This is my aunt’s recipe which my mother always swore was “the” best sweet bread dough recipe.  She used potato and its water which makes such a tender dough, as you know.  I have made her recipe and added my own twist using chocolate cream cheese icing and cinnamon chips both inside and sprinkled over the top. 

I also made some with vanilla cream cheese icing.

Other photos can be seen here: http://zolablue.smugmug.com/gallery/2348537#122923980 

Chocolate Cinnamon Chip Rolls

Refrigerator Rolls – Makes 12 large rolls*

1 Package active dry yeast
1/2 Cup lukewarm water (add pinch of sugar) Set aside.

In large bowl:
2/3 Cup shortening
2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup mashed potato
1/2 Cup milk (Aunt uses evaporated milk)
1/2 cup water potatoes cooked in
4 to 6 cups all purpose flour (this varies but the less flour the better but must be able to handle the dough)

Mix first three ingredients; shortening, salt & sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat in. Add mashed potatoes, yeast, milk, potato water and mix.

Add flour; three to four cups, mixing well adding enough more flour until dough can be handled and turned onto floured board. Knead well using as little flour as possible. Place in large oiled bowl, cover and let rise double. Knead lightly and cover, place in fridge until ready to use or overnight.

For cinnamon rolls:
If refrigerated, let bowl sit at room temperature for 30 – 40 minutes. Then roll out dough on lightly floured counter to roughly 12 x 18 inches for large sized rolls. If dough has been divided for smaller sized rolls; roll out dough to approximately 1/2 inch thick. Brush on melted butter, then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon mixture and chopped cinnamon chips. Leave about 1/2" border.

Starting at edge tightly roll up dough. Cut into 1 1/2" pieces and place in buttered baking pan. Let rise until double.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Drizzle with icing and sprinkle chopped cinnamon chips.

Filling:
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 - 1 Cup cinnamon chips (chopped) - more to sprinkle over top

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
8 Ounces cream cheese, softened
3 Ounces** Ghirardelli 62% bittersweet unsweetened chocolate morsels, melted (or chocolate; your choice)
Dash of salt
3 Cups confectioners sugar
1/3 Whole Milk (approx – use enough to get desired consistency)
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add melted chocolate, salt, confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and spreadable.

*Or divide dough twice or into thirds for desired size rolls.

**Adjust chocolate amount if you are making part of the icing vanilla only.

Floyd, Zolablue,

I'd have to say both those recipes look really good, but my wife and kids haven't caught me looking at them yet.

Bill

Stop making things that look so yummy! I don't have time to bake right now! This isn't fair! Sigh. Off to the store for more raisins and walnuts...

Gary and I are both making Homer Simpson noises, then I showed my sister this page and she must have passed out, because she hasn't answered me. They're both gorgeous! The tomatillo sauce I just made doesn't compare. Grrrrr.  Where did you two say you live?

Susan

OMG, my MIL makes the best cinnamon buns, but those sure look like they could give her a run for her money. I am sooooo making these.

Those both look like winners and the photography looks professional. Very nice job.

Eric

All these goodies that require dairy to really make them "right". Wow, those all look great! I tried the BBA cinnamon roll recipe substituting soy products for the dairy (due to dairy allergy) and they just did not taste that great that I'd bother again..I think cinnamon rolls and sweet doughs like this really need the real milk and butter, not to mention ZolaBlue's delicious looking cream cheese icing! Boy, I miss dairy...

Thanks for the comments on my recipe and I hope if you try it you like it.  I wanted to add cinnamon to the icing but thought it might be overkill.  Naw, I think it would be good.  This dough recipe was also used to make my aunt's famous Swedish tea ring and orange rolls.  I haven't made those yet but I plan to.  I had a lot of working with the recipe to get it right since this was never a written recipe and my aunt was emailing me to help me get things right.

Floyd, my husband is a total raisin freak.  He just loves them and as much as he liked my cinnamon rolls he told me next time he would really love cinnamon rolls with raisins.  No, he said, cinnamon rolls HAVE to include raisins!

Those are beautiful! I haven't made cinnamon rolls in a few months. The only thing I would suggest is using dental floss or thread to cut the roll instead of a knife. It doesn't squish the dough down as much. Slide the floss under the roll, pull the ends of the floss up and cross them to cut through the dough. It takes me a lot less time to cut the rolls this way and you can grab a new piece of floss when the old one gets gummed up.

