Dulce de Leche Cinnamon Rolls

Dulce de leche cinnamon roll

Although I am mostly over my paranoia about rising dough for bread, I still like to employ the bread machine now and again. What I have found is that the machine is awesome for making the dough to use for things like bagels, pretzels, and an the case of this post, cinnamon rolls.

One day when I had a list of things to do both in and out of the kitchen, I decided to add cinnamon rolls to the mix and then decided that I didn't want the traditional cream cheese or sugar glaze. Being a caramel addict, I decided to try dulce de leche for the topping.

When I made the dulce de leche for the caramel butterscotch custard a while back, I stood for a long time at the stove to caramelize the sweetened condensed milk. When I decided to add the dulce de leche to the cinnamon buns, it was because I came across a couple of methods to caramelize the milk without the time at the stove. I opted for a slow cooker option: I placed the unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk into a crock pot and covered them 1-2" of with water (I needed to lay them on their side), covered the crock and set it to low and let it slow cook for 6 hours. As long as the water doesn't evaporate away, all is good and the milk caramelizes beautifully. The longer it heats, the darker and richer it gets.

Sweetened condensed milk in a water-bath to caramelize.

Dulce de leche after 6 hours in hot water bath

Traditional dulce de leche next to crockpot version

I need to emphasize the part about keeping the cans covered with water, friends of mine shared a disaster story about exploding cans when the water evaporated. I think they needed to repaint the kitchen.

Anyway, my first order of business the day of this rabbit hole trip was to get the crock pot going. I actually turned it up to high for a bit until the water-bath was good and hot, then set it to low and let it go.

Once that was on autopilot, I assembled the dough ingredients in the bread machine and set that to work.

Once the dough was done and had its first rise in the machine, I rolled it out, spread it with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and rolled the log that gets sliced into the rolls.

After slicing the log into rolls, I placed them in silicone lined rimmed baking sheets and set them in a draft-free place to rise a bit more.

(NOTE: took advantage of my 'proofing' setting on my oven to warm it a bit before turning it off and placing the pans inside to rise.)

After an hour or so, I set them on the counter and when the oven was preheated, put them back in to bake.

Cinnamon rolls smelled SO good, I HAD to take a peek!

Dulce de leche cinnamon rolls with the first round of topping brushed on.

After they were out of the oven for a bit and cool enough to touch without getting burnt, I brushed some of the dulce de leche on each roll. When I was ready to serve them for dessert, I warmed the dulce de leche and drizzled it on the roll.

THE RECIPE:

Dough

1-1/3 C warm milk

1/2 C room butter cut into cubes and at room temperature

5 T sugar

1 large egg beaten

1 t salt

1 T bread machine (quick rise) yeast

Whisk the milk and egg together and pour it into the bread machine pan

Add the butter

Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a bowl and then add to the bread machine pan

Carefully create a well in the top of the flour and add the yeast being careful not to have it touch any wet ingredients.

Set the machine to dough and go on your merry way until it's done.

Filling

Filling propositions and ingredients are flexible and can include chopped nuts, orange zest, maple sugar, and any assortment of dried fruits like raisins or craisins. I kept these simple

1-1/2 C dark brown sugar

2 T ground cinnamon

1/2 C softened butter

Whisk the brown sugar and cinnamon together

Once the bread machine is done with its work, turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll it out into a big rectangle between 1/8 and 1/4' thick.

Spread the butter evenly over the dough

Sprinkle the brown sugar / cinnamon mixture evenly over the dough

Roll the dough along the long edge into a log

Slice the log into 3/4" pieces and set on a pan to rise for 45 minutes to an hour

When the second rise is complete, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the rolls for 20 minutes or so. Once they are a nice golden color and the center of a roll is springy when pressed, they are done.

Set on a rack to cool a bit before brushing on some dulce de leche or your desired glaze or frosting.

If you love cinnamon rolls the traditional way, you will go over the top for dulce de leche cinnamon rolls!