COOKING WITH KIDS: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Veteran food writer Heidi Billotto shares a kid-friendly recipe in this ongoing series

February 12, 2024

Heidi Billotto,

This chill in the air—with or without snow—means it’s time to bake cinnamon rolls. I usually bake them around the holidays and gift them as a Christmas morning treat to all of my neighbors, but they continue to be a popular wintertime favorite among everyone I know. Just the other day, my 7-year-old neighbor, Lainey Rawlings, who loves to cook, asked if I would show her how to make cinnamon rolls.

Lainey perfected “her recipe,” and we figured out a fun and easy way to shape the rolls into hearts for a special Valentine’s treat. You’ll find those directions just after this month’s recipe.

Snow or not, this recipe makes for a fun morning or afternoon of family baking time, and it’ll fill your home with the sweet scent of cinnamon. They’re perfect for breakfast, brunch, or as a late afternoon treat with your favorite cup of coffee or cocoa. Just in case there is a call for snow, try to stock your pantry ahead of time and keep these recipe ingredients on hand.

I like to keep everything as local as possible, so eggs from any one of Charlotte’s Saturday morning farmers markets are a regular weekly buy for me. If you can find local duck eggs, get them! Duck eggs have larger yolks and a richer taste and make a delicious addition to this recipe. Same goes for butter. I am now officially hooked on the local homemade butter made by Zack Gadberry of Uno Alla Volta in Charlotte. Available on Saturdays at the Matthews Farmers Market, Zack also makes a wonderfully rich and creamy whole milk “yogurt cheese” that I often use in this recipe in place of the sour cream.

You can also make these rolls dairy-free. I suggest using Miyoko’s European-Style Cultured Vegan Butter. I’ve found it to be the best plant-based bet for baking. In place of the sour cream in the recipe, use your favorite dairy-free plain or vanilla yogurt.

My flour of choice is local, too, and is readily available in almost every North Carolina grocery store. It’s the all-purpose Southern Biscuit Flour, produced by Renwood Mills in Newton. While you’re in the baking aisle, be sure to pick up a jar or a couple of packages of yeast. At home, store the yeast in your refrigerator or freezer to keep it fresh.

Here are some tips for using yeast in a recipe:

To start, you’ll want to “proof” the yeast, even if you just bought a new jar or package. Proofing helps ensures that the yeast is good and will rise in your bread. To “proof,” simply stir the package or a tablespoon of yeast from the jar into the prescribed amount of water. It’s important that the water be tepid, or no hotter than 110 degrees F. (Pro tip: tepid water is not as cold as what you would pour for a glass to drink; but not as hot as what you would use to wash your face.)

Use an instant-read thermometer if you’d like, but if you want to go by feel, think room temperature. Stir the yeast in and wait for a bit of foaming of bubbling to occur on the water’s surface. This part is like a fun science experiment for kids. Once you see the foaming bubbles, you’re good to go. Store the remaining yeast in an airtight container in the freezer and use it as needed.

As for the cinnamon, the key ingredient here, I suggest shopping at the Savory Spice Shop in Charlotte, where you’ll find several varieties of ground cinnamon. Once you’ve tasted your way through all the varieties on the shelves (they let you taste before you buy!), find the one that works best for you and take it home to have on hand. My favorite is the piquant, rich ground Saigon Cassia Cinnamon.

Once you’ve got the ingredients secured, all that’s left is the fun that’s to be had in the baking.

Be generous as you sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon on the dough for extra ooey-goo-iness. If you’re feeling adventurous, mix it up a bit with the addition of chocolate, peanut butter, or butterscotch chips.

Lainey’s Snow Day Cinnamon Rolls

INCREDIENTS:

1 cup sour cream or plain whole milk yogurt
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup melted butter
½ cup tepid water
2 tablespoon dry active yeast
2 local chicken or duck eggs
4 cups organic or local all-purpose flour
For the cinnamon roll filling: generous amounts of melted butter, your favorite cinnamon, sugar, and/or brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Dissolve yeast in warm water with one teaspoon of sugar. When a foam forms on the surface it is ready. If no foam appears within five minutes, then your water was too hot or your yeast was old. Start again with cooler water and another package of yeast.
Once the yeast starts to foam or proof, combine it with the other dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and blend to form a soft but sticky dough.
Transfer the dough to another bowl; cover with a dish towel and let rise for 1 hour. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead until smooth, then cover your work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper. Lightly flour the parchment paper and roll dough out into a large rectangle about ¼ inch thick.

TO SHAPE THE CINNAMON ROLLS:

Generously spread the dough with melted butter. Like Lainey, your kids will love painting the butter on the dough. Sprinkle with sugars and cinnamon. Roll up like a jelly roll. Cut the log of dough into 1½ inch thick slices.
Place the slices in a buttered pan, side by side, cut side up. Or do what Lainey and I did for this recipe and butter individual standard sized muffin tins with butter. Lainey “painted” the butter in the cups with the same brush she used to paint the butter on the dough.
Place one cinnamon roll into each muffin cup.
Cover the pan of rolls with a dish towel and let rise an additional 20 minutes.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 23 to 30 minutes.

We love these rolls hot from the oven just as they are. But if you’re an icing fan, mix powdered sugar and a bit of milk to make a thin icing to drizzle over the slightly cooled rolls.

TO MAKE VALENTINES-THEMED CINNAMON ROLLS:

Use the cupcake pan method and then pinch together small pieces of foil to put on either side of each roll and at the top to indent the center section so that the roll will bake into a heart shape. Or buy heart shaped ramekins and bake each cinnamon roll in its own heart shaped mold.