Cinnamon Hearts | Cinnamon flavoured bread rolls

Cinnamon Rolls are divinely flavoursome!! Oh yes. I have heard a lot of these rolls, but have never got around tasting them... until yesterday. I made my own batch of these goodies and boy did I love the flavour! Cinnamon is known for its fragrance and is a common ingredients in our Indian cooking. I was delighted to discover that cinnamon powder is even more flavoursome and when combined with bread gives a lovely spicy sweetness to it. Spicy sweetness??! Yes, there is a mix of mild spice and sweetness all at once! :D

I wanted fluffy bread to make my cinnamon rolls, so I opted to use All Purpose flour this time. It wont be long before I make a wholewheat version of it though. I tweaked my fool-proof bread recipe and added in some fresh cream and butter to it and was absolutely delighted with the resulting fluffy cottony bread.

This time instead of rolling them into regular bread rolls, I wanted to give my rolls a different look. I have seen a couple of heart shaped bread on Pinterest and I wanted to try that too. Shaping them into hearts gives these cinnamon rolls a cuteness that makes them irresistible. I was so happy with these that I was beaming from ear to ear when I pulled out these cuties from the oven. The home smelt divine with the cinnamon emitting a natural incense like fragrance.

Awe your guests with these fabulous cinnamon rolls or just give them as gifts to little ones. But before that treat yourself and family to these flavoursome rolls! Everyone is sure to love them :)

Makes:  8-10 hearts

Time (approx): 

• Prep - 15 mins
• Proofing - 60 mins
• Shaping - 20 mins
• Baking - 15 mins

Ingredients:

For the dough

All Purpose Flour / Maida - 2.5 cups

Milk - 1 cup

Yeast - 2 tsp

Sugar - 3 tbsp

Fresh Cream - 2 tsp (can substitute with milk)

Salt - 1 tsp

Butter - 20gms, room temperature

For Filling

Cinnamon Powder - 2 tsp

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Butter - 2 tbsp, room temperature

Method:

• In a small bowl add sugar, yeast and warm milk. Keep aside the mixture for a few minutes to allow the yeast to proof. After 5 minutes you will see froth or bubbles form on top of the mixture, this shows that the yeast has been activated and the mixture is ready to be used.
• In a large mixing bowl mix together flour and salt. Add in the yeast mixture and combine well. Add a little fresh cream if using, else add more milk. Combine well.
• Now, add in the butter and knead the dough to form a soft slightly sticky dough.
• Place the dough in a well greased bowl and keep aside for an hour or so until the dough doubles in size.
• After the dough has risen to double its volume, gently knead it once again to punch out the air bubbles trapped in it.

• Dust your work space with a little flour, transfer the dough on to your workspace and dust some flour on to the dough as well. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangle of sorts of about quarter an inch in thickness. This need not be perfect, just an approximate shape should do!
• Combine together the sugar and cinnamon powder in a small bowl and keep aside.
• Smear some butter on the entire surface. Sprinkle the sugar - cinnamon powder mixture evenly.
• Gently but firmly roll the two ends that are longer in length such that they meet in the middle.(refer picture).
• Using a knife or a dough scrapper, cut even portions of the dough log of about an inch in length.
• Gently separate these portions, if the dough feels sticky you may want to use the scraper to ease it out of the work flour in order to keep the shape of the portions.
• Preheat oven at 170 degrees.

• Now, lets shape the portions into hearts:
• Take one portion and place lay it down on the work floor.
• Bring together the folded curvy ends such that they touch each other.
• Gently pinch the bottom part of the portion to elongate it a little to form a heart shape (refer picture)
• Do this for all the portions.

• Grease a baking tray with butter and place all the hearts in it. Leave enough space between them if you do not want them to touch each other. As these cuties are going to rise up well while baking and become fluffy!
• You need not proof it for too long for a second time as in the process you may lose the shape. Just keep aside for about 5-10 minutes before baking.
• Bake the hearts at 170 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
• You can glaze these cinnamon hearts with a mixture of icing sugar and melted butter if you like some extra sweet. I preferred mine the way it is with the awesome flavour of cinnamon and the crunch of the sugar.



Tips:

• The temperature and baking time settings may differ from oven to oven.
• These cinnamon rolls are mildly sweet if not glazed. You can increase the amount of sugar to make it sweeter.
• If you are glazing these, the surface of the rolls would be sticky. So, if you do not like that, avoid glazing.
• These goodies are best served warm. So if eating them later, microwave for 10 secs before serving.