Make ahead cinnamon rolls-help needed please!

[erv917]

Inspired in part by recent threads on giving homemade cinnamon rolls as gifts, I am thinking of making cinnamon rolls for my family Christmas morning (not to be delivered, for the people who'll be at my house that morning, total of 8 people). I would like to make them ahead of time and freeze, and I know many people have done that with cinnamon rolls. For background, I am a moderately experienced baker, bake bread pretty often, etc, but have never attempted cinnamon rolls. I'm not too clear if they need a second rise before freezing? After freezing? I am assuming frosting should be made that a.m. and put on immediately before baking? Kinda clueless here!

Not sure I'll have a chance to do a dry run before Christmas (nor do I really need the temptation of having an extra batch around!!), so if someone could talk me through this in detail that would be a huge help!

TIA!!

[trentsmom]

I've made the Cinnabon clone a few times before, but I don't have any experience with freezing it. I would do the second rise before freezing strictly based on the fact that one year I tried to do the second rise in the fridge overnight, and it barely rose at all. As far as the icing, someone here talked about freezing it successfully, but I don't think it's any big deal to whip it up while the rolls are baking. I just leave all of the ingredients on the counter overnight (I put them out right before bed) so that they are soft enough to use in the morning.

[MommytoEliana]

These aren't exactly what you were asking for (to have in the freezer), but if you have a bread machine, they are nice and easy. All the work for them is done the night before (and it isn't much work). Christmas morning you just stick them in the oven. Oh, and they're yummy! :-)

Make-ahead Caramel Rolls

Dough

1 1/4 c water (room temperature or lukewarm, not hot)
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c shortening/butter
1/2 T salt
1 egg
2 T gluten
4 c flour
1/2 t yeast

Butter
Cinnamon
Sugar

Caramel

1 c brown sugar
1 stick margarine/butter
3/4 c ice cream


Preparation

Put the dough ingredients into a bread machine in order given; use dough cycle. The dough should finish about 3 p.m. (so start at 1:30 p.m. for a 1.5 hour dough cycle). Let the dough rise in the machine. Punch dough down at 7 p.m. At around 10 p.m. roll the dough into a 12" long rectangle, spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll up like a jellyroll. Cut into 1-inch rolls and place in greased 9x13-inch pan.

Melt butter, add ice cream, and stir until melted. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Pour over rolls. Cover pan with a towel and let rise on counter overnight. Ready to bake at 7 a.m. at 350° for 20-30 minutes.

Makes a dozen rolls.

[Pepper]

Inspired in part by recent threads on giving homemade cinnamon rolls as gifts, I am thinking of making cinnamon rolls for my family Christmas morning (not to be delivered, for the people who'll be at my house that morning, total of 8 people). I would like to make them ahead of time and freeze, and I know many people have done that with cinnamon rolls. For background, I am a moderately experienced baker, bake bread pretty often, etc, but have never attempted cinnamon rolls. I'm not too clear if they need a second rise before freezing? After freezing? I am assuming frosting should be made that a.m. and put on immediately before baking? Kinda clueless here!

Not sure I'll have a chance to do a dry run before Christmas (nor do I really need the temptation of having an extra batch around!!), so if someone could talk me through this in detail that would be a huge help!

TIA!!

I make the dough (first rise), roll it out into a rectangle and spread on the filling, roll it up and then cut into individual rolls. I put them in a baking pan and freeze (put the pan in the freezer until the dough is frozen and then cover it with a layer of waxed paper, followed by a tighly wrapped piece of aluminum foil). The night before you want to bake the rolls, take the pan out of the freezer and put it in the fridge. In the morning, take the pan out of the fridge and let it rest at room temp until you are ready to bake (I usually wait a couple of hours - get 'em out of the fridge when the kids wake up and put them in the ovewn as the present-unwrapping frenzy is winding down). Make the frosting while the rolls are baking and spread it on after they have cooled a bit. (If the rolls are too warm all the frosting will ruin down the sides...not always a bad thing!)

I've also done it where you make the dough the night before...do the frist rise, shape and cut the rolls and put them in the baking pans, then cover and and let them rise in the fridge overnight. In the morning take the pans out of the fridge ~30 minutes before you want to bake them.

[erv917]

Thanks so much! Lots of helpful tips!

