Paul Hollywood's Cinnamon Rolls

Published recipe

Paul Hollywood's versions of this are published — on the BBC and in his baking books — so this is not a secret being reverse-engineered. What is useful is understanding why his dough behaves differently from the American cinnamon roll you have probably made before, because that difference is the whole thing.

The difference is the dough

An American cinnamon roll is enriched and soft, close to a brioche. Hollywood's is closer to a British sweet bun dough: less butter, more structure, a proper gluten development.

The practical consequences:

It needs kneading, properly. Ten minutes by hand, five in a mixer. An under-kneaded sweet dough makes a roll that tears rather than pulls apart.

It proves twice. Once as a bulk dough until doubled, then again once shaped. Skipping the second prove is the single most common reason home rolls come out dense.

It is less sweet than you expect. The sweetness is in the filling and the glaze, not the dough. That is deliberate — it stops the finished roll being cloying.

What goes in it

The dough

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 7 g fast-action yeast
• 10 g salt
• 50 g caster sugar
• 40 g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 260 ml warm milk

The filling

• 100 g unsalted butter, softened
• 100 g soft brown sugar
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon

Strong bread flour, not plain. Plain flour has too little protein to hold the structure through two proves and the roll collapses.

Method

1. 1. Put the flour in a bowl with the yeast on one side and the salt on the other. Do not let them touch before mixing — direct contact with salt kills yeast.
2. 2. Add the sugar, butter, eggs and three quarters of the milk. Mix, then add the rest of the milk gradually until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.
3. 3. Knead on a lightly oiled surface for 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. It should spring back when pressed.
4. 4. Cover and prove until doubled — about an hour in a warm kitchen, longer in a cold one. Go by size, not by the clock.
5. 5. Beat the filling ingredients together into a paste.
6. 6. Roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 40 × 30 cm. Spread the filling right to the edges.
7. 7. Roll up from the long side, fairly tightly, and cut into 12.
8. 8. Sit them cut side up in a lined tin, not quite touching. Prove again, 45 minutes, until they have swollen and are touching.
9. 9. Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 20–25 minutes, until golden and hollow-sounding.
10. 10. Glaze while warm — a simple icing sugar and milk mix, or apricot jam warmed and brushed on.

Where it goes wrong

Dense rolls. Almost always the second prove was cut short. The dough should look visibly puffed and the rolls should be touching before they go in.

Filling leaking out. Rolled too loosely, or the filling was too warm and liquid. It should be a spreadable paste, not a pourable one.

Dry. Overbaked. They carry on cooking in the tin for several minutes after they come out.

Tough. Under-kneaded, or plain flour instead of strong.

Storing

Two days in an airtight tin. They are noticeably better on day one — this is not a dough that improves with keeping.

They freeze well, baked, for three months. Warm from frozen at 160°C for 15 minutes and they come back close to fresh.