Cinnamon Rolls

Our advent activity for today was to make cinnamon rolls, they are in my opinion delicious! The children love to help weigh out, mix and roll, as well as eating their cooking. I had seen Chelsea buns made in the shape of tree so thought I would try it with these buns, it sort of worked, at least it still has a sort of tree shape. They look better when cooked in a round tin but then again they are rather yummy and they are eaten quickly in my house. I adapted the recipe and made some eggless, dairy free ones for L, she is a very happy little girl, her special recipe is further down the page.

Cinnamon Rolls

225ml milk

75g butter

425g plain flour

70g caster sugar

10g fast active yeast

1 egg, beaten

For the filling

100g butter

65g caster sugar

15ml cinnamon

5ml vanilla essence

1- Heat the milk and margarine in a saucepan until nearly boiling, turn of heat and leave to cool.

2- Mix together the flour, sugar and yeast.

3- Add the egg and warm milk (not hot) to the dry ingredients and mix well.

4- Cover the bowl, I usually place a large plate over the top, leave to rise for at least an hour.

5- Mix all the filling ingredients together.

6- roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 25 cm by 40cm, spread the filling over it and roll it up

7- Cut your roll into several equal slices and place in a tin, not tightly packed as they need room to rise.

8- Cover and leave to rise until double in size.

9- Glaze with milk and sprinkle with some caster sugar.

10- Bake Gas 6 for about 25 minutes, rolls are cooked when they sound hollow when you tap the base.

Eggless, Dairy Free Cinnamon Rolls

250ml oat milk

90g dairy free margarine

425g plain flour

70g caster sugar

15g fast active yeast

For the filling

100g butter

65g caster sugar

15ml cinnamon

5ml vanilla essence

1- Heat the milk and margarine in a saucepan until nearly boiling, turn of heat and leave to cool.

2- Mix together the flour, sugar and yeast.

3- Add the warm milk/margarine (not hot) to the dry ingredients and mix well.

4- Cover the bowl, I usually place a large plate over the top, leave to rise for at least an hour.

5- Mix all the filling ingredients together.

6- roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 25 cm by 40cm, spread the filling over it and roll it up

7- Cut your roll into several equal slices and place in a tin, not tightly packed as they need room to rise.

8- Cover and leave to rise until double in size.

9- Glaze with milk and sprinkle with some caster sugar.

10- Bake Gas 6 for about 25 minutes, rolls are cooked when they sound hollow when you tap the base.

Yesterday we enjoyed watching Elf as our Christmas film and then we read The Little Fir Tree, then we  made some Christmas tree decorations.

I put together 3 green lolly pop sticks, then they stuck a green triangle of kite paper on the back and set about decorating them. Towards the end they asked for presents to put under the tree, I thought they meant that at Christmas time they had presents under their trees. Then realised that they were asking for presents for the trees they were making, they had remembered that earlier in the week we had used foam stickers that had presents in them. So we rummaged through the box till they found the ones they wanted to add to their trees. We also made some Rudolphs using lolly pop sticks, I just need to attach some ribbon to them so the children can hang them on their trees

My little ones really love playing with the baby dolls, it is something they have out every day, they love to create little rooms for them, this is one they made yesterday, I love it.

We have also made some window stars, planning on making a few to decorate our windows.