the cinnamon roll lover’s pantry

On the Shelf

You’ll find many of these products in the baking or natural foods aisles at the grocery store. Find specialty flours from the Bob’s Red Mill and Hodgson Mill brands, or at kingarthurflour.com. Use the freshest cinnamon and other spices for the best flavor, from spice houses like McCormick, Pioneer, Tone’s, or penzeys.com.

Flours All-purpose (bleached or unbleached), bread flour, whole wheat, and gluten-free flours (brown rice, sorghum, millet, garbanzo bean, soy, cornstarch, potato, etc.)

Hot roll mix

Instant or bread machine yeast Store in the freezer after opening.

Vital wheat gluten (for whole wheat rolls)

Xanthan gum (for gluten-free rolls)

Salt Kosher or table salt

Chocolate Unsweetened cocoa powder, semisweet chocolate chips, Mexican chocolate tablets, chopped dark chocolate

Sweeteners Granulated sugar, light and dark brown sugar, raw sugar or date sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar

Spices Cinnamon, allspice, green cardamom, ground ancho or chipotle chile, ground cloves, nutmeg, ground black pepper, Szechuan pepper

Coffee Fresh brewed and instant, or instant espresso powder

Flavor extracts Vanilla, rose water, cinnamon oil

Fresh Ingredients

Dairy Products Whole milk, buttermilk, sour cream, butter, cream cheese

Large eggs (or powdered egg replacer for vegan rolls)

Vegan Products Almond, soy, or rice milk. Buttery sticks. Powdered egg replacer.

Fresh Foods Apples, citrus fruits, fruit juices, gingerroot, pears, rose petals

Varieties of Cinnamon

Ground from the inner bark of shrubby trees that grow in tropical southeastern Asia—especially Vietnam, China, Ceylon, India, and Indonesia—cinnamon is available in several different varieties. When the bark is harvested and dried, it curls into quills, known as “stick cinnamon.” Stick cinnamon is then ground into the spice we love. Like coffee beans grown in different regions, cinnamon from certain tropical locales can also have different characteristics.

Vietnamese or Saigon	The boldest, spiciest, sweetest cinnamon with the darkest color.
China	Bold, spicy, and strong, with a reddish brown cast.
Indonesian	Sweet and mellow; lighter reddish brown. Grocery store variety.
Ceylon	Known as “true cinnamon,” palest in color, slightly citrus in flavor.

There’s also more to cinnamon than love at first bite. Studies show that both the aroma and flavor of cinnamon perk us up and enhance brain function. No wonder we like to start the day—or revive in the afternoon—with a cinnamon roll!

an overview of cinnamon rolls, step by step

 

Measuring the flour

Scoop the flour from the bag or canister with one measuring cup, then dump it in another to measure. Skim the excess flour off the top with your finger or a knife, then add the flour to the bowl or the bread pan of an automatic bread machine.

Working with instant or bread machine yeast

Instant or bread machine yeast has a very fine granule that allows you to stir it into the flour without proofing it (sprinkling it over warm water until it bubbles up) first, saving you a step.

Warming the liquid ingredients

Heating the milk, butter, sugar, and salt together to a warm (110°F/43°C) temperature helps the yeast work more quickly. If you’re not sure how hot the liquid is, insert an instant-read thermometer into it. At 130°F/55 °C, yeast stops working, so make sure your liquid ingredients do not reach that high. After the liquid ingredients have warmed, whisk in the eggs.

Mixing the dough

Pour the warmed liquid ingredients into the flour and yeast. Use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer or a wooden spoon if you’re mixing by hand. Blend it all together until you have a moist, soft, and somewhat slack dough that is still sticky.

Kneading

Kneading helps activate the gluten in the flour to trap the carbon dioxide released when the yeast starts working, and that process causes the dough to rise. Change the paddle attachment for the dough hook on a stand mixer or simply transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead by hand.