I actually just got done playing with cinnamon rolls myself. I started with the  recipe in the BBA and was disappointed with the results. For a second batch I modified it, changing a few things and incorporating some of Alton Brown's "overnight cinnamon roll" recipe. The end result was, in my mind, superior to either of the contributing recipes. Since it is a mix of AB's work and the dough from the BBA, I guess that makes these ABBA (Alton Brown's/Baking Apprentice) rolls...

Dough: (this is very similar to Reinhart's dough, with the addition of the cinnamon and a move away from using all bread flour)
6 ½ tbsp (3.25 ounces) granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
5 ½ tbsp (2.75 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
1 tsp cinnamon
6 ounces bread flour
10 ounces AP flour
2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/8 C. (9 ounces) buttermilk at room temperature

Filling: (from Alton Brown's recipe)
8 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 cup packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
3/4-ounce unsalted butter, melted, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons

Icing: (based loosely on AB's recipe, but drastically changed as I prefer a thicker icing that has more cream cheese flavor)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3s cup confectioners sugar

[Similar to the dough-making process from the BBA] 

Combine the flour, yeast and 1 tsp. cinnamon and whisk to mix ingredients. Set aside.

Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Mix until well incorporated. Set aside until ready to use.

Cream together the sugar, salt and butter on medium-high speed in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

Add the egg and lemon zest and continue mixing until smooth.

Then add the flour mixture and buttermilk. Mix on low speed until the dough forms a rough ball. Switch to the dough hook and increase the speed to medium, mixing for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky. You may have to add more flour or water to achieve this texture. The dough should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer dough to a large, lightly oiled bowl, mist the top of the dough with spray oil and then cover the dough with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temperature for 2 hours or until the dough roughly doubles in size.

[Now switch to AB's process with "*"s denoting changes from his recipe]

Butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently shape the dough into a rectangle with the long side nearest you. Roll into an 18 by 12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the 3/4-ounce of melted butter, leaving 1/2-inch border along the top edge. Sprinkle the filling mixture over the dough, leaving a 3/4-inch border along the top edge; gently press the filling into the dough...[side note: This will seem like too much filling but you can use all of it on that one piece of dough, and the results are worth it.]

Beginning with the long edge nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Firmly pinch the seam to seal and roll the cylinder seam side down. Very gently squeeze the cylinder to create even thickness. Using a serrated knife, slice the cylinder into 1 1/2-inch rolls; yielding 12 rolls. Arrange rolls cut side down in the baking dish; cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight or up to 16 hours.

* Remove the rolls from the refrigerator one and a half hours before baking.

* Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

* When the oven is ready, place the rolls on the middle rack and bake for 5 minutes. Turn down the oven to 350 and continue baking until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, approximately 20-25 minutes.

While the rolls are cooling slightly, make the icing by whisking the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy. Add the milk and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sift in the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Spread over the rolls and serve immediately.

Floyd's recipe in particular resembles a long "loaf" of Cinnamon Rasin bread.  Just cut to length to fill your loaf pans and you'd have bread instead.  I'd wager it would work pretty well too just be carful not to overproof with all the sugar in the recipie. (filling included)

I JUST baked bread too.....my wife will have kittens if I try this tonight......DARN!  Too bad I'm allergic to cats! 

The variations of this recipe absolutely enthuses me to make them again. I first met these years ago (1960) when taking part in a cooking course. A bread dough with egg enriches the texture and flavour and was my favourite. Since then I have discovered how one or two drops of cinnamon bark oil intensifies the flavour when added to butter in the filling and it beats even the freshest of ground cinnamon bark.

i usually do the alton brown recipe but  use  milk instead of water and then half white whole wheat instead of apf. a quick shortcut instead of the glaze is putting about a cup of brown sugar, about 1/3 cup of whipping cream and a handful of nuts at the bottom of the pan before putting the rolls. before baking, drizzle about 1/4 of whipping cream on top of the rolls. when done, invert the pan onto a plate and the very gooey caramel will scream eeeeaaat meeeee!!!!!!!!!!

granniero This morning my family was treated to a pretty darn good batch of rolls,my first try at this particular recipe. I have been exploring local libraries and seen many good books including most of the main ones discussed here and plan to buy some but enjoy the free previews first. Now to the rolls. I don't have pictures but methods and outcomes I see here are very similar. I used the dental floss for cutting,works great. This is from a book called "The Doughmakers Cookbook",by Bette Laplante and Diane Cuvelier, interesting story and good recipes.

