Brioche Cinnamon Rolls
I absolutely love brioche and I absolutely adore cinnamon rolls. Bringing the two together is beyond obvious but leave it to me to point out the obvious. These cinnamon rolls turned out tender, buttery, rich, and sweet, with that fabulous bite of cinnamon. These are my new favorite cinnamon rolls.
When I made these I was multi-tasking and trying to get all my kitchen chores crossed off my list so I could take an afternoon nap and I ended up veering from the brioche recipe…actually veering is a polite way to say that I totally blew off the first step of the brioche, the making of the sponge. I’m happy to say that my mistake didn’t seem to harm their tender texture or their superb fluffiness and it saved me 40 minutes so I’m calling it my timesaver method…40 minutes is a sweet little catnap.
I know that not everyone has a stand mixer but honestly I can’t imagine making brioche without one…15 minutes of working the dough on medium speed would be nearly impossible for a hand mixer to handle and only the strongest kitchen geek could manage it by hand…we certainly have none of those around here. I also love baking them on the silpat lined baking sheet since it helped form a sweet carmely crust of sugar on the bottom of each roll…isn’t that excellent!
Brioche Cinnamon Rolls
(printer-friendly version)
1/3 cup warm milk
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
5 large eggs
4 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and dump all of the above ingredients into the mixer bowl and work it on medium speed until it comes together and forms a nice ball of dough. Switch to the dough hook attachment. Mix for 10 minutes on medium. This will help smooth the dough out. While the dough is being worked you should hear it slapping against the sides of the bowl.
6 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
Take the butter and smash it about with a rubber spatula…the point of this is to work the butter into the same texture and smoothness as the dough. With the mixer on medium low add the butter to the dough in increments of tablespoons and allow the mixer to work in each increment until it is fully incorporated. The dough may fall apart as the butter is being added but don’t worry, it will come back together…just keep the mixer working the dough.
Once all the butter has been added turn the mixer speed up to medium high for a minute or two and then lower it again to medium low and let it work the dough for 5 – 7 minutes, again it should be slapping the sides of the bowl.
Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place it in buttered bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight.
When you wake up the next morning remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a floured counter and let it warm up for a hour. Cut the dough into two equal pieces and roll it out to about 1/3” thickness, brush each piece with softened butter and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar (2 tablespoons cinnamon and 1 cup sugar). Roll your rolling pin over the top to lightly compress the sugar/butter into the dough and then roll them up, reserving the neatest, straightest edge for the outside edge of the roll. Secure the roll by pinching the loose edge to the roll and then smooth the pinch out. Cut the rolls into 1” pieces and line them up on a silpat lined baking sheet. Place them in a warm spot and let them rise for an hour or until they are doubled in bulk. Bake them at 350°F for about 10 – 12 minutes or until they are golden brown and register 210° on an instant read thermometer. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for as long as you can resist them. I always end up putting them under a fan for a fast cool.
I like to drizzle the top of these delicious babies with a simple powdered sugar, milk, vanilla glaze.
comments
33 Responses to “Brioche Cinnamon Rolls”
Leave a Reply
-
Recent comments...
- KK on Snicker your doodle a muffin: I'll admit, I had my doubts when spooning these in ...
- ............................................................
- Judi on Brioche Cinnamon Rolls: I thought the cinnamon rolls looked great! I have ...
- ............................................................
- Sara on Steak tartar – forbidden food: There is indeed an "e" on the end. http://www.merr ...
- ............................................................
- rachel on Fried Chicken Sandwich and Poppyseed Coleslaw: I made the slaw last night as a side for BBQ beef ...
- ............................................................
- evain on Equal Pay For Equal Work Chocolate Crinkle Cookies: I made these for a cookie exchange this week and t ...
-
I’m passing this along to my brioche-loving (and -baking) husband, with a big note on top that says “Please???”!
Brioche is definitely a thing of beauty — and these cinnamon rolls are making me drool at this early hour!
I’m envisioning these with a cream cheese icing, even though it would make them IMPOSSIBLY rich.
How I’d love to wake up to these scrumptious breads every morning!
