What better holiday breakfast or brunch item is there?

Here’s what you’ll need to make about two dozen nice sized rolls:

• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus a pinch more
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 5 tsp. yeast (about 2 pkts.)
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 3 eggs
• 6 cups (more or less) bread flour (you can use all purpose, if you don’t have bread flour)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• pinch of orange zest (optional; I use it if I have an orange lying around)

First, you need to make the dough. Place the milk, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and butter in a microwave-safe measuring cup or other container, and microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir and set aside to cool slightly (the butter doesn’t have to melt entirely or anything.)

Place water and yeast in a mixer bowl, and add the pinch of sugar. Whisk until combined, then allow to set until foamy.

Add cooled milk mixture to foamy yeast mixture. Attach paddle and mix for a few seconds. Add eggs and mix for a few seconds more. Add 3 cups of flour and mix on low speed until barely combined; increase speed and beat for 2 minutes on medium. Remove paddle attachment, add 2 more cups of flour, and attach dough hook. Knead in mixer until the dough clings to the dough hook and cleans the side of the bowl, adding more flour as necessary to get a nice, elastic, springy dough. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and set aside to rise for about an hour, until doubled. (Mine took about an hour and a half, as it was fairly cool in the house.)

While that’s going on, make your filling by creaming the brown sugar and white sugar with the butter. Add the flour, cinnamon, and cloves and mix until well combined. Set aside. (Note: you can add nuts here, if you like. Or raisins. Or dried figs. Or whatever.)

When dough is risen, punch down, knead a few times by hand to make sure it’s all smooth and pretty, then roll it out into a large rectangle. Mine was about 15″ x 15″, I’d say. Cover the dough evenly with your brown sugar mixture, leaving just a little space around the edges.
The picture is hideously light (sorry about that,) but here’s what the dough looks like, rolled out and covered with the brown sugar mixture.

Now, starting at whatever end looks *less* straight, roll carefully as you would a jelly roll. Mine was pretty much a square, but if you’re is more of a rectangle, be sure to roll starting from the longer side. Here’s mine, all rolled up and ready to cut!

Now you’re going to cut into 3/4″ slices, removing each carefully after cutting, to place on your greased baking surface. I never seem to get the filling all the way to the ends, so the first and last pieces are something of a bust, but the rest should wind up as pretty spirals… here are mine waiting to be covered once more and set aside again until doubled in size.

If you want to do these a day ahead, you can cover these babies tightly before this last rise, then refrigerate until you’re ready to go. Let the rolls stand at room temperature until they shake off the chill and rise until doubled in size.

Otherwise… just cover and let them rise right away. It took these puppies about 45 minutes to get to where I wanted them. Baked at 350°F for about 20 minutes, they come out looking like these! Drizzle with a little milk-and-powdered-sugar icing (or something more ambitious, if you prefer) and enjoy.