Today’s Post is from Kristie
The ability to make yeast breads from scratch is a skill that I learned directly from my mother. I’ve often been thankful that she took the time to teach this art to her daughters.
And now, I have daughters of my own. At the ages of five and three, they love to help in the kitchen! And while it is sometimes more work for Mommy, there are so many great skills and lessons that are passed on while baking together.
Making cinnamon rolls involves a wide variety of cooking skills: stirring, kneading, using a rolling pin, and frosting. It is also an exercise in patience, as you must wait for the dough to rise. And as always, cooking is good practice for counting and measuring.
Even at their young ages, my daughters were able to help with nearly every step of the cinnamon-roll-making-process. We made a bit of a mess, but we had a lot of fun along the way!
Here’s the recipe that we used:
Combine 2 ½ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons salt,
2 packages yeast and ½ cup of melted butter. Mix well.
Then pour in 2 cups of hot tap water. Add 1 egg and beat for two minutes.
Add 3 additional cups of flour (in ½ cup increments) and stir well.
Knead in another 1 cup of flour
(or enough flour that the dough is easy to work with and not sticky.)
Place in a greased bowl and let the dough rise for 1 ½ hours.
Punch the dough down, and then let it rest for 15 minutes more.
Roll the dough out into a rectangular shape.
Cover with melted butter (about ½ a stick) and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Roll up the dough.
Cut the dough every one inch.
(This was Mommy’s job! I find it works easiest to use a steak knife.)
Place in a greased pan.
Let the cinnamon rolls rise until doubled
(approximately 40 minutes.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Now it’s time for frosting!
Mix together:
2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
½ cup milk, and 2-3 cups powdered sugar
Continue mixing until the frosting is lump-free.
Add more powdered sugar as needed, until the frosting reaches the desired thickness.
Spread the frosting across the warm cinnamon rolls.
Now, it’s time to enjoy!
My daughters love to sample our finished project and were excited to share them with Daddy when he arrived home!
As you can see, it’s never too early to start baking with your daughters. I love knowing that I am passing this skill onto the next generation. Even more, I love the conversations that we have while working together!
Kristie has been married to her fantastic husband for nearly 9 years. Together, they have two delightfully energetic daughters. She is a full-time SAHM and a part-time children’s minister in Minnesota. Kristie records her thoughts on her blog, A Mom By Any Other Name and can be found on Twitter as @mnmommy.
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Homegrown Mom says
Thanks for taking the time to share this, Kristie! These look so yummy and your girls are adorable!
Rachel Lynn says
Those look Yummy, I’ll have to try that recipe! 🙂
-Rachel Lynn
Rachel Espino says
Awesome job to your daughters. My daughter made cinnamon rolls the other day. It is fun for the family and even more fun to eat.
Jenny says
Yum! I want to try this recipe!
LRM says
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Your series titled, “30 Days of Homemaking for Girls” is perfectly timed for us. Our 7yr old daughter is becoming more involved in household chores and we recently decided to have her prepare one meal a week for dinner (usually sandwiches). This led to the decision to create a new element in our home-school day, Kitchen 101. Thanks again for the inspiration. I’ve Facebooked and ReTweeted many of your posts!
Nony (A Slob Comes Clean) says
Oh, these look soooo good! I will be making these very soon with my kids!
Kay says
Great Idea! I remember teaching my girls how to make cinnamon rolls. Now, my 14 year old grand daughter has taken up the task!
I am looking forward to reading more ideas.
Kristy says
My 6 year old has been asking me for cinnamon rolls for weeks! So, I get the hint! We’ll make some! Yeah. I’ll post this on facebook! 🙂
Haley says
Thanks for your sharing.I will try take my time to teach our daughter to make this
Judy @ Christian Women Friends says
Cinnamon rolls are my favorite breakfast! If I could eat them every morning I would!! These look so good that I’m going to have to try and make them. I’ve never had much luck in the past but seeing that picture makes me want to try again…lol
Ingrid says
Ha my sweeties asked this morning if we can make cinnamon scrolls this morning. I’m not sure we have ever even had them ever before, so no idea where they got the idea from but I think we will do it tomorrow!
Alice D says
Smart to teach your children to cook something as delicious as cinnamon rolls. Imagine if they would practice their cooking skills every week, you would have lots of delicious food. ^-^
Anita says
Wow what a great idea Kristie. I’ll teach my daughter how to cook these cinnamon rolls. Can’t wait to try them 🙂
Have a good day,
Anita
Jmc says
Hello Tricia,Thanks for stopping by. I peeekd at your blog and saw some beautiful and familiar photos! I used to live in Marshfield (north of you, I think). I have been to the Current River MANY times. Good memories.Congrats on your 600th post. Today was my 666th post (yikes). I would totally take that Bose off your hands if I lived nearby. The radio/cd player in my sewing room has bit the dust and I miss listening to my books on cd while sewing.Have a beautiful day!
Diana says
I love cinnamon rolls!! I always wanted to make some and never got around to looking for a good recipe. Yours is very detailed and I love all the step by step pictures that you included. Thank you so much for posting this! I think I’ll finally get around to making some thanks to your help! Love their matching outfits by the way, very cute!
Vincent Polanski says
The sisters at the first photo are so sweet. Like the cinnamon rolls they are making. It sure looks yummy to me. This is a great idea teaching your children baking recipes. I’ll have to ask my wife to teach my kids too.
kate says
my neice and I had so much fun this morning baking these. So yummy
Nonna says
These are just the thing I was looking for. I have a tradition with my granddaughter, every holiday I get to spend with her I teach her a new cookie or cake recipe, but I was looking for something different for this year as we’re only getting to spend the morning together on Thanksgiving and cake and cookies for breakfast doesn’t even fly at Nonna’s house lol.
I have only one question, your flour, you didn’t mention what type to use, I’m assuming due to the two packs of yeast that it can be all purpose?
Kristie says
Nonna-
I apologize for not seeing your comment sooner. You probably figured this out by now, but YES, it’s just plain, ol’ all-purpose flour.
Enjoy!
Nonna says
Yes, I played with the recipe a few days before Thanksgiving and they turned out great. then on Thanksgiving my granddaughter and I had a blast in the kitchen, thugh I had no idea how much she loves cinnamon…I think ours was the most cinnamony cinnamon rolls ever made. But what was truly special was as we put them in the oven she actually told me “this is the best day ever” Talk about wonderful words for any mother/grandmother to hear. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it just made my holiday.
Sophia says
I am aware that this is an old post, but I just came across it and wanted to share a trick with you that I learned from my aunt. Instead of using a certain type of knife, try using floss. It doesn’t always work for me with cinnamon rolls, although it is a great way to cut cakes without messing up / globbing the frosting! With cinnamon rolls, you put the floss under the “log” and bring up both ends, cross, and pull in opposite directions. The theory is that instead of flattening the roll, the edges are brought toward the center, which doesn’t mess up the shape or lose dough or yum-yum-filling onto the knife or cutting surface. (Sorry for the baby words… I take care of my 6 year old brother and am pregnant… It sort of gets to my brain… And my husband does the same thing, so that’s no help…) Hopefully this comment gets to you!
Rebecca says
What a beautiful post on a beautiful blog! I really enjoyed reading it and it reminded me that I need to start baking more with my girls, soon to be 5 and 3. 🙂 Thanks for creating such a lovely blog.
From another Christian SAHM in WI.
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