To knead by hand, dust the dough, then press it into an oval. With the heel or knuckles of your hand, press the oval all over. Fold the oval in half, turn the dough a quarter turn, then press it into an oval again and knead. Repeat the process. You usually knead only a few minutes for roll dough, until the dough firms up and bounces back when you press a finger into the dough.

You can omit this step for No-Knead and Gluten-Free Cinnamon Roll Doughs.

Rising

For an airy texture, the dough needs ample time to rise or sometimes just rest. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave it to rise in a warm place until it has almost doubled in size, usually 45 to 60 minutes.

No-Knead Cinnamon Roll Dough will take 2 hours to rise at room temperature.

A “warm place” means about 85°F. To achieve this in a cool kitchen, turn the oven to 100°F with the door open. Place your covered bowl of dough on a shelf in the oven, and put a bowl of water next to it. Or make the dough using the dough cycle in a bread machine.

Room temperature means about 72°F. If your kitchen is cooler, the rising will take longer.

Laminating Danish Pastry Dough

Laminating a dough means adding butter layers. To do this, you add a crumbled mixture of cold butter and flour, much like pie pastry, to the Danish Pastry Dough by rolling the mixture in, a little at a time. Keep laminated doughs cold so the butter layers stay intact. Use a marble pastry work surface, if possible, and work in a cool room. Only keep the dough at room temperature during the final rise.

Rolling out the dough

For most doughs in this book, you’ll need to flour a surface— a kitchen counter, a large wooden cutting board, or a marble slab for pastry work. Flour the rolling pin. Roll the dough out to the dimensions required in the recipe, using a pastry brush to brush away excess flour.

Filling the dough

Usually you brush the dough with softened or melted butter, then sprinkle on a filling.

Forming the dough

To form the dough into a cylinder, start with either a long or a short end, as the recipe requires. Roll up the dough, jelly-roll fashion, keeping the cylinder as tight as possible as you roll, brushing off excess flour. After you’ve formed the dough into a cylinder, gently squeeze to elongate or compress to shorten the cylinder to the required length.

Cutting the dough

Use a serrated knife, a length of dental floss, or, in some cases, a pizza wheel to cut the dough into the required shapes.

Rising or resting

After you have filled and cut the rolls, there is a time for resting (the rolls don’t rise much) or rising (increasing slightly or more in size), covered with tea towels.

Baking

Preheat the oven to the required temperature and bake the rolls as directed. Rolls that bake in a mass will take longer to get done in the middle of the pan than rolls baked individually. To test that the middle rolls in the pan are done, insert an instant-read thermometer in the center of a roll. If the roll registers 190°F or higher, the roll is done.

Pan Saucing, Egg Washing, Glazing, Icing, and Frosting the Rolls

Cinnamon rolls usually get some kind of finishing touch. With a thick pan sauce, the rolls bake in a sugary mixture that forms the topping when the rolls are inverted after baking. An egg wash is a thin brush of egg over an unbaked roll, sometimes with an added sprinkle of pearl or coarse sugar. Glazing involves brushing or drizzling a thin, translucent, sugary mixture over a baked roll. An icing is usually thicker and whiter than a glaze, while a frosting is thick and spreadable on a baked roll.

Storing and Freezing

Cinnamon rolls are best enjoyed the day they’re made but can be stored in plastic storage bags and rewarmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Rolls made with Thin Strudel Dough will keep for at least a week.

You can freeze prepared doughs, as well as formed but not yet baked rolls, in freezer bags or containers for up to 3 months. Freezing just puts the yeast in suspended animation for a while. The yeast will activate again when the dough or unbaked rolls come to room temperature. At that time, you can finish the recipe.

You can also freeze baked rolls—glazed but not frosted—in freezer bags or containers for up to 3 months. Let them come to room temperature, then wrap in aluminum foil and warm in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. Spread newly made frosting on frozen, thawed, and warmed rolls for a gooey treat.