Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Dough Mixing and First Rise

Stir the instant yeast into the warm water to dissolve.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, add the flour, sugar, and salt. It's fine to mix by hand too. Use a dough whisk or stiff spatula until the dough comes together, and then switch to slapping and folding. Here is a video of this technique.

Warm the milk in a container with extra space. Add the butter cubes to soften them. It's okay if they melt somewhat. Aim for the final temp of the mixture to be less than 105°F. The warmth helps the dough rise faster but too warm will harm the yeast.

Add the bloomed yeast mixture, milk-butter mixture, and two eggs to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed for a minute or so. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and continue mixing on high speed for about 5 minutes. The target dough consistency at the end of mixing is soft and just a little sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or straightwalled container if available. Fold the dough into a neat ball, flip it smooth side up, and press it down. Mark the level of the dough on the outside of the bowl.

Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. In a proofing box set to 83°F, my dough needed about 1.75 hours to more than double. At cooler kitchen temps, this will take longer.

Filling

Melt the butter. If using the microwave, cube the butter and heat in 15-second increments.

Add the brown sugar, spices, and cornstarch. Cornstarch helps the filling bind to the dough and not leak out during baking.

Refrigerate the mixture to cool. If it solidifies too much to spread, microwave it for a few seconds to loosen it up.

Assembly and Second Rise

Grease a 9"x13" baking pan or line it with parchment paper; or grease or line two jumbo muffin tins.

Transfer the dough to a clean, very lightly oiled work surface.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle that is roughly 14x17 inches.

Spread the filling on the dough. Leave a little more than a quarter inch bare on one long edge. This will be the outer seam of the roll/swirl. Go all the way to the edges with the filling on the short sides though, so you don't have dry end pieces.

Roll the dough into a tube starting on the long edge that is fully covered with filling.

Make shallow indents on the tube to map twelve evenly spaced cuts, then use a piece of unflavored, unwaxed dental floss to cut the dough pieces. This makes very neat, unsquished cuts. Slide the floss under the tube, cross the ends, and pull to slice. Here is a video of how to do this, begin at timestamp 0:40.

Transfer the dough pieces to the pan(s). Cover the dough and let it rise again. See the photo gallery after the recipe for target dough expansion. For a cover, I place the entire pan inside a plastic produce bag. The white flour dough rose for 30 minutes at 85°F, and the whole wheat dough rose for 90 minutes at 80°F.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

For the 9"x13" pan, bake 20-25 minutes.

For the jumbo muffin pans, bake 15-18 minutes.

Add icing or frosting if desired and serve warm if possible.