homemade cinnamon rolls

On Valentine's Day I decided to make a bit of an extra special breakfast - homemade cinnamon rolls!  I have started on a journey of cleaner eating.  My goal is at least 80% real food.  I define real food as anything my great grandmother would have heard of or used.  Amazingly that is harder that I thought it would be.  I was very used to boxed and packaged food.  But slowly I am learning how to make things from scratch.  And I have found that it is very tasty and very satisfying.  There is just something about cutting into a warm loaf of bread and knowing "I made that".  I know exactly what is in it, how it was made, etc.  I'm going to share with you my recipe for homemade dough.  I use this same recipe for bread, sweet rolls, stromboli, basically anything that uses a yeast dough.  Except for pizza.  I actually have a slightly different recipe for that.    So here it is:

Whole Wheat Bread Dough
3 cups warm water
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1 Tbl sea salt
1 1/2 Tbl yeast
3-5 cups of fresh ground hard wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Add honey and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It will start to look kind of foamy.  Add everything else but the flour.  Add about 2 cups of flour.  I have a kitchenaid mixer.  I start it up on setting 2 with a dough hook.  Once all of the flour has been mixed in, slowly add more until the dough begins to form a ball and cleans the bowl.  Let it mix for about 5-10 more minutes.  Then place on well oiled surface.  Let it rest for about 10 minutes.  This makes 2-3 loaves depending on your pan size.  Now once you have your dough we can begin the cinnamon rolls! 
Divide the dough in half. You can make twice as many rolls and freeze them before you bake them or you can use the other half to make some bread.

  


Roll out the dough until it is in a large rectangle like shape.  It doesn't have to be perfect, obviously, as you may have noted in the picture. 

 

Melt about 2-3 tbl of butter and brush it all over the dough. 

 

 Mix about 1/3 cup of sugar (I use coconut sugar) and about 1 tsp of cinnamon.  You can use more or less depending on how much you like cinnamon. 

 Sprinkly the cinnamon mixture all over the butter.  Leave a little space on one of the long sides.  This helps to seal it when you roll it up.









 

Once you get it all rolled up, kind of pinch it together on the seam to seal it.  Then slice it in rolls.  Depending on how thin you roll the dough and how big you make your slices you can have giant to mini cinnamon rolls.  We like ours a little smaller. 

 

 

 In honor of Valentine's Day, I opened the slices up a bit and formed them into heart shapes before baking.  Place on an ungreased baking pan, stone, or dish.  Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  To make a glaze use 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  Add the milk slowly while mixing until you get the consistency you like.  You can also add vanilla and cinnamon. 

Here is the final product!  A yummy, good for you, love filled breakfast!