These are called overnight Cinnamon Rolls and makes 32.

Ingred:

one 18oz French Vanilla cake mix;

5 and 1/4c all purp. flour;

2 pkts yeast;

1 t salt;

2 and 1/2c warm water;

Filling:

1/2c sugar;

2t cinnamon;

1/2c melted butter;

1/2c raisins;

3/4c chopped nuts.

Icing:

1c powdered sugar;

3T milk;

1/2t vanilla.

Stir together.

Stir together in lg bowl cake mix,flour,yeast,salt and water.Cover and let rise about 1 hr or till doubled. Combine sugar and cinnamon and set aside. When ready,turn dough out on floured surface,cut in half,roll each piece to about 12x18" rectangle.Spread each piece with half of the butter,cinn. sugar,nuts and raisins. Roll into log,press seam with wet fingers. Cut each log into 16 one inch pieces and place in lightly greased 9"x13" pans.(Makes 2 pans).Cover and place in refrig. overnight. In a.m. take out and let stand about 30 min. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 25 min or until tops golden brown,I went about 30 or 35. Drizzle with icing and can add more chopped nuts if desired.

These directions aren't word for word from the book since I took the liberty of condensing them but if you have any questions let me know. The reason I like these better than any I have done before is that they have a softer texture than the plain dough ones,I guess it is the cake mix. The dough isn't overly sweet. They cooked well all the way through,I have had gummy centers sometimes before.It made enough for 8 people,my kids and grandkids were thrilled,and they weren't too messy to make. I even rolled my dough out on a large floured cookie sheet to get the correct size log and it helped contain the mess and everything was quick including the clean-up. Could not have asked for more. Daughters suggestion was next time make a cream cheese icing and here I see there is one also that has chocolate icing so there we have the best of all worlds!

I hope someone tries these and enjoys them as much as we did,I will definitely be making them again. Rosemary in warm NE Florida

Zola, that is a beautiful cinnamon delicacy there :)

I am at a loss as to what your cinnamon chips are. The only cinnamon chips I know of are cinnamon baked tortilla chip wedges for fruit salsa.

Hot drinking chocolate would go well with your rolls.

Has anyone tried using a couple of drops of cinnamon bark oil added to the butter in the filling yet? I can vouch that the flavour of your cinnamon rolls will amazingly improve. Trust me!

It's cinnamon roll mania! Here's a batch from a slightly adapted version of Alton Brown's recipe (I don't have the patience to wait for an overnight rise). 

The only problem I'm having is that the bottoms still get too burned from the excess sugar, even with a glass baking dish. They were located in the top half of the oven but I don't know what else to do to avoid this, it seems like the bottoms burn before the tops are fully browned. This was at 375, I could go down to 350 but don't know if that will create other problems...any thoughts?

I want to make your cinnamon buns, but I'd like to know what the dough should look like in the mixer bowl. Should it mix into a ball or should it be sticky on the bottom of the bowl, but clear the sides?

Funny enough, my first bread baking endevours have been artisan breads so I'm used to high hydration doughs.

I'm so sorry I don't remember what this was like in the bowl.  I was trying so hard to pay attention to my aunt's details on her notes and this was before I actually wrote her recipe up so it could be followed easily by others.  I have only made this one time, if you can believe it, and I put my own twist on it with the cinnamon chips and the icings I used.   Since my husband has just requested these again I will be making them again soon so I'll try and pay attention but, of course, that won't help you now.

I can tell you that I believe I ended up using all 6 cups of flour and the dough was still very soft.  It is supposed to be soft and, of course, the potato adds to that.  I know I did end up kneading in the last cup or so of flour with the dough on the counter trying to copy how my aunt has done this for so many years. 

