon rolls is never going to end. I ate many cinnamon rolls in Canada this year, and then I had my first Cinnabon experience in America. It didn’t disappoint and I can still smell of fresh bread merged with cinnamon that wafted through Houston airport.

I’ve wanted to make them ever since my first encounter but I’ve been a little afraid because I knew they wouldn’t last long and let’s be honest, it’s the butter and sugar that make the experience of eating a cinnamon roll so indulgent.

Cooking and baking is something that I love to do but I don’t often have the time to spend hours in the kitchen. I cook often but it’s usually quick, tasty meals. I had a free day on the weekend and when I have free days, I love to spend them cooking things that require more time. I recently saw the recipe for cinnamon buns with a browned butter glaze by the lovely Lorraine Elliott of Not Quite Nigella and I knew that it was time to make them.

I’m a fan of Lorraine and I have been for a while. The lady has some incredible cooking skills and she’s also really entertaining. Plus she turned her side hustle into her full time gig and has been running Not Quite Nigella for 10 and a half years. She’s also well known as one of Australia’s best food bloggers.

I’ve had a few conversations with Lorraine on Instagram since last year. So I recently reached out to her to see if I could share her recipe and to ask her if she would be happy to answer a few questions for a mini interview, she happily agreed.

Here’s the recipe for Not Quite Nigella’s cinnamon buns with a browned butter glaze.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Makes 12 buns to fit in 2x20cm/8inch round tins

Cooking time: 15-18mins

Ingredients

• 3.5 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 60g/2ozs. butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 glace cherries

Filling:

• 125g/4ozs. butter, melted
• 3/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
• 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Glaze

• 80g/3ozs. butter
• 125g/4ozs. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1.5 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Now what?

1. Make the tangzhong first. Take 1/6 cup of the total flour and place in a saucepan with 1/2 cup of water. Whisk until smooth and then heat it up until it reaches 65ºC/149ºF. Remove from heat, whisk in the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla and butter and cool to 45ºC/113ºF.

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook stir the rest of the flour and yeast. Add in the tangzhong and the milk mixture. Knead with the dough hook until you can gently pull the dough apart without it breaking-this is called the window pane effect. Roll into a ball and allow to double in size in a warm area – around 45 minutes to 1 hour. Knead in the salt. In a small bowl mix the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon together to make the filling.

3. Grease two 20cm/8inch round tins on the base and sides. Flour a large surface and roll out into a large rectangle, around 60x40cms (24x16inches) in size. Brush the filling all over the dough right to the edges. Cut the dough into 14 long 1 inch strips lengthwise and roll them up from each end meeting in the middle and pinch them at the bottom to make a heart. Place six buns per tin reserving the rolled up end piece to put in the centre. Place a glace cherry in the hollow. Allow to rise for 20 minutes and preheat oven to 190C/374F. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

4. In a saucepan add the butter and turn it to medium high heat allowing the butter to bubble and become golden brown. Once it smells nutty take it off the heat. Whisk this with the cream cheese and then add the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until you make a spreadable glaze. Spread on top of the warm buns and serve.

This recipe is an original recipe by Lorraine Elliott and was originally published on Not Quite Nigella.

A few things I did differently:

• I used a rectangle tin and a round tin
• I rolled most of mine up in the normal scrolls shape
• I made my strips a little thinner which resulted in smaller cinnamon rolls but more of them
• I greased the trays with butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar (it needed more sugar and butter, right?)
• I’m not a fan of glazed cherries so I didn’t use them
• I didn’t have a thermometer (it’s packed away in my garage in my home that’s currently being rented) so I just guessed the temperatures for the first step and warmed the mixture, making sure it didn’t get too hot and it turned out fine.
• I used an electric hand mixer with dough hooks

This recipe is fantastic and will give you the most delicious cinnamon rolls! Be warned, you might fall in love with them like I did…

Want to find out more about Lorraine? Here’s the interview.

Photos by Amelia Bidgood.