Yum
Serves 4-8 Takes About 3 1/2 Hours.
I have been making a version of this for years, but I think now, with the help of a technique taken from King Arthur Flour, I have my favorite version of Vanilla Chai Cinnamon Rolls yet. I love the flavor of Vanilla Chai, and by steeping the tea in the milk used for this dough and using it in the icing, you get a healthy dose of Vanilla Chai that compliments the flavors of a Cinnamon Roll very well. The trick to this recipe is taken from the wonderful King Arthur Flour, which is using a "starter" slurry of milk, water, a flour that you use to help bind the rest of the ingredients without needing much extra work for such a soft dough. It takes a long time to rise, Slighty more than a normal Cinnamon Roll recipe, but I promise you these are the softest, most pillowy Cinnamon Rolls you have ever made. For anyone who has made Cinnamon Rolls before, the majority of this recipe will be pretty familiar. If you haven't...making Cinnamon Rolls is a long process but absolutely worth it.
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Ingredients
This recipe has four stages, so I've broken down the ingredients that you will need by stage instead of one giant total amount. I think this makes it easier to know what all of it is for.
Starter
5 Tbl Water
5 Tbl Whole Milk
3 Tbl + 1 tsp Unbleached Bread Flour
Dough
2 Tea bags of Vanilla Chai Tea
All of Starter listed above
4 Cups 2 Tbl Unbleached Bread Flour
1/3rd Cup Nonfat Dry Milk
1 3/4 tsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbl Instant Yeast (Room Temp)
3/4 Cup lukewarm Half and Half (Vanilla Chai Tea)
2 Large Eggs (Room Temp)
6 Tbl Butter (Melted)
Filling
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick, softened)
3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar)
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Allspice
Glaze
3 Tbl Butter (melted)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cup Half and Half (Vanilla Chai Tea)
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Directions
1. Let's start with the easy part. Heat 1 Cup of Half and Half in a Microwave in a Microwave safe Measuring Cup. We want it warm-hot, but not boiling. It took me about 1 and a half minutes in the microwave. Once it's about lukewarm, steep two Vanilla Chai Tea Bags for a minimum of 5 minutes, set aside.
2. Making the Starter. Combine all of the starter ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain.
3. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and cook the mixture, whisking
constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the
pan. This will probably take only a minute or two. Remove from the heat,
and set it aside for several minutes.
4. To make the dough: Mix the starter with the remaining dough
ingredients until everything comes together. Let the dough rest,
covered, for 20 minutes; this will give the flour a chance to absorb the
liquid.
5.After 20 minutes, knead the dough by hand or mixer, to make a smooth, elastic, somewhat sticky dough. About 5 minutes in a mixer with a dough hook, 10 by hand.
6. Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased
covered bowl for 90 minutes. It will grow in size and be puffy, but it won't be doubled in size.
7. While you're waiting, assemble your filling ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, combine Brown Sugar with your spices and half your softened stick of butter split in half ready to go.
8. Gently deflate the dough, work into a ball and split the ball in half and shape into as close to a rectangular shape as you can.
9. We don't want to add flour to this dough while working on it, so cover your rolling pin in a light layer of neutral-flavored oil, I used canola. Take one half of your dough and roll out on a cutting board to about 9"x15" That is, about 9 inches vertical and roughly 15 inches horizontal. Go slow as to not tear the dough.
10. Use a butter knife or (or offset spatula if you have one) to spread one half of your softened butter across your first 9"x15" rectangle, getting as thin and even of a coating as possible. Then very gently toss half of your brown sugar and spice mixture over your dough, trying to keep a light, even layer across all of the dough.
11. Rolling the dough. This part takes some care. Very slowly and with care, roll your dough from the top down, making as small of rolls as you can going down. The smaller the rolls you get, the tighter the rolls will be when you cut them. Once you have a log, straighten it out any to be a uniform size and pinch the ends to try and keep the filling in. Using a sharp knife, cut the log into pieces that are about 1 1/2 inch long. For me, this was 8 pieces, 2 ends and 6 middle.
12. Lightly grease a 9"x13" baking pan and set your rolls in the pan.
13. If your cutting board/rolling area got any filling on it, clean it off and take your second dough rectangle and repeat steps 9 through 11.
14. Time for the second rise. Cover your Cinnamon-Roll filled baking pan and let rest for 60 more minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F while you are waiting, putting your racks to the bottom-middle of the oven.
15. Uncover the Rolls, they should be a nice bulky size now. Place in oven and let cook 22-25 minutes. Check at 22 minutes, but mine took the full 25. They will be fairly pale with only minimal browning. This is the desired color, we do not want them more than slightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes.
16. While waiting for Rolls to cool, make the icing. Whisk together the icing ingredients until it comes together. It will be thick, it will thin a little with the heat. After the Rolls have cooled for ten minutes, drizzle rolls with icing and serve.
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Tips And What Could Be Done Differently
If you do not have a microwave, you can heat the milk in a small saucepot on the stove, whisking on low heat to keep it from scalding. Remember, you are heating it to steep tea in, so lukewarm, not boiling.
The beauty of these rolls is that because they are so soft, they also stay soft when properly covered and stored in the refrigerator. At the time of this writing, I made the rolls in the photo 5 days ago, and this morning I warmed up my stored leftovers for about 2 minutes in the microwave and they were literally just as soft as they were when I made them. King Arthur's recipe says you can store leftovers in the freezer for a month or so, but I don't ever imagine them lasting that long. They will last at least one week in the fridge.
The last time I made this, I realized I didn't have Clove or Allspice, so I substituted 4 tsp. of a pre-made Pumpkin Pie Spice for the Cinnamon, Clove Nutmeg and Allspice mixture and since that's pretty much exactly what's in Pumpkin Pie Spice (except sometimes it also has Ginger) It's a perfectly fine substitute in a pinch.
Toasted Walnuts or Pecans would be an excellent addition to these if you have them. Toss them on when Rolls are fresh out of oven and before covering in icing.
I love Vanilla Chai and warming spices in general (has that been made obvious yet?) so that is why I have included it here, but this technique to make Cinnamon Rolls will work with any sort of flavored tea you can steep in milk and pair with warming spices. Here are other flavors I intend on trying myself that you could do too: Caramel, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Orange, Raspberry and Peach.
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