Un-ridiculous mini cinnamon rolls with sweet coffee glaze

I have two problems with cinnamon rolls. One of these is admittedly a problem with the people who make them rather than an impediment to my thorough enjoyment of a luscious, buttery and cinnamon sugar laden bread snack. 
That problem is that for some unknown but endemic reason, they all use the words 'ooey gooey' to describe them. Ooey? Is that even a real word? A quick google seems to suggest not. 
So if it doesn't even mean anything, I suppose I'm to conclude it's onomatopoeic. But for me it just doesn't conjure up an image of butter and unctuousness and sweet indulgence. It sounds like my bratty seven year old self might have said, but I would have meant something gross. Like eww-y. So you see why I might have the teeniest problem clicking on a recipe with the words 'ooey gooey cinnamon buns' in the title. So I sort of made one up a little bit.

And that leads me rather neatly to my second problem, which is rather more an impediment to my enjoyment of a luscious, buttery and cinnamon sugar laden bread snack, namely that a cinnamon roll by its nature is luscious,  buttery and sugar laden. Which is a fine and beautiful thing, but let's be realistic here; in my house of me and one cinnamon hating boyfriend I'm probably not going to be recreating a recipe which contains quite as much fat and sugar as some of the recipes freely available on this here internet. No matter how 'ooey' the results are promised to be. 

Which brings me to 'I made it up a bit'. For the quantity I made, which necessitated 500g of bread flour, a very popular and, for the sake of not being bitchy, anonymous blog post would have me use nearly 500g sugar, 120g fat (oil or butter) and 270ml of full fat milk. 
I used an enriched dough recipe from the Great British Bake Off (which I'm obsessed with, by the way, expect lots more from this bastion of brilliant Brit TV) which I found on the BBC website, to which I added the traditional cinnamon roll filling of sugar, butter and cinnamon (though not quite as much as the sugar fat bomb offender mentioned above) and topped with my take on a lighter coffee glaze. Then I served them small and baked in a cupcake tin so each serving packs less of a hyperglycaemic punch. They're not by any stretch of even my mind 'healthy'. But they are certainly un-ridiculous. And when we're measuring in cinnamon rolls, isn't that they next best thing?


Un-ridiculous Mini Cinnamon Rolls, not Ooey in the slightest  
  
500g/1lb strong white flour, plus extra for dusting  
1tsp salt 
1 x 7g/¼oz sachet fact-action dried yeast 
300ml semi skimmed milk or be like me and use a coconut based substitute
40g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature 
1 free-range egg
 
Pop the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl (put the yeast and salt on opposite sides because they hate each other).
Warm the butter in the microwave until it melts, then add the milk to this. This cools the butter so its microwave blasted heat doesn't kill the yeast. Pour this warm liquid into the flour bowl and mix together with a clean hand. Do one handed hand mixing because a) it looks really boss and like you totally know what you're doing  and b) it leaves you a clean hand for the inevitable ringing phone, cat shooing or cracking one egg into the bowl. Mix until it comes together as a dough. You might need more flour if its very sticky here. 
Turn the whole lot onto a clean worktop and knead for 10 mins or so, or until you're bored and your arms hurt. Too bad, that ringing phone is going to have to be ignored for now, you need both hands here. Then lightly oil a bowl/baking tray and plop your lovely smooth, elastic, well kneaded dough onto it to let it rise for an hour. 
'Knock down' your dough, tip it back onto your worktop (I do hope you didn't clean it already from earlier, that's just wasted effort I'm afraid!) and roll it into a large rectangle, as long and wide as you can get it. The long end should be at least 40cm. Go for length rather than width to make more, smaller rolls.

Filling 
30g melted butter
4tsp ground cinnamon
75g brown sugar

Spread the butter over your dough rectangle and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over it as evenly as you can manage.  
Roll it up tightly. Mighty tightly and slide a cutting board underneath. Slice the roll up into 20 equal slices and put as many slices as fit into a cupcake tray (I only own one so the spares had to be a plain old baking tin job I'm afraid. You might be better than me though). 
Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise again for about another hour, or overnight in the fridge. 
Bake at 190 degrees for 20 minutes.

As they come

Blitzed in the microwave for 30 seconds

Sweet Coffee Glaze
125ml semi skimmed milk (or Koko, as above)
2 tablespoons strong coffee
25ml strong coffee 
30g brown sugar, to taste

Heat the milk and cornflour in a saucepan until thick and creamy looking, stir in coffee and sugar, taste and adjust. This can be used as it is, or beaten into buttercream or whipped cream for a  thick and luxurious frosting. 
 
These are best warm, cold they're quite bready. The excellent news is that a quick blast in the microwave restores them to decadent deliciousness. I would definitely make these again, maybe with a few chopped dates in the filling for extra gooey moistness. Definitely make these and share them with lots of people. Or keep them to yourself, like I did. Up to you. x