Dough Ingredients:

• 330g AP flour
• 120g active, bubbly starter
• 180g warm milk (whole or 2%, not hot)
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg, room temp
• 24g granulated sugar, honey, or maple syrup
• 5g salt

Filling:

• 4 tbsp salted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark is fine)
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Frosting:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup (85 grams) powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add your starter, milk, butter, and egg and lightly mix with a spoon. Then add your flour, sugar, and salt and mix again with a spoon until a rough dough forms.

Using the dough hook on your mixer, knead the dough for 6-8 minutes until pulling away from the sides and forming a ball. Stop half way through and scrape the dough down the sides of the bowl. This is a sticky dough.

Cover with plastic or a damp tea towel and rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, use the dough hook to knead for another 1-2 minutes or dampen your hands with water and perform a round of stretch and folds.

Next transfer your dough to a bowl lightly coated with butter or olive oil. Cover and rest until doubled. My kitchen is about 74F and it took 7 hours.

Make the filling:

While the dough is rising, mix your cinnamon and brown sugar filling in a small bowl.

Once the dough has doubled, generously flour a clean surface and dump your dough. Using floured hands and a floured rolling pin, spread the dough into a wide, thin rectangle about 10″ wide, 14″ long, and 1/4″ thick. Spread the melted butter across the entire rectangle. Then sprinkle on the brown sugar cinnamon filling and spread with your hand across the rectangle, leaving a 1/4-1/2″ margin on one of the short ends.

Grease a 9 x 9 baking pan or line with parchment paper. You can also use an 8″ or 9″ round pie pan.

Using a cookie cutter or sharp knife, cut strips from one short end to the other about 2″ wide. Then tightly roll each strip and place them into your prepared pan.

Cover your cinnamon rolls with a tea towel and let rest for another 45-60 minutes until they are puffy. It is okay if they are touching.

If you plan to bake right away, preheat the oven to 350F while they are doing their second rise. Otherwise, when they’re rise is done, cover them with plastic and place in the fridge until ready to bake.

Before baking, pour about 1/2 of heavy whipping cream over them in the pan (optional, this will make them gooier).

Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown around the edges.

While they are baking, prepare your frosting.

Frosting:

Add all of your frosting ingredients to a small mixing bowl and mix together well with a spoon or rubber spatula.

Once the rolls are done baking, spread the frosting over them while they are still warm. If you plan to save some for later, do not spread frosting on them at this time so you can reheat them without it all melting off.