10-minute Beer Bread Cinnamon Rolls
10-minute Beer Bread Cinnamon Rolls: Takes ten minutes to get these in your oven!
It started years ago, when, for a brief moment, I was trying to be less weird and figure out if "normal" was my bag. For some reason, cinnamon rolls seems like something normal people did on Christmas. I grew up with a weird family, I had a weird job before I started my current weird job that necessitates that I do things like this.
It was during a conversation with my older sister (the one I was with when I almost died in Morocco), in the midst of a life crisis. For some reason, the answer seemed to be cinnamon rolls. It seemed to me, at the time, that normal-people traditions would mend a part of me that I figured was broken. She, being the type of person to love others more than she has ever found a way to love herself, sent me a cinnamon roll pan in the mail along with a "secret ingredient" which turned out to be dry milk powder. The pan broke during a move when I was living in Los Angeles, but the milk powder still finds its way in my traditional yearly cinnamon rolls. In fact, that conversation was the basis for the first recipe in my first cookbook.
I’ve messed with the recipe for cinnamon rolls a few dozen times, mostly because Christmas and cinnamon rolls feel like home to me. This recipe doesn’t use the milk powder that I reserve for the versions that use a yeast dough, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a quick and easy way to get that fix that brings me an odd comfort. Even though there is no longer a part of me that seeks to change any of my abnormal qualities, I seek out the odd in other people. But it doesn’t matter who you are: cinnamon rolls and beer are just good.
10-minute Beer Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Cinnamon rolls:
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 ounces winter ale or wheat beer
For the filling
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
Icing:
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- 4 tablespoons cream cheese
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, and beer until a ball of dough forms. Add to a lightly floured surface, (if the dough is excessively sticky, cover with a generous amount of flour, kneading until it's no longer sticky, adding more flour when needed) knead lightly until the ball comes together. Gently roll into a large rectangle.
- In a small bowl stir together the butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown and white sugar until a paste forms.
- Spread the paste in an even layer on top of the dough rectangle. Roll along the long edge to form a long log.
- Cut into 10-12 rings. Place cut side up in a baking dish that has been lightly greased.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
- In a small bowl beat together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, beat until well combined.
- Pour the icing over the cinnamon rolls in an even layer, serve immediately.
Comments
Kaeleigh December 25, 2016 um 4:37 am
Sad to say the 10 minute part did not happen for me! I’m going to chalk it up to the British flour (much less gluten content), but these were a total hot mess and I didn’t even use the whole beer. So sticky, and it took at least half an hour to get them sorted out. However, I have faith they’ll still be tasty 🙂
Melissa December 25, 2016 um 10:09 am
the dough was VERY sticky and hard to roll/shape into a rectangle. as a result i think we got too much flour in it while working with it and the dough ended up overworked with a pronounced flour taste (maybe that was the wheat ale? we used hoegaarden). this is not, IMHO, a recipe for those inexperienced with dough… nevertheless, they definitely got eaten as our christmas morning breakfast!
i added 1/4 tsp of cardamom to the filling, and used slightly less powdered sugar in the frosting. we also "corrected" it with a splash of bourbon 😉
Melissa December 25, 2016 um 10:10 am
also, oddly enough, our frosting was yellow instead of white like in the photos. not sure if it was the vanilla extract or the butter we used that made it yellow.
Ray B December 25, 2016 um 2:39 pm
Just finished off a batch of these delicious cinnamon buns. Taste was awesome .. However it took me longer than 10 minutes . Plus the amount icing would cover numerous batches .. I know what you are saying " that’s a problem ? "
I’ll save the icing for the New Years day batch I’ll be baking !
Chef Vissah December 28, 2016 um 3:16 pm
I definitely would not call this a 10 minute recipe. The dough was beyond sticky. I ended up having to use twice the amount of flour just to get it to roll out.
Some ended up unraveling and were not very puffy. I might have ended up over working the dough, but I was pretty careful. Making this again, I would definitely add a proofing period. I would only bake it for 16-17 minutes. I’m also not sure if the yeast in the beer is adequate enough to previde the proper proof.
I also had to add more butter to the filling because it wasn’t very spreadable.
Despite having many issues, this recipe is absolutely tasty! Tasty enough that I am willing to make it work. I am definitely making this again.
Jackie December 29, 2016 um 12:20 pm
Sorry it was a pain for you, but glad it was good in the end! Beer bread is a pretty classic recipe, not requiring any bakers yeast. A proofing period wouldn’t do much, unless it was days long. Most recipes for beer bread call for self-rising flour (instead of flour + baking soda/powder) and one bottle of beer, so try that instead and see if you like the results more. But as for leaveners, the beer plus baking soda and powder is all that’s needed.
John G January 1, 2017 um 4:02 pm
Made these again for New Year’s day after my first go Christmas day. I added another almost half cup of flour and got it to work. Did a better job frosting this time too. Such a good recipe! Thanks again Beeroness!
Liz February 10, 2017 um 11:49 am
Does this have to be a wheat/winter ale? Or could another type of beer be substituted?
Jackie February 10, 2017 um 12:08 pm
Any low IBU beer will work. Stay away from anything too hoppy, no IPA’s.