I feel I've probably not helped you much.  Please do let me know how yours turn out.  They are so delicious, really this dough is wonderful.  And, as I may have mentioned above, I have a recipe for making this dough into my aunt's famous Swedish tea ring and her sister, my other aunt, famously made this into delicious orange rolls.  It works so well for so many things because it is such a tasty sweet bread dough.   Good luck! 

I'm not sure when exactly I'll be making these. I just received my cinnamon chips from the US so I at least have the ingredients now.

If you make your buns before I do, I'd appreciate knowing. Thanks for the offer. Otherwise, I'll try to go by your suggestions.

Hi,
i would love to know what cinnamon chips are. Could someone let me know please? I think all we have here are ground cinnamon,cinnamon quills and cinnamon bark oil.

Hi Squid and Zolablue,
Thank you for your help. i had never heard of them before and am pretty sure they are not in NZ even though there are some Hersheys products available. But I will keep a look out for them - maybe find who imports them and ask whether they can be made available. In the meantime, to get a similar result, I will use dark chocolate melts mixed with a few drops of cinnamon bark oil.
Thanks again, M

It's definately possible to both reduce the recipe (just make a half recipe) and knead by hand.  If kneading by hand, I'd just let it rise and rest longer as the yeast and time will eventually have the same effect as the mechanical kneading.  At least, that's the basic idea behind the no-knead bread recipes that are popping up everywhere, right?  One way or another, this recipe can certainly be made by hand.

Thanks again! 

Excellent presentation and very inspirational!

To take up this new one.  Bridgestone, one question as I drool over the pictures,  the egg wash ...one egg & one teaspoon salt plus  2 Tbs water?  Isn't that a lot of salt?  Is it correct?  Just want to be sure...

Mini O

WOW!  As soon as I've lost the 10 lbs I've gained from eating an awful lotta bread I'm going to try these cinnamon cardamon buns, rolls etc!  Thanks for sharing.

I have been craving cinnamon rolls for months - why I'm not making them again, I don't know. Just too many things on the list to try. You have done an excellent job of showing us your process. Your dough recipe sounds so good and I am also in the camp of loving cardamom. Thanks!

I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow. Right now they are in the first rise, getting ready for their cool nighty night! I can't wait till morning. I'm glad I was just browsing around one day last week and found the whole thread. Everyone did a fantastic job on the photos! It was such a coincidence that I found it, my friend and I had been one the phone that morning talking about making some, but wanted to do better then ours! She doesn't have Internet, and the thread looked so good I got her to get in her car and come over just to see every ones work. I really liked the look of your recipe. The potato should make a world of difference in the ones I had been making. Their were several things in fact, like the shortening. I have do a Parker house roll that has Crisco in it, and they turn out very soft, and the Crisco makes them freeze well. I may have to freeze some of yours NEXT TIME! I see myself eating all of this batch! Well I must go now and tend the dough. Then its off to bed to have sweet cinnamon roll dreams! (Well a girl can dream can't she! It sounds better than dragging in bed only to be awaken by my 2 year old every 45 minutes!)

Audra - You have humbled me with my own recipe! Wow! Those are absolutely beautiful rolls and just look at that beautifully flaky dough! They look simply delectable, I'm not kidding you.

You know how special the recipe is to me for the sweet dough, being my dear aunt's, so it is always so nice to hear when others appreciate its wonderful flavor. So far it is my favorite sweet dough and I do think the potato makes it special.

I don't think you need the cinnamon chips at all - they're just for an added extra touch but not necessary. Listen, I just ate some incredible French toast made with sourdough challah so I am definately not hungry but you are making me drool with these photos. Thank you so much for trying the recipe.

(The dough makes a fabulous Swedish tea ring and also orange rolls that my other aunt makes but as you know the possibilities are endless.)

I tried these yesterday and got twelve delicious and fluffy buns! I really didn't have any milk on hand, so i used water instead. Although I ended up using aout a half cup of flour more, the buns were still pretty good in my book!

Has anyone tried these using soy or rice milk?  I have company coming in a week, and really don't want to make them and not be able to have a taste.  I can make them with water, as mentioned above, but the milk does add a richness.

Would coconut milk be an alternative to cow's milk? I haven't used it for these but use it in other baking items. I would imagine that the cinnamon. brown sugar and coconut milk flavours would all be compatible.