[speo]

The night before you want to bake the rolls, take the pan out of the freezer and put it in the fridge. In the morning, take the pan out of the fridge and let it rest at room temp until you are ready to bake (I usually wait a couple of hours - get 'em out of the fridge when the kids wake up and put them in the ovewn as the present-unwrapping frenzy is winding down). Make the frosting while the rolls are baking and spread it on after they have cooled a bit. (If the rolls are too warm all the frosting will ruin down the sides...not always a bad thing!)


Do you think the rolls could be taken out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator 2 days before? We need to eat fairly quickly in the morning because we open stockings, then eat, then open presents. TIA!

[Pepper]

Do you think the rolls could be taken out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator 2 days before? We need to eat fairly quickly in the morning because we open stockings, then eat, then open presents. TIA!

In that case, take them out of the freeaer the morning before - one whole day, so they have time to thaw & rise.

Just to be clear: make the dough & let it rise, shape the rolls and freeze, then remove from freezer & transfer to fridge 24 hours before you plan to bake. The next day take them out of the fridge as soon as you wake up & let them warm up a bit while the oven preheats.

Good luck!

[rin]

I do freezer cinnamon rolls fairly often. What I do is: I make up a big batch of cinnamon rolls (let the dough rise once, roll it out & brush w/sugar, cinnamon, butter, etc, whatever your filling is, then roll it up & cut) whenever. If I'm going to make them for the next morning, I stick the pan in the fridge overnight & take it out about an hour before I want to bake them.

When they've been in the freezer, I take them out the night before and leave them on the countertop. If they're in the fridge all night they take forever to rise. Then when I get up in the morning I just turn the oven on, by the time it's preheated I put the rolls in & we eat 20-30 minutes later.

A couple tips: I've found that recipes that use a lot of butter for the filling tend to ooze more filling out the bottom when they sit overnight, so you have cinnamon rolls that are gooier on the bottom and less gooey in the middle. It's not bad, just something to note. I often compensate by adding the butter to the dough itself and then just having the filling be cinnamon & sugar. Once you pour glaze over the top it's all the same!

Also, cutting the cinnamon rolls with a piece of thread rather than a knife is way nicer & avoids the whole squished cinnamon roll problem.

[speo]

Thanks for the advice Pepper and rin!! I can't wait to try these out.

[minnie-zb]

Pepper & Rin -- thanks for sharing your tips.

By chance, does anyone have a recipe they want to share for cinnamon rolls? I don't have a bread machine. The recipe I have is delicious, but pretty labor intensive. Do you all use the recipes from allrecipes?

[g-mama]

By chance, does anyone have a recipe they want to share for cinnamon rolls? I don't have a bread machine. The recipe I have is delicious, but pretty labor intensive. Do you all use the recipes from allrecipes?

I just made these today without a bread machine. Here is the method I used, which I got from the reviews:


"Someone wanted to know how to make this without a bread machine, here is how. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Then pick up with rolling out the dough. Hope this helped!"


My advice: mix the dough up with the dough hook on your KitchenAid if you have one!

[Pepper]

Pepper & Rin -- thanks for sharing your tips.

By chance, does anyone have a recipe they want to share for cinnamon rolls? I don't have a bread machine. The recipe I have is delicious, but pretty labor intensive. Do you all use the recipes from allrecipes?

I make up the dough in my food processor. For whatever reason, I cannot make dough in my KitchenAid mixer - it always climbs the hook and I have to stopp it about a zillions times and push it back down. I have a big, 14-cup Cuisinart food processor that came with a dough blade (it's not a sharp blade, so it kneads the dough) and a dough setting. I got rid of my bread maker ages ago and basically use the food processor for all things dough-y....i;ve adapted recipes, basically you mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the wet while the blade is running and let the dough mix for a minute or two. Sometimes I'll let the yeast proof in some water with a pinch of sugar, and add it with the wet ingredeints, but mostly I just add the yeast to the flour and salt.

The last couple of times I've done cinnamon rolls I used a recipe that had pumpkin puree inthe dough and cranberries in the filling...I can try to track it down if you're interested.

[sunriseiz]

The last couple of times I've done cinnamon rolls I used a recipe that had pumpkin puree inthe dough and cranberries in the filling...I can try to track it down if you're interested.

I would love this recipe if you can find it! Thanks!

[minnie-zb]

OK, I'm doing my planning and looking at recipes.

Has anyone done the Alton Brown overnight cinnamon rolls (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/overnight-cinnamon-rolls-recipe/index.html)?

They looks good and they have good reviews.

I'm thinking about going with these....