Is it my imagination? Or are Grandma Matson’s Homemade Cinnamon Rolls too sexy for the pan? Oh yeah! Bring ’em on baby! Vintage style and all tucked into cute little heart-shaped pans — though they taste just as awesome baked in round and sheet pans too! haha! 🙂 And we’ve prepared them 5 different ways — kinda like a cinnamon roll slap-down!

(psst! watch for some secret ingredients — like cocoa-in-the-dough and in the filling.)

Special Gift: Grandma Matson is not my own grandma and I never had the pleasure of meeting her — but her grandson gave me the special gift of her well-worn recipe box and now I feel like I know her. I am so honored to have her little treasure box in my kitchen! And what a delightful collection of well-worn recipe cards!

(And won’t it be fun to bake something for her grandson with one of his grandma’s own time-tested recipes?)

Spring rain is here! And it seems to be bringing us great things — like big floppy peach roses in the garden. So I’m thinking this spring season might be a great time to gather friends round the kitchen to have a go at a breakfast-making party gone wild with these tender scratch cinnamon rolls locked with butter and honey and sprinkles of cinnamon and cocoa.

Everyone’s a Winner! We had an elaborate taste testing of these little goodies to determine the best of the variety, however, we ended up with a 5-way tie for the winner with all votes cast evenly (though I noticed some votes were for all choices – ha!). So you’ll have to choose — or just make a little of each for your own taste testing party. 🙂

One thing’s for sure. These little swirls of old-fashioned breakfast sweets will wake up the house with a smile!

SLOW COOKING WARNING: This is a lovely yeast recipe that requires a one-hour first rise and then a half-hour to one-hour second rise and then about a half hour for baking. Oh, and toss the bread machine (for the moment) cause we’ll be doin’ this old-school style — by hand. So factor in an extra 10 minutes of arm-toning time to knead that dough and get your meditation game on. 🙂

Keep it peaceful and serene while you knuckle down on the dough OR jack up the music! but prepare to fill your home with the amazing aroma of fresh flowers from the garden banging up against the incredible smell of rising yeast rolls and cinnamon!

Choose Your Lane! We’re making these rolls with 5 different fillings (although you can choose just one if you like): 1) butter and cinnamon; 2) honey and cinnamon; 3) butter and cinnamon and honey; 4) butter and cinnamon and sugar and honey; AND 5) butter and cinnamon and sugar and honey and cocoa! (I won’t say that you could throw some chopped pecans in there because I might just pass out from overwhelm!) whoo hoo! We’re also baking them into different pans to show you how it can go!

Grandma Matson’s Cinnamon Rolls:

Tools Needed for Cinnamon Rolls:
Cooking spray (or butter, for greasing dough bowl and pans)
2 heart-shaped pan(s) (we used 8″ and 6″) or 1 round 10″ pan, all should be 2″ deep
Small bowl or cup (for warming egg with warm water)
Small sauce pot (for scalding milk)
Large bowl for mixing all ingredients
Large wooden spoon for initial stirring of dough
Measuring cups and spoons
Elbow grease (for kneading dough) 🙂
Pastry brush (or clean hardware brush, or knife, for brushing butter on the rolls)
Plastic wrap (or clean cotton dish towel) for covering rising dough)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Rolls:
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 cup scalded cooled milk
1/2 cup warm water
2-1/2 teaspoons active-rise or rapid-rise yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey (we used clover)
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter, chilled, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
Extra butter for brushing baked rolls

Okay! Grab a pretty cup of coffee and let’s hit this road running!

Directions for Cinnamon Rolls:

Place into a warm cup of water to bring to room temperature:
1 large egg (in the shell)

In a small sauce pot, bring to just scalding (not boiling, more like a simmer):
1/2 cup milk

Set the sauce pot off the heat and allow it to come to room temperature.

In a small bowl or cup, stir until dissolved (and let set for about 5 minutes):
1/2 cup warm water
2-1/2 teaspoons active-rise or rapid-rise yeast (or a packet)

In a large bowl, just add in all of the following and stir with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey (we used clover honey but any will do)
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter, chilled, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder (secret ingredient alert!)
the prepared water yeast mixture that shows bubbling action
the prepared room temperature milk
the temperature-prepared egg, fork stirred
optional: 1/8 teaspoon rapid rise yeast (this is the good luck sprinkling yeast) 🙂

Gently knuckle the dough and fold it in the bowl for about one minute and then just press and fold it in your hands for another minute. (Get a feel for it.) 🙂

Place it on the counter and knead it for about 8 minutes (for a total hand-kneading time of 10 minutes). No shortcuts please. Breathe and smile while you do this. The chilled butter takes some time to melt into the dough so don’t rush and focus on LOVE!! 😀

Wash the dough bowl with warm water (to take the chill off), dry it and spray it with cooking spray.

Place the dough into the prepared bowl and lightly spray the top of the dough with cooking spray (or just smear butter round the bowl and brush the top of the dough with a bit of softened butter).

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or a clean cotton dish towel) and place the bowl in a warm spot.
Tip: I place the covered dough bowl in the oven with ONLY the light bulb for warmth.

