Sourdough
Cinnamon Rolls

10.7.2024, recipes

    This recipe is not difficult to follow, but you do need active, mature sourdough starter and a lot of patience (you won’t be eating these the day you start making them). The rolls are unexpectedly tangy and not too sweet. So, perfect.

For the dough:
160g whole milk
110g salted butter
100g active sourdough starter
1 large egg at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
25g white sugar
300g bread flour
60g whole wheat flour

For the filling:
100g softened salted butter
50g white sugar
100g brown sugar (adjust to taste)
10g flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (adjust to taste)

For the frosting:
80g softened salted butter
60g powdered sugar (adjust to taste)
100g cream cheese at room temperature or slightly warm
1 tsp vanilla extract

At around 4pm the first day you will begin making the dough. Melt the salted butter with the milk in a saucepan. Add the vanilla. I like browning the butter but you can skip this. In a separate bowl, mix the active starter, egg and sugar in a bowl. Once the butter and milk has cooled down, add it to your starter bowl and mix. Then add the flour and mix until it becomes a shaggy ball of dough. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, you will begin a series of stretch-and-folds for 2 hours. If you don’t know what this means email me back or Google it. You’re essentially stretching one side of the dough and folding it over across the ball of dough to build tension. You will do this every 30 minutes until about 7pm. Then you will cover the dough and let it rest undisturbed overnight or until it is doubled in size.

The next morning will feel like Christmas morning. Now you will prepare the filling for the dough. Bring the butter to room temperature or soften it in the microwave. Add the sugars, cinnamon and vanilla and mix to form a paste. It should be spreadable. Punch down your dough and turn it onto a clean and lightly floured surface. Roll and stretch it out into a large rectangle. Spread the filling mix evenly over the rectangle of dough. I use a spatula to make sure everything is smooth. Then you will roll the dough tightly up into a long long. I forgot to take pictures of this part of the process but lmk if you have questions.

Once you have your tightly rolled log, you will slice each cinnamon roll using a knife or you can use the dental floss method which I prefer. Look up “cinnamon roll dental floss” to see how to do it.

Place each individual roll in a cake pan lined with parchment paper, cover the pan with a damp towel and let the rolls rise and puff up for at least two hours. If you won’t be ready to bake them in two hours, leave them in the fridge and remove them an hour before you are ready to bake for them to puff up again. They will look like this:


Preheat your oven to 350F or 180C. At this point you can choose to pour heavy whipping cream over the cinnamon rolls. It’s optional. I’ve tried with or without, both spectacular. Here they are after baking for 30 minutes (with the heavy cream pour):

To make the frosting just whip all the ingredients together and spread over the rolls while they are still hot. Like so:


I find these better several hours after they have been baked. The frosting will have set and soaked into the crevices. If you like them warm just reheat in the oven. I find that if you refrigerate them first then reheat, the frosting will only slightly melt and the tops will caramelize. Strong believer in refrigerating baked good and eating the next day. Enjoy!!!



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