In the Philippines we have a version of brioche we call ensaymadas, which we usually top with grated cheese, melted butter, and sugar. Sometimes, extreme toppings include salted egg slices, taro paste and ham. Good stuff!
it looks very tempting! i’m glad you share the recipe, definitely need to make it sometime. thanks!
Holy cow. I have been waiting for this recipe. I can never find amazing cinnamon rolls and I have high hopes for these. The pictures are amazing.
I would love to wake up to a batch of these tomorrow a.m. Photo is amazing!
That photo is food porn at its finest!
Don’t be surprised if I show up for a sleepover…!!
Brioche! Now that sounds like one amazingly delicious cinnamon roll!
What a delicious photograph. The recipe looks to be great too as well. In fact, I will be trying it out today, and I will let you know how it goes.
YUM!! Those cinnamon rolls look mouth watering!
Aren’t those glorious looking?? I don’t think if you can ever go wrong with brioche, now can you?
That recipe sounds like a treasure. I just love cinnamon rolls. Having the dough ready to go in the morning is a big plus. Then there’s your picture. I’m sold!
These look like they are going to add pounds to my hips. But I’m willing to sacrifice to find out! Approximately how many does this recipe make?
Christy, I’m thinking it was about 2 dozen.
These look so incredible, I can almost smell them!
I just love cinnamon scrolls and those look amazing!
In a word, YES!
This is going to go well with my coffee, I love it! Thank you!
I chickened out! I wanted to make your brioche rolls for tomorrow, which is the unofficial cinnamon roll day in Sweden. Too afraid to make brioche I was, as I have no experience making it yet. But I do agree with you, the buttery & cinnamony combination would be total yum!
Oh my goodness that looks good. More icing for me, please.
been craving these for ages, and had no recipe…will try this in the morning thanks
Sometimes there’s wisdom in the obvious. I’ve nearly given up looking for a great cinnamon roll, relying instead on the instant gratification of cinnamon rolls made quickly from buttermilk biscuit dough. You’ve got me convinced to give yeast another try. Plus with that photo, resistance is futile.
these look soo good! I must try this, I made cinnamon rolls a few times but found mine too hard..
These look awesome. I love to look at beautiful women but I would seriously rather look at these than gaze my eyes upon a picture of Natalie Portman.
After a lengthy search this recipe sounded like the one to try. I doubled the recipe and my Viking mixer almost died. These are the best I have ever made. This recipe is a keeper.
Just wanted you to know – I made these & even my “I don’t really like cinnamon roll” husband called me to tell me that they were fantastic, and my co-workers devoured an entire pan in 5 minutes & keep harassing me to make more.
Fantastic recipe, even though it did make me fear for my aging KitchenAid during the first portion of kneading!
[...] got the recipe from WhatGeeksEat after seeing it on Tastespotting (direct recipe link here) and found it relatively easy to make – the recipe is simple (albeit not in metric but I’m a [...]
I’m making these now. They jsut looked too good to resist. I do not have any mixers in my home though. So I improvised and used my break maker to do the mixing. :) We’ll see how it turns out. But I made the dough this morning. I’m not sure how long I have to refrigerate them for? Does overnight mean 8 hours?
[...] http://www.whatgeekseat.com/wordpress/2008/09/26/brioche-cinnamon-rolls/ [...]
About how thick did you slice each roll, and about how many finished rolls will a single recipe make.
Assuming you don’t eat 3 of them immediately after pulling them from the oven and simply decide they don’t count ;)
[...] Recipes That Use Brioche: Lobster Club Sandwiches Nutella Brioche Bread Pudding Brioche Cinnamon Rolls Scrambled Eggs in Baby Brioches with Smoked Salmon and Asparagus Almond-Crusted Vanilla [...]
For terrific icing, replace the regular milk with cultured buttermilk. Learned that little trick from a true geek publication, Cook’s Illustrated.
I thought the cinnamon rolls looked great! I have forever been wanting to find the perfect recipe and thought this may be it. I made the dough last night and followed the recipe to a T. However, when it came time to double in size and appear “fluffy” there wasn’t much going on. Does the milk have to be a specific temperature to activate the yeast?
Also, should I have used the entire amount of cinnamon and sugar mixture? I wasn’t quite sure how much to include and although I had a pretty hefty layer, there wasn’t much cinnamon flavor at all.
Please help!!