When your dough has doubled in size after 1 hour, it will look like this…(It’s alive!)

Remove the doubled dough from the bowl and knead it gently for a minute. You might hear some bubbles pop as you do this.

Now throw the dough on a lightly floured slab (or the counter) with a tiny sprinkle of flour on top…

Roll it out into a 12″ x 16″ rectangle. (I cover a raised marble slab but a raised cutting board or a flat counter will do just as well.)

Trim the rolled-out dough to be a perfect 12×16 rectangle (okay, perfection is not required).

Mixable or Optional Filling Ingredients for Cinnamon Rolls:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (spreadable consistency)
2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey (we used clover)
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Choose your weapons! (You may choose 1 or more of the below fillings):

1. spread of soft butter, sprinkle of cinnamon (the best classic style!)

2. spread of soft butter, sprinkle of cinnamon and honey (our fave, maybe!)

3. drizzle of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon (less butter but just as awesome!)

4. spread of soft butter, sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of sugar AND drizzle of honey! (the best!)

5. spread of soft butter, sprinkle of cinnamon, sprinkle of cocoa powder AND a drizzle of honey (gotta be the best, come on!)

Spread The Goodness!

If you selected two different fillings, slice your rolled dough down the center before you begin so you don’t cross over the line with different fillings. 🙂

Even if you are filling all rolls with the same set of ingredients, slice your rolled dough in half so that you will end up with 2 nice workable rolls of filled dough.

If you’re using any option with butter, do the butter thing first. Use a pastry brush or knife to gently brush over the entire dough with butter, then evenly sprinkle on dry ingredients.

If you’re using honey, just drizzle it over top of all ingredients in a king-of-pattern.

Here’s a photo of the honey-cinnamon rolls (on the left) and the cinnamon-sugar rolls (on the right) just before they get rolled up and cut.

Roll up the prepared rolled dough from the outer edges toward the center divide.

Use a very sharp serrated knife (or fishing line, according to my own grandma) to slice the roll into slices. We sliced these into 1/2″ slices (for a smaller roll). If you want a tall or thick roll, cut them about 1-inch thick. They will rise to almost double their starting height if everything goes as planned. 🙂

If you use honey, the roll may get slippery and you may have to re-roll each roll after you cut it, but honey fingers are kinda fun. As Pooh Bear would say, “Oh yes, I’m rumbly in my tumbly. Time for something sweet.”

Place the rolls into the prepared pan(s) to just barely touch each other (or a little separated from each other), evenly distributed throughout the pan.

Once all the rolls are locked and loaded in the pan, it’s time for the second rise in a warm spot for about a half hour to an hour. They’re ready to bake when they have doubled (or almost doubled) in size.

Tip: The baked rolls in these photos went through a half-hour second rise (cause we could not wait to test them, but I would recommend a full one-hour for the second rise for highest possible “lift”).

The butter and cinnamon rolls are rising nicely…

Notice where the sugar was sprinkled in globs, the yeast dough gets a little puffier (cause it gets excited whenever there’s sugar around), so try to be more even-handed with your sugar sprinkles than our kids were, though I think it looks kinda cute this way. 😀

The honey, butter and cinnamon rolls are rising nicely…

We also made individual cinnamon rolls set apart from each other on a cookie sheet pan (although I recommend you knock them up close to each other so they stay more tender and don’t unfurl their little tails).

Set the oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 350.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes to a light golden color, about 190 degrees internal temperature.

Brush the tops of the baked rolls with a little butter while they are warm.

The brushed butter on top will keep the crusts soft while you prepare the frosting.

Tools Needed for Frosting:
Medium to large mixing bowl
Electric Mixer
Spatula
Measuring cups and spoons
Offset knife (or back of a spoon or any ole’ knife, for spreading frosting)

Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup (8 Tablespoon) unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, fine quality

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting Directions:

Remove from fridge and set on counter to come to room temperature (or nuke in the microwave for a few seconds without the metallic wrapper ):
1/2 cup cream cheese

Beat on high-speed in an electric mixer:
1/2 cup (8 Tablespoon) unsalted butter

Beat into the creamed butter, slowly and increasing to high-speed for about 2 minutes:
2 cup powdered sugar

Beat into the frosting for about 1 minute:
the room temperature cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, fine quality

Frost the tops of the cooled (or lightly warm) rolls, giving them a little swirl here and there to make them ravishing!

Here are the individual cinnamon rolls lavishly frosted…yum-o!

The honey, butter and cinnamon rolls in the 8″ pan are lookin’ fine when they are frosted…

The 6-inch heart pan of cinnamon rolls are frosted and ready to serve!

Serve these babies with way-chilled milk or hot latte and a bouquet of fresh spring flowers!

Hope you have fun with this 5-way recipe and let me know how it goes (photos of your baking adventures are always welcome)! And thank you to Grandma Matson for preserving a lovely kitchen craft tradition! Your grandson loves them!

Be sure to join us on Facebook, on Twitter and on Pinterest!

Leslie

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