The words Nana and Cinnamon Rolls are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other.
If there’s one memory of Nana that ALL her grandchildren share, it’s her coming to visit and baking homemade cinnamon rolls. Every single visit, she’d make the yummiest batch of cinnamon rolls, and oftentimes, a new batch for each day she was there.
As a child, these are some of my fondest memories, and literally a small taste of heaven. A memory I wanted to capture forever and past down to my children, and their children.
Here’s Nana holding Rylee when she’s just a few weeks old. Love!
The only hard part…is she never ever used a recipe…she’s that good!!! And now that her memory is beginning to fade on the onset of Alzheimer's, she can’t tell you the exact measurements. But thankfully, she’s been making them for so long, that she still knows how to do it, but relies on looks rather than measurements.
So this summer, I had her re-create the masterpieces with me…this time…measuring each ingredient along the way. And I might add that it’s a “healthy” version as she typically made them with whole wheat flour too.
Folks, here you have a family family!
Ingredients:
- 2 C warm water
- 1/3 C sugar
- 2 T yeast
- 1/2 t salt
- 2 T oil
- 4 to 4 1/2 C flour (half whole wheat, half white flour)
Filling:
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1/2 to 3/4 C brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Frosting:
- 1 stick of butter
- 2 C powdered sugar
- dash of salt
- a bit of milk until the right consistency – about 1T
Instructions:
1. Mix water, sugar, and yeast together in small bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until yeast starts to rise and mixture is frothy.
2. Gradually add up to 4 1/2 C of flour. You’ll want to add enough flour so that you can knead the dough without it being too sticky, but be careful not to add too much.
When we made the recipe, we used about 4 1/4 C of flour, but Nana said it can vary from 4-5 cups depending on the type of flour we use. Typically, Nana used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour. However, you don’t want to add too much flour – or else the cinnamon rolls will be heavy and dense, not light and fluffy like she makes them. So the less flour you add, the better.
3. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough back in mixing bowl with a dab of oil/salt smeared on top of the dough. Cover and let rise in warm place (sunny window sill, next to heater/stove, or heated water bed 
4. Punch down and roll dough into a rectangle. Spread melted butter over dough, and then sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough and cut with into 1 inch slices. Place into 9x13 pan.
5. Cover and let rise in warm place until double in size. The cinnamon rolls will rise quicker the second time, usually about 30mins to 1 hour.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
7. Frost with your favorite frosting! The frosting was really hard to get her to measure correctly…so it may not be exactly the same as you remember. Feel free to use your own instead.
Hope you enjoy as much as we do!
