Cinnamon Swirls

My lack of blogging recently is completely inexcusable I know, but I'm going to blame it on lack of Internet (yes, we had to wait OVER A MONTH to get connected!) and the shock of coming back to uni and actually having work to do (none of that swanning around exploring France I spent most of last year doing). Anyway, I'm back and in need of catching up on all that baking time I've lost!

So the other day I decided to make some rather heavenly cinnamon swirls that I found on Edd Kimber's blog. (For those of you that don't know who he is, he won the Great British Bake Off last year. For those of you that haven't heard of/watched the Great British Bake Off, you're seriously missing out!). What a great recipe is all I can say. Honestly, eating these straight out of the oven is definitely up there with my top food loves. Crispy sugar on the outside, a soft spongy dough on the inside and then the most delicious mouthful of cinnamon at the end. Me and my housemates were in the middle of watching a film when they were ready and I made them turn it off so we could all appreciate how wonderful they tasted! And of course, the smell that wafted through from the kitchen whilst they were baking was divine. 

 

 

The only downside I suppose is that they are a bit time-consuming to make. You use a quick croissant dough, which isn't difficult, it just involves a lot of waiting around while the dough rests. Basically it's not the kind of thing to make if you've only got a couple of hours. Having said that, all the faffing around rolling out the dough and putting it in the fridge, prooving it and leaving it to rest, is 100% worth it as soon as you take a bite. Whether that's as a snack with a coffee or reheated in the microwave for breakfast, you must try these lovelies!

Cinnamon Swirls (makes 12)

Ingredients:

For the croissant dough:

600ml milk

65ml water

250g plain flour

6g dry active yeast

30g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

150g butter, diced and chilled

For the cinnamon swirls:

110g light brown sugar

1tbsp ground cinnamon

50g butter

granulated sugar for coating

Method:

For the croissant dough:

1. Place the milk and water into a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
3. Add the butter pieces and stir through with a knife until the pieces of butter become smaller, but still remain in pieces.
4. Tip the butter mixture onto the liquid mixture.
5. Fold everything together, but not too much so that the butter pieces become too small.
6. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and keep in the fridge over night.
7. In the morning, remove the dough from the fridge and place on a well-floured surface.
8. Roll out into a rectangle roughly 20cm x 40cm.
9. Fold into thirds. 
10. Rotate 90 degrees so that the folds are facing you.
11. Repeat this process twice more so that you have turned it three times. 
12. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave at least for a couple of hours before using for the cinnamon rolls.

For the cinnamon rolls:

1. Grease a tray and coat with sugar.
2. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 30cm x 35cm.
3. In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Lightly brush the dough with the melted butter.
5. Sprinkle the dough with the sugar mixture in an even layer.
6. Roll the dough into a tight sausage and cut into 12 equal slices.
7. Place the slices onto the baking tray and lightly cover with clingfilm.
8. Leave to proove at room temperature for a couple of hours until they have doubled in size.
9. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and when the buns are ready bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes. 
10. Allow the rolls to cool slightly before rolling in granulated sugar.
11. Serve slightly warm and enjoy!