Mmmm cinnamon rolls.
Recipe courtesy of Small Hands
4 1/2 - 5 C (unbleached/organic, if doable) flour
4 teaspons active dry yeast (2 packages)
3/4 C milk
1/2 C water
1/2 C vegetable shortening (I used copha and some soy margerine)
1/2 C sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
Measure 1 3/4 C flour into yr large mixer bowl. Add yeast and blend. Measure milk, water, shortening, sugar, and salt into saucepan. Blend. Heat until warm (blood temperature)
Pour into flour/yeast mixture. Add eggs. Beat 30 seconds with electric mixer at low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 more minutes at high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Stop mixer.Gradually stir in more flour (by hand) to make a soft dough. It will be rather sticky. Knead on lightly floured board or counter until nice an' smooth, about 5-10 minutes (it's good exercise!!). Cover with bowl or pan and let rest for 20 minutes. Shape as desired.
Cut the hunk of dough in half, roll out one of the halves until it's flat and rectangular and large, brush it with butter, sprinkle it with a cinnamon/sugar mixture, add raisins (sometimes), and roll it up.
Then cut off the ends and cut the rest into 1 inch wide slices. They usually fit nicely into 2 9" greased cake pans. Then put them in a warm oven (usually warm it to 100 degrees C for a few minutes, then turn it off) with a pan of hot water under them and a foil tent over them and let them rise for 40 minutes, or until doubled.Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Ice these with icing sugar after they've cooled off.
Cool them on a rack. When they're cool, you can wrap them in foil, and freeze. Just warm them in a 100 degree C oven for about 45 minutes to re-serve.
The recipe is from a cookbook called Homemade Bread, published by the Farm Journal people in 1969.
