Cinnamon rolls - blink and you miss them

There is a new obsession around here.  When I ask the family to give me nominations for which cake to make next, I mostly get three different requests from them (and then I will frequently veto them all and bake the one I wanted to in the first place - baking democracy is flirted with, rather than actually embraced, in this house).  So when both children requested cinnamon rolls three times in a row, I decided I'd better listen.

The first batch disappeared in record time (thirty six hours).  Helped along by G discovering that he too has a passion for cinnamon rolls and eating FOUR while working at home yesterday.  There were almost tears when Livvy ate the last one for pudding yesterday evening. 

Cam has a friend coming round to play this afternoon - sorry 'hang out'.  "We don't exactly 'play' at our age any more," said Cam, "we just hang out together."  He pleaded with me to make another batch of cinnamon rolls, so that his friend could have one too.  Livvy made her eyes big and bambi-like and G's face lit up in a way that it never does when I mention chocolate cake. 

So I've done an unheard of thing - cooked the same cake twice in a row.  How long will this batch last?  Till tomorrow morning?

The List Writer's Cinnamon Rolls

• 1 batch of white bread dough - enough for 1 loaf
• 25g butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons caster sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Make a batch of plain white bread dough - enough for one regular sized loaf.  I do mine in the bread machine. 

Get a large baking sheet, and cover it with baking parchment; even if it is non-stick.  Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl, and melt the butter and vanilla together in a small pan.

Tip your bread dough on to a floured surface, and roll it out into a rectangle.  Bread dough does not like being rolled out at all - it will be very elastic and springy, but persevere and it will come good.  I find it easiest to divide the dough into two and work with two smaller pieces.

Brush the melted butter and vanilla over your rectangle of dough, and then sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over the melted butter.  Roll up the dough into a long sausage, along the long side of the rectangle and then cut the dough into thick slices - about 3cm long.  Put the pinwheels of dough onto your baking sheet, reasonably close together, and leave to rise.  You want the rolls to just touch each other once they are risen.

Bake at Gas 7 for 12 minutes, and serve with a glass of cold milk or a cup of coffee.

I think of these rolls as quintessentially American.  I came across them a great deal when I lived and worked there.  I would guess they are part of the whole Scandinavian/German heritage of the Midwest, which is where much of the bread-based American baking originated.  In America these were always served drizzled with icing, or even spread with cream-cheese frosting, but I don't have a sweet tooth and prefer them unadorned.