Cinnamon rolls

• 3½ cupsall-purpose flour
• 2¼ tspinstant yeast
• ¼ cupgranulated sugar
• 1¼ tspfine salt
• 1 cupwhole milk — warmed to 110 °F
• 4 tbspbutter — softened
• 1large egg — room temperature

• ½ cup infused butter

  Set your infusion strength above and this splits into infused and plain butter to hit whatever dose you want.

• 1 cuplight brown sugar — packed
• 2 tbspground cinnamon
• ¼ tspfine salt
• 4 ozcream cheese — room temperature
• 1 cuppowdered sugar
• 2 tbspwhole milk
• 1 tspvanilla extract

Method

1. 01

   Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt, then add the warm milk, the egg and the 4 tbsp of plain softened butter. Knead 8–10 minutes until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bowl. The dough gets plain butter on purpose: it sits warm for over an hour and then bakes through, which is the longest heat exposure in the recipe and no place for the infusion.

   10 min

2. 02

   Cover and let the dough rise until doubled, about an hour in a warm kitchen.

   60 min

3. 03

   Beat the infused butter with the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt into a thick paste. Keep it soft and spreadable — melted butter runs out of the spiral during baking and pools on the pan, taking the dose with it.

4. 04

   Roll the dough into a 12 by 16 inch rectangle and spread the filling to the edges in an even layer. An even slab is the whole dosing argument for this recipe: once it is rolled and cut, every roll contains the same length of the same ribbon.

5. 05

   Roll up from the long side into a tight log and cut 12 equal slices. Measure the log and mark it before you cut — eyeballed slices are uneven doses. Unflavored dental floss slid under and pulled up gives a cleaner cut than a knife.

6. 06

   Arrange the rolls in a buttered 9 by 13 inch pan and let them rise until puffy and touching, about 45 minutes. At this point the pan can be covered and refrigerated overnight instead.

   45 min

7. 07

   Bake at 350 °F until the tops are golden and the center roll reads 190 °F. The interior of a roll never gets hotter than that, which is why the filling is a gentler place for the infusion than the crust of a lean loaf.

   350 °F · 28 min

8. 08

   Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla smooth and spread it over the rolls while they are warm but not hot.

9. 09

   Cool in the pan. Store covered at room temperature for a day or refrigerated for four, and label the pan — a tray of cinnamon rolls on a counter reads as an open invitation.