Yummy Finnish Cinnamon Rolls!

It's hard for me to believe that I've been writing this blog for 132 weeks.....that's coming up on three years! It seems like yesterday when I sat in a marketing evaluation class made up of university students who had agreed to take on various local businesses and develop marketing plans for them. We were so blessed to be chosen to participate! It was such fun to work with those students ....and I think they enjoyed working with us - I always baked for them!! They had sooo many great ideas, many that still have yet to be developed by us! However, we did have an "ouchy" moment...... one student who was becoming a real bread-making enthusiast noticed that I was not very faithful about writing my blog. Through the 12-week class, I had only written one or two posts. And, in addition to that naughtiness, I was not regular about posting on Facebook. In other words, I was REALLY weak in social media. Thanks to those students "shaming" me, I began to write recipes weekly. And now it's truly unbelievable that we're looking at the three year mark soon. If any of those students are out there reading this, I want to say "THANK YOU!" Sometimes being ashamed can work some good things in us! I've gotten to meet so many great folks and share so many great recipes - their "scolding" worked some wonderful things in my life! 

This DELICIOUS and beautiful recipe is dedicated to that great class of students who worked so hard on our behalf - THANKS SO MUCH! I'm still thinking of you! 

Finnish Cinnamon Rolls!  

Dough:

1 pkg/Tbsp. Red Star Platinum instant yeast

½ Cup warm water

¼ Cup butter, melted

¼ Cup sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 egg yolk

½ salt

¾ tsp. cardamom

2 ¼ -2 ½ Cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Filling:

¼ Cup butter, softened

¼ Cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Combine filling ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside

Glaze:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 Tbsp. milk

Coarse sugar or pearl sugar

Combine egg and milk. Set aside

Place warm water and yeast in EZ DOH bucket and stir to dissolve yeast. Let rest 1 minute. Add one cup of flour, then additional dough ingredients. EZ DOH-it for 2-3 minutes, or until dough is smooth and soft and all ingredients are incorporated, adding additional  flour as necessary to produce a dough that is smooth and not sticky. Remove dough from bucket, spray bucket with cooking spray, “smooth” dough and replace in bucket. Cover and refrigerate for 2-24 hours.

Remove dough from refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out into a 12x24” rectangle. Spread dough with the filling, Roll up, jelly-roll fashion, starting with long side of rectangle. Cut into 12- 2 to 3” slices. Sprinkle flour on the arm of a wooden spoon. With the arm press down the center (lengthwise) of each roll, forcing the cut edges of the roll upward slightly. Place rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover gently and let rise in a warm place until puffy and almost doubled (about 40 minutes). Brush each roll with the glaze mixture. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (or pearl sugar). Bake at 400 for 8-12 minutes, until golden.

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Yummy Finnish Cinnamon Rolls!