In the Kitchen - Homemade Cinnamon Rolls - Sprouted Freshly Ground Flour!

I was so excited today to use my new grain mill for the first time.  I am happy to report that I did it right, it was easy, and I did not explode anything.  It is such a relief to me that I can at least use the grain mill and dehydrator without burning, cutting, maiming myself, or the kitchen!  As far as the cutting machines, I do not have such luck. 

Today I was SO hungry for cinnamon rolls.. I think it is because my friend Shari talks about them like an obsessed woman... so I had to try them.. for her.  I found a recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls and went to work.  I was so happy to be able to grind my own white wheat berries that I had previously sprouted and then dehydrated, just waiting for this moment to come when I wanted to make something fresh!

So easy to use!!  Just poured about 1 cup dry wheat berries in for every 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup of flour in the recipe.

My flour was full of nutrition, fiber, and nutritious oils found in the natural wheat berry... very nutritious!

Ingredients for the dough
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons honey
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons sea salt
8 cups whole wheat flour

Ingredients for the middle
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sweetener (I used my new Turbinado raw sugar)
1/2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Melt the butter, set it aside and mix the "sugar" and cinnamon in a bowl.

Making the dough:

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup very warm water, 2 T. yeast and 2 t. honey.  Stir this together and kind of mush the yeast around.  Let this sit for a few minutes while you do the next step.

Melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan.  Add 1/2 cup honey, 4 t. salt and 2 1/2 cups of milk.  Heat this to 120 degrees.

Pour milk mixture into yeast mixture and stir.  Stir in 8 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time. (add more if you need it)
Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.  Plop it into a bowl, cover it and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.
After dough is nice and fat, punch it down and knead out all it’s bubbles.  Cut the dough in half, setting one half aside.

On a well floured surface, roll dough into a nice big rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick.

Use a pastry brush to spread 1/2 of the melted butter all over the rectangle.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the sugar/cinnamon mixture all over the butter.

Roll up the dough.

Cut into thin slices, about 1/2 inch thick.

My serrated bread knife worked wonders for this job.

 Place rolls side by side on baking pan.

Repeat process with other 1/2 of dough.  (At this point I should tell you that all I made was 1/2 of this recipe and had 20 or more rolls from it in these 2 pans - if you make the whole batch you will end up with a LOT of cinnamon rolls)
Allow dough to rise about 30 minutes.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown at 350 degrees.

The pan on the left was full when I pulled it out of the oven.  I sent a few to my neighbor to try (and I ate one)

 So how were they?  I think they were a bit dry.  Perhaps next time I will tolerate a little moister dough at the onset... I ended up adding more flour during the kneading process and this may have been what dried them out.  I may also bake them in an oven with a pan of hot water in the bottom.. I have heard that doing that may increase the humidity in the oven.

I would also have added more butter and cinnamon to the insides!  They are light on cinnamon.. but seem sweet enough.  I like my sweet cinnamon rolls pretty gooey but of course I had not frosted them yet.

Frosting too??... yes, here is the recipe!
1/4 cup butter
3 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 - 2 cups powdered sugar to make the consistency you like.
Melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, milk and powdered sugar.  Whisk together until smooth. 

How about the sprouted wheat?  Here is what I will tell you.  Whenever I have had an opportunity to soak commercial flour overnight or used sprouted wheat ground myself, I have not had a stomach ache from eating grain... usually flour products cause me a little distress but not today.  That roll was smooth!!