My Mom told me a few months back that she'd started making these amazing cinnamon rolls out of her whole wheat bread dough. I admit, I was skeptical. A whole wheat cinnamon roll? I decided to try it a couple months back, and she was totally right. They are sooo good. And if you minus the fat-laden, exploding with sugar, (but absolutely heavenly) cream cheese frosting, they're actually good for you. Fresh ground wheat, canola oil, honey=vitamins, minerals, omega 3s, fiber & protein. Right?
I posted the recipe for the Whole Wheat bread a couple of years back, but here it is again with the adjustments for Cinnamon Rolls.
6 2/3 C hot water
3 T yeast
2/3 C honey
2/3 C butter (I use olive oil or canola oil because Tanner and Kate can't eat dairy)
2 T salt
2 C flour
1/2 C wheat gluten
2 C oat flour (you can grind up oatmeal in your blender or replace with whole wheat flour)
14-16 C whole wheat flour (I use Kamut flour, but white whole wheat flour works great too)
Mix water, honey yeast. Let proof. Add white flour, oat flour, gluten and half of the whole wheat flour. Mix. Add salt and butter/oil. Mix. Add the rest of the flour until it barely cleans the upper half of the bowl when mixer is running. Knead for 10 minutes in mixer. Dough should be smooth and elastic, but sticky. Let rest 10-20 minutes. Set oven to 170 degrees. Spray Pam on your hands and divide into 4 loaves. Put in greased bread pans. Place loaves in oven and immediately turn OFF oven. Let rise in oven for 22 minutes then turn oven to 350 degrees and cook 28-30 minutes. Immediately turn out onto cooling racks.
*The amount of whole wheat flour you use will just depend on how dry your wheat is and how humid it is where you live. For example, here in California I add almost a full 2 cups LESS than my Mom does in Oregon because it is a lot drier here.
*This batch is made in a Bosch. If you have a Kitchen Aid, halve the recipe.
Here are the adjustments for Cinnamon Rolls.
- Instead of making 4 loaves of bread, make 3 loaves, and the extra dough will be for a 9X13 pan of cinnamon rolls.
- Roll out dough, spread softened butter all over dough, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar that is very heavy on the cinnamon ( I can't really emphasize this part enough). And when I say "sprinkle" the cinnamon sugar, I probably mean "pour" on the cinnamon sugar. = )
- Roll up into a snake, cut out 12 pieces, place in greased pan.
- Raise and bake as you would the loaves of bread.
- Cover with lots and lots of cream cheese frosting. I use a Martha Recipe, but I'm sure any full-fat cream cheese frosting made with real butter will do the trick.