Apple Cinnamon Buns/Rolls

With the recipe for perfect rolls from Pioneer woman, that I had earlier used for Rosemary rolls, there are an endless options that can be tried out. Since I wanted to use my left over dough that I had frozen, and the apples lying in the fridge, I made these apple- cinnamon rolls. May be walnuts would have added a nice nutty dimension to the rolls – next time!

The pictures are bad as the lighting was very bad – blame it on the lazy lazy Sun, who hardly shows up these days. The rolls tasted very nice, soft and full of flavors. Have started loving apples and cinnamon!

Here's how you make them...

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Preparation time: ~30 min + ~15 min + resting time

Baking Time: ~25 min

Source: Dough from Pioneer woman

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 cup 

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Instant yeast - 1 tsp (or 1 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast) 

All Purpose Flour - 2 cups plus 1/4 cup – I added a Tbsp more

Baking powder - 1/4 tsp

Baking soda - scant 1/4 tsp

Salt - 3/4 teaspoon

For the filling: 

Butter - 2 Tbsp

Apples – 2 small or 1 big, peeled, chopped

Brown sugar - 2 Tbsp

Cinnamon – ½ tsp

Method:

• Mix milk, sugar and oil in a pan and scald (heat until just before boiling) the mixture.
• Leave to cool for 45mins to an hour. The milk mixture must be lukewarm at the end of this period. In case you leave it for longer, just warm it till its lukewarm.
• When the mixture is lukewarm, add the instant yeast. (if using active dried yeast, leave it for about 5-10 minutes till frothy and then carry on)
• Then add 2 cups of flour to the mixture. Stir with a spatula, the batter will be quite sticky. Cover and let the batter sit for 1 hour or till double.
• After it doubles, mix the 1/4 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add this to the flour mixture in the pan.
• Mix till everything comes together. It was still very sticky, so i added a little more flour to make it easy to handle
• I divided the dough into two parts and froze one part for alter use and refrigerated the other in a large bowl/box allowing space for rising, overnight to make the rolls early in the morning.

Filling:

• Mix the ingredients for filling and keep aside till needed – Do this just before the dough is ready for rolling.

To bake the rolls:

• If using frozen dough, transfer them to the refrigerator the previous night.
• On the day of baking, take the dough out of the fridge, let it sit out for a few minutes till it is easy to handle.
• Meanwhile, line your baking tin with parchment and grease the sides. I used a 9'' round tin to make rolls - with half the dough.
• Roll the dough into a big rectangle of about ¼ inch thickness, the longer side horizontal to you
• Brush butter over the rolled dough and spread the apple-brown sugar mixture
• Start rolling the dough into a log, starting from your farthest end, towards you
• Seam the edges tightly
• Now with a sharp knife, cut the log into 1 ½ inch thick pieces
• Carefully transfer the pieces one by one into the prepared pan, spacing them slightly apart
• Cover loosely and let rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.
• Towards the end of the rising period, preheat the oven at 180 deg C or 350 F.
• Bake for 20 -25 minutes until golden brown.
• Brush the rolls with some more melted butter for a softer crust. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then completely on the rack.

Notes:

• Alter the quantities of sugar to suit your taste.

This post is for the Bake-A-Thon event by Champa. These are the other co-bloggers baking with me... 
Champa, Srivalli Jetti, Priya Suresh, Veena Krishna Kumar, Preeti Deo and Jayasri Ravi.