Overnight cinnamon rolls

veryone seems to have their own idea of what the perfect cinnamon roll is: For some it's about the raisins, for others the ratio of dough to icing, for still others maybe it's about the nuts--lots of pecans or none at all...

After searching extensively online and in various cookbooks for the cinnamon roll to suit my needs, I eventually ended up combining a little of this, a little of that, and managed to mix together what is, for me, a perfect cinnamon roll: No raisins, a powdered sugar glaze rather than cream cheese frosting, and a dough that is a buttery beauty but not too puffy or gooey.

I've seen many recipes that look mighty similar all over the internet, but nothing exactly like this one to link to (famous last words, of course. Let me know if you believe I've ripped off YOUR recipe.).

The other bonus of these rolls: They freeze beautifully for future breakfasts. I was prompted to post today because of the lovely breakfast husband and I enjoyed with a couple of cinnamon rolls pulled from the freezer. I defrosted them briefly in the microwave and then further warmed them in the oven. Delightful.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
makes 12

Dough
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat and it didn't weigh it down at all)
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs

Filling
1 1/3 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Stir in butter until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add eggs and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour as needed, about 5 minutes.

Cover the dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together filling ingredients.

Roll out dough into a 9×12 inch rectangle. Spread dough evenly with filling mixture. Roll up dough from the long end and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in a 9×12″ baking pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, remove cinnamon rolls from refrigerator and let sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to take the chill off. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together glaze ingredients, adding more milk to thin glaze, if necessary. Remove rolls from oven, and pour glaze over hot cinnamon rolls. Serve warm.

Cinnamon roll coffee cake

There's a company-wide breakfast this coming week and I've been looking for a cinnamon roll or a coffee cake that I could make in advance so that I don't have to turn the ovens on at 3 a.m. to have it all hot and ready in time--you know, something I could make a wee bit in advance... When I saw this recipe for cinnamon roll coffee cake in one of my holiday baking magazines, I thought, "This could be the answer to my dreams!" And I do believe it is. I decided to make it one day (yesterday) and then warm it up the following morning (today!) and see how it fared... it performed quite nicely, and judging by the sizeable dent we made in in for breakfast, I think it's a keeper.

Cinnamon roll coffee cake
Makes one 9-inch cake, 8-10 servings

For the caramel topping
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
Pinch of table salt
1 cup chopped toasted pecans (as you can see from the picture above, I used sliced almonds I had on hand. It was yummy enough, but I think I will use pecans for the real deal this week.)

For the streusel
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. table salt

For the cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt
2 eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350°; coat a 9-inch-round, 2-inch-deep cake pan with nonstick spray. Stir together the 3/4 cup brown sugar, cream and the pinch of salt for the caramel topping in a measuring cup. Pour caramel into the prepared pan, spreading to coat bottom of the pan. Sprinkle pecans over caramel. Process the 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup fIour, the 1/2 stick butter, cinnamon, and the 1/4 tsp. salt for the streusel in a food processor, pulsing until mixture is sandy but without clumps; set streusel aside.

Whisk the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. table salt for the cake in a bowl; set dry ingredients aside, whisk together buttermilk, yogurt and eggs in a measuring cup with a pouring spout; set aside. Using a hand mixer, cream together the 1 stick butter and the 3/4 cup granulated sugar in a bowl only until combined. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the creamed mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Blend only enough to incorporate the dry ingredients into the batter. Spread half of the batter over the caramel in the cake pan, then sprinkle with half of the streusel. Carefully spread remaining batter over streusel in cake pan and top with the remaining streusel.

Bake coffee cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Cool cake for 5 minutes on a rack, then run a paring knife around the sides to loosen cake. Invert cake onto a serving plate while hot. Let coffee cake cool slightly before serving.

So as I learned today, it is possible to make the cake in advance and then rewarm (I did about 20 minutes in a 250 degree oven) and proceed with then turning it out onto a plate. I also used a springform pan rather than a regular cake pan, not being sure how it would "turn out" onto the plate... I think I'm glad I did, though it's hard to know. I probably won't risk having cakes breaking all over the place in the future, and will just stick to the springform, where it's so easy to flip it and then gently pry off the pan's bottom.

The one thing I think I might add to the cake on Thursday morning--to give it the full cinnamon roll effect--is to drizzle a little cream cheese icing over the top for good measure. I'll let you know how that goes!