International Cinnamon Rolls

Wow, people are actually finding my blog somehow, AND looking at it! Internationally! Thanks, guys! I hope you're all finding enjoyable food. Feel free to comment, or give me feedback if you try any of my recipes...it would be awesome to hear how it went for somebody else!

I'm officially on summer break, and to celebrate, I had an early-morning baking marathon.
To start, I made cinnamon rolls! They're delicious, and I'd like to think they're a good deal healthier than store bought ones. And you can make them yourself. I think I might be getting addicted to that "I made this myself" feeling...there's just so much freedom in realizing that you can just MAKE anything that you need or want, with the right ingredients, and you can make it however you want and do your own quality control... and then you pull out of the oven this wonderful and warm piece of art into which you put all of your attention and loving care, and it's yours.
Okay, enough of the dreamy cooking ramble- here's the recipe:

Cinnamon rolls: Makes 14 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 cups bread (or all-purpose) flour

2 cups wheat flour

Combine the yeast, warm water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for about 15 minutes or until creamy on top. Then add all the other ingredients (starting with the wet ones, and then the dry) and stir with a big spoon until all combined. Then scoop it onto a floured surface and kneed for 5 to 10 minutes. Grease the bowl a little (oil or butter, etc) then return the dough to the bowl and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size. 

Then punch it down and roll out into a rectangle about 15 inches long and 8-9 inches wide. Paint the top with melted butter, and cover in sugar and cinnamon. Then starting from one of the longer sides, roll it up! This should leave you with a 15 inch log, which you then cut into about 14 pieces. If you want thicker rolls, you might want to go for 12 or even 10. 

Once you cut them, grease a cookie sheet with a thick coat of butter (heavy butter+pastry dish= best) and -this is optional!- some honey drizzled (or sugar sprinkled) all over. The thinking is that this will not only keep them from sticking to the cookie sheet, but the sugar (or honey) will soak into it from the bottom and give you that characteristic gooey-ness that we all love about cinnamon rolls...

Place the rolls cut side up however they'll fit on the cookie sheet, then set aside for as long as you can wait- ideally until the rolls have doubled in size. Then bake them for about 30-40 minutes, until they've puffed up and start to get golden on top. 

While they're in the oven, melt some more butter (about 1/4 cup) and combine with 1 tsp vanilla extract, and powdered sugar, honey, or brown sugar, or whatever you've been using for the rest of the recipe until think enough that it forms a glaze. When the rolls come out of the oven, spoon the glaze over each of them and let cool. Then eat them! 

They freeze very well, too, just so you know.