Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

My love of cinnamon rolls began on a camping and rock climbing retreat as young teenager.  The camp counselor/cook made homemade cinnamon rolls right at camp from kneading, raising, filling cutting and baking in a clever camp stove oven. As the smell permeated the camp, I couldn't wait to sink my sugar addicted teeth into something that smelled so good.  Yeasted sweet dough treats were not part of my childhood so this was a new and wonderful taste experience. But then for more than a decade, I did not think of cinnamon rolls, outside of the grocery store tube can variety, until the mall chain store pumped out giant, thickly frosted cinnamon rolls to the mall crowds.  Neither the tube can nor mall store rolls ever stood up to those camping rolls.  Then bread machines came on to the market in the early 1990s and cinnamon rolls became a mainstay in my home. My first bread maker was the Panasonic machine from 1994. That machine was extraordinary and didn’t break down until 2012 after making many loaves of bread and many more doughs for rolls of all kinds.  Though the bread machine does have its limitations as the breads produced are not artisanal and the bread quality tends to be the same across recipes, the bread machine fills a place in the home for fast and easy homemade bread for even the most unskilled or skilled and overworked person.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

1 ½ pound loaf	1 pound loaf
3/8 cup milk or non-dairy milk	¼ cup milk or non-dairy milk
3/8 cup water	¼ cup water
1 egg	1 egg
3 cups all-purpose flour	2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons butter or  nondairy butter substitute	3 tablespoons butter or  nondairy butter substitute
1/3 cup sugar	¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast or active yeast	1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast or active yeast
*Roll dough into 9X18 inch rectangle	*Roll dough into 8X14 inch rectangle
Filling	Filling
3 tablespoons of softened butter	2 tablespoons of softened butter
4 tablespoons sugar	3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon	1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cocoa powder if desired	1 ½ teaspoons cocoa powder if desired
Icing	Icing
3 tablespoons softened dairy free butter	2 ½ tablespoons softened dairy free butter
1 cup powdered sugar	3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons non-dairy milk of choice	2 ½ tablespoons non-dairy milk of choice
½ to 1 tsp vanilla, lemon juice, or lemon extract – adjust to personal taste preferences	½ to 1 tsp vanilla, lemon juice, or lemon extract – adjust to personal taste preferences

Line a sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper.

Place all ingredients in bread machine pan.

Select dough setting and press start.

When dough has risen long enough, the machine will beep.

Turn off bread machine, remove bread pan and turn out dough on floured countertop or cutting board.

Turn on proofing setting in oven, if have, or warm oven at lowest temperature for a few minutes then turn off.

Roll dough into the loaf size rectangle - *see above*

Filling

Spread the softened butter edge to edge across the rectangle.

Mix the sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder in small bowl.

Sprinkle the sugar mixture edge to edge across the dough rectangle.

Roll rectangle tightly into a log starting from the long end.

Pinch seam.

Put seam side to cutting board or counter and cut with a sharp thin bladed knife into the desired number of rolls and place rolls 1 inch apart on prepared pan

**see below if making ahead.

Thicker rolls 8-12 pieces 13/4 inches thick

Smaller rolls 12-16 pieces 1/1/4 inches thick

Cover with a lint free towel and let rise for 30 minutes until doubled in size in proofing oven, warmed oven, or warm place.

Once nearly doubled, remove from oven.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Bake rolls for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Icing

Mix in a large bowl with whisk, hand mixer, or bowl mixer the powdered sugar and softened butter until combined.

Whisk in milk until smooth and at the consistency of a soft slow flowing icing or preferred desired consistency

Adjust consistency by alternately adding more liquid or powdered sugar.

Frost by stringing, pooling, spreading etc. – any coverage level and pattern desired.

**At this point, if desired, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and refrigerate overnight. 

Remove from refrigerator and let rise in proofing oven, warmed oven, or warm place until doubled in size - plan for extra time for the proofing step.

Challah Bread

Time in a train station is unrelenting.  Trains arrive and depart on schedule.  Just as in life time goes forward at a never changing pace - second by second.  It is in each moment that life is lived - it is how we love, learn, reflect, wonder, listen, observe or not.  This does not come easily and I must meditate upon and recognize these precious moments before time rushes me forward like the incoming tide of the future or pulls me back into the past.  This awareness and appreciation of the moment is central in my life.

Challah bread is a wonderful sweet and soft bread that I first discovered at Grand Central Station in New York City.  I bought my first loaf from a bread baker in Grand Central as I was running to catch the last train out of the city that night.  I made a quick decision between the traditional black and white cookie or challah bread, and it turned out to be very delicious decision.  The man behind the counter was a Hasidic Jew who spoke softly and most graciously spent extra time helping me pronounce challah properly, despite the last minute rush of  the late night bread buyers lined up behind me and the pressure of train schedules that one must not miss or it meant spending the night in the train station. He spent those moments, stopping time, to pronounce the Hebrew challah word properly.  I must catch the ch sound that almost sounds like an h.  I said holla and he corrected me several times with the c sound that catches down in the throat and almost sounds like a throat clearing.  It is not a natural sound for me just like the cr in French or the rolling the r's in Spanish. There is such a passion in these words that rise up from the throat.

That encounter was many years ago before the internet and before everybody knew everything; when things such as this bread were still foreign sounding and found mostly in big cities. That brief moment though insignificant as it may seem in the scope of a life, stays with me. Now that bakery in Grand Central still carries challah bread and black and white cookies but the counter is no longer manned by that person who took the moment to share a bit of his history through the pronunciation of a word.

Challah Bread
1 loaf

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant active yeast (1 envelope)
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk (save the white for egg wash)
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup warm water (110F)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Mix together in a medium bowl flour, sugar, yeast and salt and set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer, mix together 1/2 cup water, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, and melted butter with paddle.
On low speed, add flour mixture and mix until the dough comes together and then switch to the dough hook.  You may use the dough hook from the start but I prefer the paddle and then switching.
Knead on low until the dough forms a ball and is moving freely around the bowl.  Add more flour if the dough is sticking or climbing the hook or more water if the dough is shaggy.  The dough should be soft and tacky.
Mix egg white with 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl and refrigerate.
1st Rise Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl turning dough to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size about 2 hours.
2nd Rise Deflate dough gently by pressing, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size again about 60 minutes.
Shaping and 3rd Rise The bread shape is created by a smaller braid placed on top of a larger braid versus one large braid.
Line a sheet pan with parchment or silpat or grease it.
On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into two pieces one large piece and one piece half the size of the large piece (ex. 20 ounces and 10 ounces). 
Divide the large piece into 3 equal pieces and roll each into a 15 inch rope with a 1 inch diameter.
Line the ropes side by side and pinch the pieces together on one end.
Braid the pieces together and pinch ends together at bottom.
Carefully move to pan or braid right on the pan and tuck under the ends.
Repeat the process with the small piece of dough making 3 15 inch ropes with a 1 inch diameter.  Pinch and braid the pieces.
Brush egg wash over the large loaf.
Place the small loaf on top.
Loosely cover with plastic (oil the plastic wrap lightly if  does not have any oil on it from the earlier rises.
Place in draft free warm place and let rise until puffy and increased in size by 1/3 about 30 minutes.
Baking Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove plastic wrap carefully so as not to deflate and gently brush the remain egg was over the entire loaf.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 35 minutes until and instant thermometer inserted into the center reads 190F.
Cool on wire rack.
Cool completely before slicing.