What!? What!? What!? no recipe for these fine baked comestibles!?!?! I am shocked and appalled!
Here, for postarity is a fine recipe which will hopefully steer you away from those tube-packaged doughs:
The Dough
4 1/2 Cups Flour
2 packages of Fast Actin' Yeast
1/2 Cup Water
1 egg
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 Cup Milk
The Filling
1/2 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
The icing
1/2 a Vanilla Bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound of powdered sugar
3-4 Tabelspoons of milk
Makin' the dough:
Disolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of
warm water, and add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Set aside.
Melt the half cup of butter, warm up the 34 cup of milk and mix it into the melted butter. After this has cooled a bit add it to the yeast along with your 1/4 cup of sugar, the egg and salt. Mix this together then add your flour 1-1/2
cup at a time until the dough forms a
ball (be careful not to add too much flour, and take into account that additional flour will be added in the kneading process, I usually leave it a *little*
sticky). Spread flour on you kneading
surface and knead flour into the dough until it's no longer sticky, please do not over-
knead. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a
moist cloth. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size (about 45 minutes - 1hour).
After the dough has risen, place it on your rolling surface and roll it out as
thin as you'd like (depending on how many "swirls" you wish the rolls to have). But keep it to around 2' on one side, try to keep the dough as
rectangular as possible.
Filling:
Melt your 1/2 cup of butter, and with a
pastry brush liberally coat the up side of your rolled-out dough. Sprinkle the dough with the granulated sugar and the brown sugar, and cinnamon (the measurements here need not be exact, it's all up to how
sweet or cinnamony (is that a word?) you want your rolls). Roll the dough into a log and cut into disks about 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches thick. Place these into a well buttered
cake pan, or a couple of
pie tins. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 15-20 minutes until the tops are
golden brown.
Icing:
Split half a vanilla bean and scrape the insides into a small
saucepan, add about half a cup or so of milk and place on low heat (I throw the rest of the bean in here as well, just for the extra flavor), allow the milk to heat and infuse with the vanilla flavor, but to
not boil!. In a bowl mix a few tablespoons of this milk with 1 pound of powdered sugar, until the desired consistency is reached (this is really a matter of
preference, I like a "heavy
glaze" consistency) save any leftover vanilla-milk (it's great in
coffee or
Engligh Breakfast Tea). If you do not have vanilla beans, simply add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to your powdered sugar first, then add regular milk until you have your desired consistency. One your rolls have finnished baking
drizzle the icing over the rolls generously.
Eat Them! (or alternatley bring them into
work to score points with co-workers).