A great cinnamon dough formula is as follows:
Flour (regular pizza flour) 100%
Salt: 1.5%
Sugar: 20%
Butter/Margarine or Butter Flavored Crisco: 15%
IDY Yeast: 4%
Whole eggs: 10%
Water: 45%
Procedure:
Hold 1/2 of both the sugar and fat out of the dough until it has mixed to the point where it is becoming smooth in appearance, then add the remaining sugar and fat and continue mixing until well incorporated. Remove the dough from the mixer and form into balls weighing about 5# each. Place each ball onto a lightly oiled sheet pan, cover with plastic and allow to ferment in the cooler overnight. On the following day, remove the cold dough from the sheet pan and place onto a floured surface, roll out into a rectangular shaped piece about 3/16-inch in thickness, brush with melted butter, leaving the bottom 2-inches of the dough without any butter. Brush this portion of the dough with water. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon (be liberal with the cinnamon) over the surface of the dough but do not cover that bottom edge that has the water on it. Begin rolling the dough (like a jelly roll) from the top down. The portion with the water will serve to seal the roll, keeping it from unwinding during baking. Even out the curled dough so it is all the same diameter for its entire length, now using a French Knife, or metal blade bench scraper, cut the dough into 1-inch thick pieces for cinnamon rolls, place into greased cake pans or sheet pans (do not pack them in, instead, leave a little space between each dough piece), set aside to proof (raise) until the dough is slightly above the top edge of the pan, brush or spray with whole milk and bake at 375 to 400F until lightly browned. Allow to cool for 5-minutes and apply a powdered sugar-water icing, serve.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
