The smell of these never fails to wake up any last snoozing members of our household. I have made these in both muffin tins and a ceramic/pyrex dish, or one of each, and found that they were slightly moister in the ceramic dish, but were more presentable in the muffin tins! Your call. If using a ceramic/pyrex dish you want the prebaked muffins to have a little space around them to expand but not too much. If regular cinnamon rolls are preferred, please substitute 2 tbsp of cinnamon for the all the spices and omit the cardamom from the icing.

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chai spice cinnamon rolls with cardamom icing

Author Mary Griffiths

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole or 2% milk
• 1 Package 14oz yeast
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 and 1/3 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp cloves

For the icing

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 4 tbsp butter at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Instructions

• Proof yeast in a large bowl with a cup of warm milk for 5 minutes.
• Add the 1/2 cup butter (room temperature), 2 eggs, 4 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt. Mix and knead for 5 minutes or alternatively place all the ingredients in a kitchen aid bowl and mix on lowest speed with the knead hook attachment for 5 minutes.
• Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for around an hour or until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix 1 cup light brown sugar with the 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1/4 tsp cloves.
• When dough has risen, remove from bowl and divide into 2. Roll each ball into roughly a 20" by 14" rectangle. Spread the 1/3rd cup unsalted butter right to the edges of both. Spread the sugar and spice mixture over the butter, again to the edges. Tightly roll up the dough. Using a sharp knife cut into 12 equally sized slices. Butter muffin tin or ceramic/pyrex dish (see note above). Place cinnamon rolls in the dishes and bake for around 15 minutes for the muffin tin or 20 minutes for the ceramic dish, or until golden.
• Mix all the icing ingredients together and glaze the rolls either when they are warm or at room temperature. Rolls and icing can be frozen separately for enjoyment on another day.