Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
If you love banana bread, you will adore these Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls. Imagine soft, buttery banana-infused dough with a delicious cinnamon-sugar filling and sweet banana-cream cheese frosting. Yum!
Servings: 12 rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 200 ml full-fat milk gently heated to lukewarm
- 7 g sachet instant yeast
- 50 g caster sugar
- 50 g unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 100 g peeled weight mashed banana
- 560 g strong white bread flour plus extra for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
- Flavourless oil for greasing
For the filling:
- 100 g unsalted butter softened
- 100 g soft light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
For the frosting:
- 35 g unsalted butter softened
- 70 g cream cheese
- 70 g maple syrup
- ½ medium-sized ripe banana
- 1 tsp lemon juice or to taste
Instructions
- Pour the lukewarm milk into a large bowl and stir through the yeast and sugar. Leave to stand for a few minutes.
- Add the melted butter, egg and mashed banana and whisk together until well combined.
- Add the flour and salt then, using a wooden spoon, mix together to form a dough.
- Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn the dough out on top. Knead for about 8-10 minutes - or until smooth, elastic and can easily be shaped into a ball (it should feel slightly tacky but not stick to your hands or the work surface). If it is still too sticky, add 1 tbsp of flour and continue kneading for a few minutes until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball (add a little more flour if still needed).
- Pop the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean cloth or cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour - 1 ½ hours - or until doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, make the filling: in a medium bowl mix together the butter, sugar and cinnamon until well combined. Cover with cling film and set aside.
- Grease a casserole dish - you need to be fairly deep. Set aside.
- Once the dough has risen, punch it down and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Shape into a rough rectangle.
- Lightly dust a rolling pin with flour, then roll out the dough to a large 40x20cm rectangle about 5mm thick.
- Spread the cinnamon butter evenly over the dough, then roll up tightly from the long side as you would a Swiss roll. Place seam-side down.
- Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 equal-sized pieces. Carefully place into the prepared casserole evenly spaced apart - you should have 3 rows with 4 rolls per row (alternatively, pop onto the prepared baking sheet). Cover with a clean cloth or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for another 20-25 minutes or until they have almost doubled in size.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175C Fan.
- Once the rolls have almost doubled in size, bake for about 25-30 minutes - or until lightly golden and the base sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- For the frosting: put the butter, cream cheese, maple syrup and banana into a blender and blitz until smooth. Taste and add lemon juice, if desired. Blitz again to combine.
- Drizzle the frosting over the slightly warm rolls and serve.
Notes
Flour: the amount of liquid needed will vary depending on the brand of flour you use, so don’t panic if the dough is still a little sticky after kneading for 10 minutes. It is very difficult to over-knead dough by hand, so just gradually add a little flour and keep going.
Rising time: dough rises more quickly in warmer places so if you are making these in summer, expect it to double in size much quicker than on a cold winter’s day. Try to leave your dough in a warm place like an airing cupboard or by the oven.
Frosting: if you aren’t a fan of cream cheese, you can drizzle these with melted chocolate or an icing sugar glaze instead.