Chai-Spiced Cinnamon Rolls with Eggnog Glaze + Spice Giveaway!

This spice giveaway is made possible thanks to my lovely friend, Sapna, at Naivedhya. I used her chai masala spice blend to make these lovely cinnamon rolls! This is not a sponsored post, and all opinions are my own.

Today we are going to talk about the chai cinnamon rolls that shattered my IPhone screen. Yes, you did read that correctly. For me, this has been deemed the week of technical turmoil. Much has been sacrificed to get these rolls on the pages of the interweb! My week of techie trauma started out with my screen shattering in the midst of an early morning, pre-coffee, blog baking frenzy (lesson learned: keep your phone in a room outside of the kitchen while you bake). At the end of the same day, I found myself in tears with a splitting headache after spending 3 hours trying to figure out why my blog update e-mails are not being sent out.

Turns out it’s because my RSS feed is not updating {huh???} and a vicious cycle of “troubleshooting” that particular issue has lead me back to the starting line over and over again. I still haven’t solved the problem, but after a good night’s sleep I decided that it was more important to get the heavenly rolls out to you before commencing with technical problem-solving yuckiness again. Ick.

Let’s move on to more pleasant topics…like baking! For the past several years, I’ve made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast. It’s now a tradition that’s well-loved by my family; and I tend to keep it simple and make the same recipe each year. It’s actually a sweet potato cinnamon roll with a cream cheese frosting. Yeah, I know, it sounds weird to put sweet potatoes in your cinnamon rolls but they are actually really good!

This year I wanted to make a new variation on our cherished breakfast treat. These chai-spiced cinnamon rolls were inspired by 2 things: 1. My lovely friend Sapna who gifted me with a mouth-watering assortment of homemade spice blends and 2. Taylor Swift – who is known in the baking world for her chai-spiced sugar cookies with an eggnog glaze {y’all know how much I love Tay Tay!}. A chai-spiced cinnamon roll with an eggnog glaze sounded like the perfect thing to test-trial for Christmas morning!

If you’ve never made cinnamon rolls before, please DO NOT be intimated! This is a great recipe for beginners – there’s not a lot of kneading require and only one rise-time to deal with. Just read the recipe all the way through and have all your ingredients out before starting the recipe. You’ll be good as gold! And don’t forget to enjoy the process, taste, see and smell as you go. Maybe snapchat a little about your experience. Have fun with it!

I can’t thank Sapna enough for sending me this lovely gift box of spice blends. She was kind enough to send two gift boxes so that I could give one away to a lucky reader! Not only are these spices a phenomenal gift to your taste buds, but the packaging is such a visual treat as well! I was delighted over the cute little latch jars that the spices are housed in, and the lovely holiday-inspired packaging. This would be such a great gift for a foodie friend or family member – you can see Sapna’s great selection of products here.

A little note about the spices – what makes these so special is that the blends are specific to Sapna – she created them after years of testing and cooking with them for her own family! There’s a Chai masala, a chaat masala, and a garam masala. The word “masala” essentially means “blend” or “variation.” In the Indian culture, each household usually has its own unique masala blend of traditional spice flavor profiles. Kind of like Italian grandmothers develop and perfect their own variation of marinara sauce!

Here’s a few tips about how each blend is used:

• Chai masala – think “sweet” when you use this spice blend. It’s a great substitute or addition to any recipe that contains cinnamon. Contrary to what you may think, this blend does not contain tea. You add it to black tea to make chai tea for drinking.
• Chaat masala – think “savory” with this spice blend. You can use it to replace salt in any savory dish. It’s delicious on roasted vegetables with a little olive oil, or mixes wonderfully into homemade dressings, marinades, and sauces. I sprinkled a little on top of a mandarin in the picture below! In Ayurvedic medicine practices, a little chaat can be sprinkled on top of fruits/vegetables or any “roughage” to make it more digestible.
• Garam masala – think “warm.” This spice blend is filled with warming spices like cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom. It’s perfect in savory main-entree type dishes, especially those that are stewed, slow-cooked, or braised. It holds up well through long cooking times, and is also delicious on roasted nuts!

If you’d like to win this lovely spice package (valued at $75!), follow the instructions in the rafflecopter below the recipe! I will randomly select and announce a winner on Thursday – good luck!

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Chai-Spiced Cinnamon Rolls with Eggnog Glaze

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 20 mins

Total Time

2 hrs 40 mins

 

Cinnamon rolls are made extra special for the holidays with warming chai spices and a festive eggnog glaze. Cinnamon roll recipe adapted loosely from Sally's Baking Addiction

Servings: 12 rolls

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour divided, plus more for dusting counter surface.
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 packet of instant yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup 1% milk
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 egg

For the filling:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoons chai spice
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pecans toasted and finely chopped (optional)

For the glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted to remove any lumps
• 3-4 tablespoons eggnog I used Silk Soy Nog

Instructions

Dough instructions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl), combine the 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup of all purpose flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Stir with the mixer on low to combine.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the water, milk, and butter. Heat over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is hot to the touch (like bath water hot; 115 degrees F). Remove from heat and add to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until combined. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the additional 1/2 cup of all purpose flour gradually until a dough forms and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl (you may not need the entire 1/2 cup).
3. Transfer the dough to a well-floured surface, and knead for 3-4 minutes by hand until a smooth ball forms and the dough stretches out and springs back when you pull at it (this is referred to as elasticity).
4. Place your smooth dough bowl into a bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover with a clean towel and let it sit for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

Filling instructions:

1. For the filling, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter in the small saucepan used previously. Remove from heat and stir in the granulated and brown sugars, the chai spice, and the cinnamon. Let the mixture cool while you roll out the dough.

Cinnamon roll assembly/baking:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F while you roll out the dough. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Return the dough ball to a well-floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it out into a 14-8 inch rectangle. Spoon the butter mixture over the rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Sprinkle the pecans over the butter mixture. Starting from the bottom of the 14-inch side, begin to roll the dough up towards the top 14-inch side, tucking the dough in as you go. Use a serated knife to cut the roll of dough into 12 rounds.
3. Place each round of dough into the 12 wells of the muffin tin. Turn your preheated oven off and place the rolls inside. Set your timer for 1 hour and wait!
4. Once an hour has passed, remove the rolls from the oven and place them on your counter top. Cover loosely with a clean towel. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Once the oven is heated, bake the rolls for 16-20 minutes until golden brown. If they start to brown too much on top, you may cover the top of pan with aluminum foil to prevent further browning.
6. Remove from heat and transfer the rolls to a wire rack to cool slightly while you make the glaze.

Glaze instructions:

1. Whisk together the powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of eggnog until a smooth glaze forms. Add the 4 tablespoons of eggnog as needed to reach the desired consistency. The glaze should be the thickness of honey.
2. Spoon the glaze over the still-warm rolls. Let cool slightly to harden, if you can resist not eating a hot one! Or serve them hot and gooey - it's up to you! The rolls will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days - I like to refrigerate them to prolong the freshness. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

For overnight rise: Once the dough has been rolled, filled with the butter-sugar mixture, cut, and placed into the muffin pan wells, you can cover the tin with plastic and let it rise in your refrigerator overnight. In the morning, let the pan sit out at room temperature for 1 hour before baking and proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

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