My mom makes the best cinnamon rolls ever! Today we make her sticky cinnamon roll recipe, my absolute favorite!
So, what is your favorite kind of cinnamon roll? If you ask my family members, you’ll get a different answer from everyone, however everyone picks something made by my mom! But that means that for family gatherings mom is bringing 2 or 3 different flavors of rolls!
My personal favorite is her sticky roll recipe or caramel cinnamon rolls, gooey cinnamon rolls, whatever you like to call them! Her sticky cinnamon rolls are so good! We grew up having them served with chili! And then she would also make them for Christmas morning.
When my hubby and I first started dating and my mom served cinnamon rolls with chili, he thought she was crazy. Even though he grew up 3 hours south of us, it is not a common food pairing in his area. Leave a comment and let me know if you’ve had cinnamon rolls with chili!
Sticky Cinnamon Rolls
Even though I taught Foods for many years as a high school Family and Consumer Sciences teacher I don’t bake very often anymore. Why? Because I end up eating everything I bake! Towards the end of my teaching career I really got into eating healthy and even spent a few seasons on the bodybuilding stage. Let’s just say A LOT of my eating habits changed at that time and I really stopped baking.
I have made these cinnamon rolls with my mom before. I wanted to have them for a gathering so I went to her house and made them with her. Today when we made them would have only been the second time I’ve made them. But, this time I came home with the itch to buy my own bread machine!
Since my daughter has been diagnosed with Celiacs we have debated making our own gluten free bread. The little loaf that she eats costs $7!!! After talking with mom I discovered that her bucket insert cannot go through the dishwasher and that would be the only way we could use a machine for both regular bread and gluten free bread. Even using the dishwasher the bread machine could cross contaminate the dough.
My mom’s bread machine is almost 30 years old!! My sister and I got it for her as a gift one year when I was in high school. Can you believe it’s lasted that long! Mom actually uses hers regularly, it’s not just been sitting in the cabinet all of this time!
Turns out that Black & Decker still makes a bread machine, at least one is shown on their website. But you have to purchase it from Walmart or Amazon and neither site had any. I did find this exact one that is selling used in multiple places, like HERE.
I also looked for new comparable bread machines. Today’s versions often come stating that they are gluten-free. The metal pan that drops into the machine can now go in the dishwasher. My mom’s version was not dishwasher safe. There is also an added gluten free baking option that is supposed to be geared towards using gluten free flour. I would say that’s just a marketing ploy, but who knows! Find the one I’m looking at HERE.
Watch Us Make Them on YouTube
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Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Best Cinnamon Rolls
Equipment
- 1 Bread machine you can knead by hand if you don't have a bread machine
- 1 teaspoon
- 1 Tablespoon
- 1 liquid measuring cup
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 2/3 cup water
- 2 Tbsp. powdered milk
- 2 Tbsp. shortening
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 1/3 cup white flour
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
Cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp butter melted
- cinnamon as needed to cover dough
- sugar white sugar, brown sugar, or a combination of each, as needed to cover dough
Sticky
- 1 stick butter melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp Karo
Instructions
- Measure ingredients in the order listed into the bread machine bucket.
- Insert bread machine bucket into oven chamber, twist to secure. Close lid
- Select: Dough/Pasta Setting
- Press Start – There will be a 25 minute preheat delay before mixing begins
- When cycle is complete remove dough from machine to a lightly floured surface. If necessary, knead in enough flour to make dough easy to handle.
- Roll dough out into a rectangular shape. Add 2 T. butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to cover.
- Let dough rest while you make the sticky.
- Add melted butter, brown sugar, water and Karo to a 9 x 13 pan. Stir to combine.
- Roll rested dough into a tube. Rolling on long side of the rectangle.Be sure to shape evenly and squeeze together as you roll to keep the cinnamon roll shape. See video
- Use a knife, scissors, or dental floss to cut 1 inch thick rolls. Place in the 9 x 13 pan with the sticky.
- Bake 30 minutes at 350 or until dough is lightly browned and cooked through.
- Cover the pan with a tray and in one motion flip the pan over. Pull the 9 x 13 pan straight up off of the tray as the sticky rolls fall out of the pan and onto the tray.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
White Frosting Cinnamon Rolls
My sister, my oldest, and I think my husband all love my mom’s white frosting cinnamon rolls the best. If you would like to make those then follow the same recipe above for the dough. However instead of making the gooey topping, you make frosting.
Frosting
- 2 Tbsp butter softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 cup+ powdered sugar
- Milk
Take the ingredients above and mix together. Add milk slowly to get the frosting consistency you want. If you happen to get the frosting too runny then add some more powdered sugar.
Once the rolls have baked, let them cool some before adding the frosting.
Maple Nut Coffee Twist
This is another roll my mom is famous for and with it comes a funny story!
Hubby and I started dating in October 1997 and he immediately invited me to his families Thanksgiving. I in turn invited him to one of our families gatherings, although I don’t remember if it was for Thanksgiving or Christmas that year, but it doesn’t matter! Mom had made these Maple Nut Rolls and hubby must have been one of the first to go through the buffet line.
Looking at the pictures above, hopefully you can see how this twist is arranged. Basically it’s like a sunflower with a big pile of frosting or filling in the middle.
Someone in my family goes through the buffet line and asks who took the whole center of the Maple Twist!! Guess who it was? Yep, hubby. Trust me when I say this story has been shared for the past 25 years because you DO NOT take all of the frosting from the center! It’s like a slice of pizza, you get a little from the middle with each roll/twist. My hubby’s actions made for a lot of laughs and scoldings!
Maple Nut Twist Recipe
Maple Nut Coffee Twist
Ingredients
Pastry
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 3/4 – 3 cup flour
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 pkg yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp maple flavoring
- 1 egg
Filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup chopped nuts
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp maple flavoring
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- 1-2 Tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp maple flavoring
Instructions
- Heat milk, butter until very warm.
- Combine liquid, 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, yeast, flavoring & egg.
- Beat 2 minutes at medium speed.
- Stir in remaining flour. Knead 2 minutes
- Let rise until doubled in size.
- Combine filling.
- Grease 12" pizza pan.
- Punch down dough and divide into 3 balls. Roll to cover bottom of pan.
- Brush with 1/3 butter. Sprinkle with 1/3 filling.
- Repeat 2 more times
- To shape place glass in middle. Cut to middle forming 16 pie shaped wedges.
- Twist each pie shape 5x
- Let rise until doubled in size. 30-45 minutes.
- Bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. at 350
- Cool
- Glaze
Enjoy
Thank you mom for making cinnamon rolls with me today!
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