If you’re wondering what the best food of all time is, it’s Cinnamon Scrolls.

When I need a pick me up, or a good solid snack, there’s one recipe I turn to. I’ve made these many, many times over the years (I barely need the actual recipe anymore), and no one will ever convince me that these aren’t the best food of all time. Maybe not the most nutritious, but I swear I could inhale an entire batch of these with little to no problem.

Ingredients

Scrolls

  • 250ml (1 cup) milk
  • 125ml (½ cup) boiling water
  • 7g sachet dry yeast
  • 500g (3 cups) plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 36g (2 tbsp) caster sugar
  • 60g unsalted butter, melted

Cinnamon Butter

  • 60g unsalted butter, melted
  • 100g (½ cup) caster sugar
  • 10g (1 tbsp) ground cinnamon
  • 10ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract

Icing

  • 80g (½ cup) icing sugar
  • 20–40ml (1–2 tbsp) milk (as needed)

Method

  1. Combine hot water and milk in a bowl (mixture should be lukewarm). Add yeast and an optional pinch of sugar. Give a gentle stir to combine, and then set aside.
  2. Add flour, salt and sugar to large bowl and stir to combine.
  3. Add melted butter to dry ingredients and combine.
  4. Add yeast mixture and combine until the mixture forms a dough.
  5. Using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, knead dough until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl (around 6 minutes). Gradually add small amounts of flour as needed to help it come together, up to an additional 50g.
  6. Place dough in 40°C oven for 30 minutes to rise.
  7. Remove the risen dough and preheat oven to 200°C.
  8. Knock down dough, then flatten into a large rectangular shape with a rolling pin (around 30cm wide, and between 30–60cm long).
  9. In a small bowl/measuring cup, combine the cinnamon butter ingredients.
  10. Pour cinnamon butter onto the flattened dough, and spread evenly across the surface, leaving a small 3-5cm area along one of the short edges without butter.
  11. Starting from the opposite end to the one left clean, gently roll the dough up into a log. Use the clean end to bind the resulting log together.
  12. Optionally place the rolled log into the fridge for 10 minutes. This will help make it easier to slice.
  13. Slice the dough into twelve even rounds, and place into a large, greased baking pan. Using one with high walls (3cm or more) will help stop the rolls from spreading, but isn’t required.
  14. Bake for 15 minutes or until just turning golden.
  15. Transfer scrolls to a cooling rack.
  16. Adding the milk in small amounts (around a teaspoon at a time), combine icing ingredients in a container that can be used for drizzling (such as a measuring jug). Use as little milk as is needed to get the resulting mixture to a consistency that allows pouring.
  17. Drizzle scrolls with icing.

Notes

  • All measurements (including cups and tablespoons) are in metric.
  • Measuring by weight, rather than volume, helps to ensure key ingredients (like flour) are correct. If you must measure by volume, avoid packing the measuring cup. Then go buy some kitchen scales.
  • Salt can be omitted if using salted butter.
  • Dice the butter into small cubes to help it melt. Each 60g amount should then take roughly 30-40 seconds in a microwave.
  • Quantity of cinnamon butter and icing can be adjusted to taste.
  • Adding small amounts of additional flour during kneading, or while handling the dough, will help ensure the dough is not too sticky. It should be slightly tacky, but you want to be able to handle it without it sticking to everything.
  • A silicone mat (or a sheet of baking paper) can be used to make rolling the dough up to form a scroll. Fold the edge of the dough in to start, then progressively lift the mat/paper so that it rolls up, gently lifting the mat away from the dough as you go (as it’ll want to stick).
  • Excess cinnamon butter can be drizzled atop the sliced scrolls after cutting.