It wouldn't be Valentine's Day to me if there wasn't some kind of sweet treat involved. These Valentine's brown sugar blondies will always hold the number one spot in my V-Day treat list but this year I wanted to try out something new!
I first made these easy cinnamon rolls for Christmas Morning breakfast this year because I didn't want to wait hours for the dough to rise. Let me tell you this recipe is a winner! I have made it a few times since and I love that I can have fresh homemade cinnamon buns within the hour of waking up!
I adapted this recipe from Sugar Spun Run (Sam I love you for this sharing recipe) and to make them Valentine's themed I turned the cream cheese frosting pink by throwing a handful or so of fresh raspberries into the mixing bowl and crushing them gently into the frosting and then sprinkled over some mini candy hearts!
The frosting definitely makes these extra sweet, so if you aren't a sugar lover turn away now!
Ingredients
Rolls
2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
3 Tablespoons sugar (38g)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons butter + additional 2 Tbsp butter for baking cold
3/4 cup milk (178ml)
Filling
2/3 cup brown sugar (133g)
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (25g)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing*
4 oz cream cheese softened (115g)
4 Tablespoon butter softened (57g)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (400g)
2 Tablespoon milk (30ml)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix.
- Using a pastry cutter (or fork and knife if lacking) cut butter into dry mix
- Add milk and mix until all ingredients are combined.
- Dump dough onto a very well floured surface and roll until it forms a cohesive ball. Continue to flour the surface you are working with as needed.
- Generously sprinkle flour on the top of the ball of dough and place a large piece of wax paper on top. (If dough is too sticky, work in more flour until it is manageable)
- Use a rolling pin to roll dough out to roughly a 10x12" rectangle.
- Remove the wax paper and make your filling by combining brown sugar, flour and cinnamon and then stirring in butter and vanilla. This will be very much like a paste.
- Spread the filling over the rectangle of dough, leaving about 1/4" of space as a perimeter around the filling.
- Carefully roll dough starting with one of the 12" ends and rolling tightly.. Press the edge of the roll into the dough so that it sticks.
- Cut the log, spacing your cuts about 1" apart. If the log is not holding its shape well, transfer it to your freezer for about 10 minutes and then try to cut again (it should hold it's shape this way so you will have mostly round cinnamon rolls)
- Place 2 Tbsp of butter into a 9" pie pan and set it in your preheating oven for a few minutes until the butter has melted. Remove from oven.
- Place your cinnamon rolls in baking dish, they do not need to be touching, they will spread to fill their surrounding area.
- Bake on 375F for 28-30 minutes (beginning to lightly brown around edges). Prepare your icing while the rolls are baking.
- With mixer, combine cream cheese and butter and vanilla.
- Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add milk, stirring until combined.
- When cinnamon rolls are finished, remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before spreading icing over rolls.
- These cinnamon rolls are nice and soft. Keep in mind that the warmer they are, the harder it will be to separate one from the other. But if you go in for one cinnamon roll and end up with one and a half, it's really not the worst thing that could happen, right?
Recipe Notes
*This recipe makes a lot of frosting! If you don't like much frosting on your cinnamon rolls, feel free to cut it in half.
