Giant cinnamon roll

Could there possibly be anything better than a batch of fluffy cinnamon rolls? Yes – one enormous cinnamon roll that’s all yours! The others call her Mum ;). Of course, you can share it… The idea is that you tear off one delicious piece of the cinnamon swirl and… before you know it, the whole thing has mysteriously disappeared. Highly recommended for cinnamon lovers!

Makes 1 giant cinnamon roll.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 270 g strong white bread flour
• 40 g caster sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 5 g dried yeast or 10 g fresh yeast
• 40 g butter, melted
• 125 ml milk
• 1 large egg

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Place it in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll it into a 20 x 30 cm rectangle, lightly dusting the work surface and rolling pin with flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Brush the rectangle with the melted butter and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 3 cm-wide strips (10 strips in total). Roll up the first strip into a spiral, like a traditional cinnamon roll, and place it in the centre of a small, greased and floured round baking tin, approximately 22 cm in diameter. Carefully lift the remaining strips one at a time and wrap them around the roll, joining each strip to the previous one, to create one giant cinnamon roll. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Place the risen giant cinnamon roll in an oven preheated to 180°C and bake for approximately 28–30 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave to cool slightly and drizzle with the icing.

Ingredients for the cinnamon filling:

• 40 g butter
• 100 g soft brown sugar
• 1½ tbsp ground cinnamon

Melt the butter and leave to cool slightly. Mix the brown sugar with the cinnamon and set aside.

Ingredients for the icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tbsp hot water

Mix the icing sugar and water together using the back of a spoon or a mixer. Adjust the consistency by adding more water if the icing is too thick, or more icing sugar if it is too runny.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

This cinnamon roll is best eaten on the day it is baked, but it will keep fresh for up to 3 days when stored covered at room temperature.

Enjoy!