Passion Kneaded: Oat Cinnamon Rolls

January is Oatmeal Month and the theme for this month's Foodie Extravaganza. This is a special month with the chance to win a cookbook. Read on for more.

Hi, my name is Kelly and I am a cinnamon roll junkie. I am also a "throw a handful of oats into bread dough" junkie. This oat cinnamon roll is a meeting of the two. I had no intention of adding oats to cinnamon rolls. My tendency to grab a bag of 5 grain cereal or oatmeal and throw some into dough was always limited to non-sweet doughs.In fact, I had a completely different plan for this month's Foodie Extravganaza - still dessert though because, truthfully, I don't like making savoury dishes. Two weeks ago, I promised some friends a batch of cinnamon rolls and as I walked into the kitchen to start working on it, I thought to myself, "Why not add some oats to the dough?" So I did. Great decision.

You don't taste the oats. You can tell there's a little something different about the dough but it is in the texture rather than the flavour. And no, it's not the heaviness that you might get from whole wheat. It's a subtle difference that could be attributed to added hydration rather than addition of a whole grain. I almost added the oats/an oat streusel to the filling of the rolls. That would make them even more "oaty". However, as I said, I was making these for friends and I wasn't sure how they'd feel about biting into an oat filling when they were expecting just cinnamon. Plus, and this may be the main reason - rolling doughs with uneven fillings is always hit and miss for me. So I wanted to try first with just the oats in the dough. I'll try an oatmeal filling the next time a cinnamon roll craving hits me. The cravings happen a lot.

Oat Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe by: Kelster

Yield: ~ 20 servings

Ingredients

Dough
2/3 cups oatmeal
1 cup hot water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all purpose flour (plus more as needed)

Filling

1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

4 tablespoons butter, softened

Directions

Pour hot water over the oatmeal, cover and let sit for at least two hours or until the oats are softened. You can let this sit overnight also.
Add yeast, sugar, buttermilk, beaten egg, oil, salt and 3 cups of flour to the soaked oatmeal. Combine thoroughly then slowly knead in the remaining cup of flour. Knead for 6 minutes. Dough should be soft and tacky. If dough is extremely sticky, add additional flour by the tablespoon. If dough is dry, add water or buttermilk by the teaspoon.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and allow to rest at room temperature until doubled. This could take 1- 2 hours depending on the room temperature.

Combine all the filling ingredients except the butter. Grease two 9" - 10" round baking pans.

After dough has risen,divide into two pieces and roll one piece out to an approximately 13" x 13" square. Spread 2 tablespoons of softened butter over the dough. Evenly sprinkle on half the sugar mixture then tightly roll up the dough. Trim the ends, if needed but be sure to bake those trimmings too! Slice into ~1 inch slices and place in a greased baking pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Notes

Here's a great visual for tacky vs sticky dough
Pan sizes are a little tricky here. With 1 inch slices, I actually had about 3 more rolls than could fit in my two pans. If you slice a little bigger than 1 inch, you won't have that problem. I just baked them on a small sheet and those became my testers.
I find it a lot easier to chill dough just before rolling up and again just before slicing. I get tighter rolls and neater slices.
I prefer to use floss to slice my rolls.
I didn't use a glaze. Well, I started to and changed my mind. I love glazes but find that recently, I prefer to keep rolls unglazed. If you can't live without a glaze, use your favourite or mix together 1/4 cup softened margarine, 1 t vanilla, 1 cup of powdered sugar and enough milk for your preferred consistency. Pour about half over the hot rolls then add the rest when the rolls are cool.

We are a group of bloggers who love to blog about food! Each month we will decide on a National Monthly Food Holiday on which we will base our recipes around. This month's the ingredient is oatmeal. We hope you all enjoy our delicious oatmeal treats this month and come back to see what we bring for you next month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out HERE.

The oat-guru Kathy Hester has been so generous in donating one of her books to one of our lucky Foodie Extravaganza readers. With her book OATrageous Oatmeals: Delicious & Surprising Plant-Based Dishes From This Humble, Heart-Healthy Grain (affiliate link), you will learn how to use heart-healthy oatmeal in new and exciting ways! You can find recipes such as Steel-cut Oat Sausage Crumbles, Chickpea Veggie Soup, and Blackberry Mojito Overnight Oats. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for your chance to win. The widget may take a little while to load so be patient. If you don't win, feel free to grab the link from above to purchase your own.

OATrageous Oatmeals Cookbook -- From Gate to Plate -- FoodieExtravaganza Givea

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Terms & Conditions: This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada only, age 18 and older. The OATragous Oatmeals Cookbook giveaway runs from Wednesday, January 7, 2015 12:00am ET through Thursday, January 15, 2015 12:00am ET. Winners will be randomly chosen and announced on January 16, 2015. Winners will also be contacted by email and will have 24 hours to respond to the email. If a winner does not respond in that time a new winner will be chosen. For more information, see the full terms and conditions in the Rafflecopter widget.