Iced Cinnamon Snail Rolls

Yesterday I was visiting my family & wanted to take along a tasty treat for all to indulge in. Flicking through my books, the usual cakes, muffins & bickies did not appeal, I felt like making something a bit different. I finally came across this recipe which was in Bill Granger's Sydney Food. I love bread & don’t mind a bit of baking so this seemed perfect, also had not made anything like this before so definitely keen to see how it would compare to shop bought delights of a similar nature. The preparation & assembly were really quite easy & not that far off making bread dough though the ingredients are a little different, the only factor you would need to consider making these is time as you have to let the dough rise twice, I found mine needed about an hour each time too & dont they look delicious even before they're cooked? Straight out of the oven & time for a quick icing & taste test, really good, the dough was quite fluffy & not too heavy or dry. The wicked flavour combination of butter, sugar, cinnamon, sultanas & currants was very evenly balanced, I find sometimes these can be too bready with not enough flavouring, no such problem with these. And the final touch of the icing really finished them off beautifully, rounding off all of the flavours. I think these would also be great with some chopped nuts though with Michael being allergic, I wont be trying that option too soon! Yum!

Iced Cinnamon Snail Rolls

Dough
2 x 7 g sachets dried yeast
¼ cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk
125g unsalted butter, cubed
4 cups plain flour
a pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup sultanas
80g unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon warm water
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in warm water in a small bowl. Place milk & cubed butter in a medium saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Sift flour & salt into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar & stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add eggs, & milk & yeast mixtures. Stir until a dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface & knead for 6-8 minutes, working in extra flour if too sticky. Add the currants & sultanas in the last 2 minutes of kneading. Turn the dough into a large, lightly greased bowl & cover with plastic wrap. Keep the bowl in a warm place & let the dough rise for 30 minutes to an hour until the dough has doubles in size.

Punch the dough down & turn onto a lightly floured bench. Roll it into a 23 x 60 cm rectangle. Brush generously with the melted butter, reserving some for later, and sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar & cinnamon.

Roll the dough up from the short end, swiss roll style, to make a log. Cut the roll, seam side down, into 2 cm thick slices & place on baking trays that have been lightly greased, leaving 1.5 cm between each slice. Brush the tops with the remaining butter. Cover loosely & leave to rise until doubled.

Preheat oven to 180c. Bake trolls for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on rack for 10 minutes, drizzle with icing.

To make icing, place sugar, water & vanilla in a mixing bowl & stir until smooth. Add extra water if too thick to drizzle. Makes 12.