Going Bananas in Acapulco, Part 3: Gooey Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls With Simple Vanilla Glaze

We're still going bananas here in Acapulco, this time with Banana bread cinnamon rolls! Cinnamon rolls have always been a favorite baked good of mine, so when I found a recipe for banana bread rolls, I couldn't help myself.  The last of our bananas ripened and I ended up having to freeze the rest so I could save them for this recipe. Things have been tight with money, so they needed to wait until I had the extra funds for the powdered sugar and butter needed for these.

I recently wrote an article sharing my budget.  I asked for donations in the form of bitcoin and steem from anyone who could and wanted to (you're still welcome to, if you'd like :P).  The one big donation I got out of that was from @celcius who sent us 46 steem dollars, citing it was everything on his Steemit account, even though it wasn't much.  Realistically, it was a big help and it made this post possible.  We used a good portion of the money for a 500 peso pipa of water that we got delivered yesterday. So thank you, a little goes a long way here in Mexico.  The rest will go to groceries and rent!

Here's the ingredients, the only two things missing are vanilla extract and one egg for the dough.  The egg was an after thought, one I'm very glad I decided to do. 

Start by heating milk and butter until the butters thoroughly melted.  Pour that into a bowl and allow it to cool.  You want it warm for the yeast, but if you can't hold your finger in the liquid without discomfort, you shouldn't be adding yeast to it.  Yeast is literally live bacteria we add to doughs to get them to rise.  All the rising process is has to do with those bacteria eating and releasing gas, which causes dough to rise. 

I just use active dry yeast I buy in bulk cubes.  This is how I've bought my yeast for years at this point, the packets are too expensive and actually hard to find here. You can get 2 pounds for 6 bucks this way in the US, it's even cheaper here. 

Add about 2 tsp to the milk mixture once it's cooled enough and mix.  Something to note here is that I never use exact measurements.  I was always told growing up you had to use exact measurements when baking, and I've found that's not true.  If you know what you're doing you can eyeball the amounts and churn out a delicious product no matter what.  If you've wondered why the amounts can be so vague, it's because I don't measure with anything other than maybe a spoon.  I've got no measuring devices, the scale I was using previously is now toast. 

Allow the yeast mixture to sit until it becomes foamy on top.  If your yeast is live, you'll know within a few minutes. 

Mash 2-3 bananas depending on size, go for riper ones.  I used frozen overripe bananas, which is part of why they have the color they do. You want about a half a cup of the mashed material by the end of it. 

Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt to the yeast mixture. 

Add the banana and mix thoroughly.  This is the only part I used a mixer for, because I wanted the banana chunks as small as possible.

Add one egg and mix thoroughly. 

Add flour, a little at a time, mixing it in completely each time.

Add some more, mix that in.

It'll slowly start to thicken, eventually reaching a point where you have to start kneading the flour in with your hands.  Just keep adding flour until you have a soft dough that isn't sticky.  You should be able to knead it around without a bunch sticking to your hands, you do not want this to be a wet dough. 

Eventually you've got something like this.  Cover and leave in a warm place to rise, until doubled in size.

Once it's doubled, punch down the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface.

Roll that big ball out to about a quarter to half inch thickness.

Melt about a third of a cup of butter and drizzle it over the dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly. 

Make a cinnamon sugar mix, of about three quarters of a cup of sugar to 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Sprinkle this evenly across the dough.

Add raisins and some sliced banana if you've got it. 

Start rolling up the dough, starting at one end.  Try to keep the roll as tight as possible when doing this.

Eventually you should have something that looks like this.

Cut off pieces, about 1 inch thick.  You can make them thicker or thinner, just keep in mind that you'll need to adjust baking time depending on how you do it.  You need to have them all be about the same thickness, or cook them in separate batches if you want different thicknesses.

Carefully put each slice in a buttered pan, like shown above)

Eventually you'll have a full pan, the rolls should have a little space around each of them for expansion.  While the oven heated, I let these sit to rest and rise a bit more before going into the oven.  By the time they made it into the oven they were all puffy and touching slightly. Bake at 350 for 25-45 minutes depending on thickness.  Just keep a watch on them, once they're all golden brown, they're done.  

When the rolls are almost done, make the glaze.  I start with sugar, an unidentified amount because I honestly adjust and add more based on end amount and texture.  Add about one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Add 2 tsp of melted butter as well, and add some milk.  Mix until smooth.  I needed to make more, so I added more sugar and milk to make more.  It's just that simple.  

This is about what it should look like when its done.  If you find you didn't make enough for all of them, just make more!

With handy wrist work and a spoon, drizzle the glaze evenly over the pan of rolls. The glaze will immediately melt over them and into them. 

There you have it, ooey gooey home grown and home made banana roll perfection.  I was honestly a bit worried that the banana might be too overbearing in the recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They taste like banana, but it's much milder and blends much better than I expected. 

You know these were good when John eats two.  He claims it was because his first one didn't have raisins, but I know better.  He generally isn't that into my baking adventures, he generally only eats a small amount of them if any. So him going back for seconds on this one means something. So next time you find yourself with over ripe bananas, why not have cinnamon rolls?