Submitted by Valentina Maldonado

About the cook: I am a 20 year old student at New York University in the Food Studies major. My passion in life is food, both eating it and making it. I love desserts and baked goods most of all, and plan to go to pastry school one day. I am also passionate about sustainability and hope to work for (and eventually own) a sustainable farm to table restaurant/bakery.

About the dish: These cinnamon rolls are very soft, with a sweet cinnamon filling. They're baked in a slightly sweet, slightly salty glaze that makes them wonderfully gooey. The inspiration for this recipe comes from two of my favorite Youtube channels: Laura in The Kitchen and Buzzfeed Tasty.

National Origin: USA

Serves: 12

Estimated Time: Over 2 Hours

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 Cup of warm milk
1 tsp of maple syrup
2 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast (or one small package)
1/3 cup melted salted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour*

Filling:
1/2 cup softened salted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1 cup Brown sugar
1 stick salted butter
1 tbsp light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

Procedure:
Warm up the milk until it is in the 110-120F range. If you don’t have a thermometer, make sure it is warm, but not scalding. You should be able to touch it, it should be warmer than lukewarm, but not painful at all. When warm, put in a bowl along with maple syrup and yeast. Whisk till combined, and let sit for 5-7 minutes until yeast is bloomed (it will look foamy, and smell very strong).
To the milk and yeast mixture, add melted butter, egg, vanilla, and sugar. Whisk till everything is combined. Add one cup of flour, mix. Mix salt into the next cup of flour, add to the rest of the mixture. Add third cup of flour and mix. At this point it should be a very tacky dough.
Flour a surface to knead on, and turn out the dough. Knead till smooth but sticky (adding more flour when needed), about 7 minutes. DO NOT incorporate more flour than you need.
Once dough is smooth, and springy to touch, put in an oiled bowl and cover with damp kitchen towel. Put in a warm spot to rise for about 50 minutes or until doubled in size.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F, butter a 9×13 baking dish, and make the filling by mixing softened butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Should be a thick but spreadable consistency.
Prepare caramel glaze: add all ingredients for glaze except vanilla and salt in a saucepan on medium heat, stirring until everything is dissolved. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes then remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt. Pour mixture into the prepared dish.
When dough has risen, remove from warm spot and punch it down and place on a floured surface to roll out. Roll it into a rectangle large rectangle (slightly larger than 9×13). Spread filling onto dough rectangle. Make sure to evenly spread the filling onto the entire surface of the dough.
Roll rectangle from the wider side away from you, so you have a long log. Make sure to roll tightly, to avoid gaps in your roll. Use a knife to cut slices about 1”1/2 inches thick. You should be able to see a nice swirl of cinnamon filling!
Put cut rolls into baking dish with glaze (cut side down) and cover with towel, put in warm spot to prove again for about 35 minutes or until almost doubled in size.
Cover dish with aluminium foil and put in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the rolls are lightly golden brown.
Turn baking dish upside down onto a serving platter to reveal the sticky part of the cinnamon rolls, and serve warm.

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