Saturday, December 1, 2007

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night I got the urge to bake. So I visited All Recipes and did a quick search for cinnamon roll recipes. I ordered them by their ranking, and printed off the first 5 star recipe I found that didn't call for cream-cheese frosting. The recipe was submitted by Julie Sterchi and can be found here.


I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, put the first two ingredients in the bowl and then... ran out to buy yeast. Mine was way past its expiration date, and wouldn't proof.

When I got home, new jar of rapid rise yeast in hand, I made up the dough. It was very sticky (there isn't a picture of that, because my hands were completely covered). I am not sure why it was that way, but I did not enjoy kneading it and kept adding flour.

Below is a picture of the dough before its first rise. In the background, Dioji looks a bit bored.

I covered it with cling wrap and put it into the oven. I had heated it to the lowest setting, and then turned it off. I just wanted the dough to have a warm place to rise, so that it would go more quickly. (That trip to the store really put my start time back!)

After the rise:

Rolling out the dough, on the nice mat that my Nana gave me. It actually has inches marked off so I could have rolled it into a 14 in by 10 in rectangle as directed. But it got a little out of hand.

Adding the goodies. For half of the batch I did white sugar, for the second half I used brown sugar like you see below. (The recipe didn't specify.) I followed the suggestions of those who had commented that there should be more cinnamon. I applied it liberally without measuring.

Here it is all rolled up and ready to cut. If you notice by the (empty!) cinnamon container, there is a dental floss. I use this to cut off the individual rolls. You just slide the floss beneath the dough and then pull the two ends together above the dough where you want it cut, and cross them as you slice through the roll with the floss.

Here are the rolls ready for their second rise.

When they came out of the oven:

Here they are with frosting drizzled on top:

So what did I think of this recipe? I thought that they tasted more like doughnuts than cinnamon rolls, which is probably due to the cake mix in the recipe. They are good, and I'm glad I made them, but they weren't my favorite cinnamon rolls ever.

So... who out there has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that they really like? I'm looking to try another one. Leave me a comment with the recipe or a link, k?







5 comments:

Leslie said...

They look yummy! I will look for my mom's Ice Box Cinnamon Rolls recipe, but I'm sure it has milkin it.

Mer said...

That's okay, I'd still love to have it. I am having a lot of luck lately baking/cooking with milk substitutions. I'm sure I could figure something out.

InspiredMumof2 said...

Hey, I never know its so easy to bake cinnamon rolls, thanks for the pics. Will try it out soon :-)

Mer said...

You will have to come back and leave me a comment of how they turn out, Inspired. :0) Glad you're going to make some of your own!

Julie Sterchi said...

Hey, there...I'm Julie, the original poster of this recipe. :) I wonder if it was really humid the day you made the rolls? The dough *is* very soft, but generally not so sticky you get into a mess and can't handle it. Adding a bunch of flour would definitely change the flavor of the finished product. Anyway, glad you gave them a try. ;)