BBA #7: Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns

For round 7 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge I decided I didn't want to choose between making the cinnamon rolls vs the sticky buns because I really love them both. It was easy enough to just cut my log of dough into 12 pieces (just under 1 1/2-inches each roughly) and to bake six as cinnamon rolls and use the other six for sticky buns.

I then made a half batch of the caramel glaze mixture and placed it in the bottom of a 9-inch round pan, placed the rolls, covered, held them in the refrigerator overnight. All I had to do was get up a bit early the next morning and sit them out on the counter for a couple of hours to rise.

While this dough was delicious, and a joy to work with, I really preferred them as the sticky buns because I really didn't particularly care for the lemon zest in the dough. I liked it - but just ok. I wouldn't probably put it in again - though I WILL switch it to orange next time and turn these into orange rolls instead with an orange cream cheese glaze.

The dough was tender, easy to make, easy to work with and the sticky bun glaze was easy to make and really delicious!

Nigella Meets National Sticky Bun Day and the Master Baker

Did I need a good excuse to make another sticky bun recipe? Not really, but it doesn't hurt. Did I find one? No, I found three! I was going to make them anyway for National Sticky Bun Day on Feb. 21st, but since I found the Master Baker - Cinnamon Event, I thought that was another good reason to justify this again. Oh, and though I can't find a good resource online showing that today is such a lovely holiday, I am confident that my information is correct. Why? Because on his cinnamon bun episode Alton Brown said so and if he says so, that's more than good enough for me.

Now enters Nigella. The esteemable Ms. Lawson. One of the recipes sitting in my files for a while now is for Schnecken. Yes, seriously fun word. So, here we are again, feeding my craving - and hopefully yours too! I'll be submitting this one to Foodie Chickie for the Weekend Cook Book Challenge #25. It is thanks to her choice of Nigella Lawson for the theme this time that I get to make this recipe in particular.

Nigella says about these buns in her book How To Be A Domestic Goddess: Baking and The Art of Comfort Cooking that “Schnecken means "snails," which is what these German-American coiled buns resemble. They are like the Norwegian cinnamon buns*, only more so. By which I mean they are stickier, puffier, gooier and generally more over the top." Nigella also says that she actually came across this recipe in one of her favorite books, The Village Baker's Wife by Gayle and Joe Ortiz, which she recommends as well as it's companion The Village Baker. *(note from PheMOM: this is another recipe in Nigella's fabulous book).

I obviously couldn't have said it better, and besides, unless you are lucky enough to live in the U.K. and hear accents as lovely as Nigella's all the time (or have one) then it is just more fun to imagine this in her voice. So, word for word, here is her recipe (with a few little notes from me, the doubter, while I was making this - since I was sure I was doing something wrong):

Schnecken
For the Dough:
3 1/3 cups bread flour
3 Tbsp cup sugar (which I assume means regular white sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1 package (1/4 oz) rapid-rise yeast or 1 Tbsp fresh yeast
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk
2 large eggs

For the Syrup:
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp turbinado sugar
4 Tbsp maple syrup (I didn't have any real maple syrup, so I opted to use honey here)
3 Tbsp light corn syrup

1 Tbsp dark corn syrup (I added this because I thought the taste and texture would help)
About 1 cup walnut or pecan pieces

For the Glaze:
1 large egg
2 Tbsp milk

For the Filling:
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup demerara or turbinado sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

You will also need:
12-cup muffin pan, buttered parchment-paper lined roasting pan or baking pan for turning the sticky buns out onto later - large enough to cover muffin pan

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl.



Melt the butter in the milk - use a microwave and a measuring cup for ease - beat in the eggs.





Stir into the dry ingredients to make a dough.



Knead for 10 minutes or for 5 with a dough hook. When it's springy and satiny, form it into a ball, put into an oiled bowl, turn to coat, and cover with plastic wrap.



Leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Notice, the dough did not get smooth. I took the cue from Nigella's directions, and the use of bread flour, that perhaps this is supposed to be a firmer dough. So, after I finished kneading into a ball by hand for a couple of minutes, I didn't push my luck further. Thus, here is my dough. Yes, it was springy and somewhat satiny, but definately different than any other sweet roll type dough I have made, unless it was a brioche recipe. Oh, and it really took the full hour to get just doubled - even using the "rapid-rise yeast."

Using an electric mixer, start on the syrup: beat the butter until soft and smooth and add the sugar, still beating. Beat in the syrups and then divide this mixture among the muffin cups. (I also lightly sprayed the cups so they wouldn't stick as much later).

This mixture, even with the additional tablespoon of dark corn syrup I added, did not make a syrup consistency, but more of just a soft butter. Again, I just plugged along having faith. I spread the mixture into the muffin tin and patted it down with the back of a spoon with a little cooking spray to keep from sticking.

Top with the nuts, about a tablespoonful in each sticky-based waiting cup. I just placed pieces into the butter, enough to cover the area.



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. When the dough's ready, knock it back, knead once or twice and then roll out to a large rectangle, approximately 24 by 12 inches, with the long side nearest you. (I couldn't roll mine any bigger than 16 x 12 inches). Beat the egg and add the milk. Glaze the dough, using a pastry brush to paint, or just your fingers.



Mix the filling ingredients in a little bowl.



Sprinkle onto the dough.



Now, roll up from the long side and away from you, carefully and firmly (though not too tightly), keeping a firm sausage shape.



Cut into 12 even slices, and lie each slice spiral-swirly cut side up, on top of the nuts and syrup in the muffin cups.





Leave to rise for about 20 minutes and when they're risen and puffy, put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, by which time they should be golden and cooked; crisp in parts, voluptuously gooey in others. (Mine took the full 25 minutes.)



Place the roasting pan or baking sheet on top and turn the whole thing the other way up. (You will need oven mitts and a degree of caution for this.) Remove the muffin tray and dislodge any nuts that are still stuck in it, adding them, along with any residual syrup, to the upturned buns. Leave to cool, then apply to face - as if you needed my encouragement.



Makes 12

Final note: These tasted great and, other than second guessing myself, weren't too difficult to make. The next time I make them though, I will use all-purpose flour, and maybe a little less to start with. Also, these actually didn't turn out very gooey at all, as you can see. I will probably increase the amount of dark corn syrup, or add some cream to the syrup for a bit more of a caramel effect.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!" is a Cajun saying meaning, "Let the good times roll!" So, to celebrate Mardi Gras today (really, could it be any funnier that the great election "Super Tuesday" also falls on Fat Tuesday this year. Hmmm, appropriate much with all this talk about the rich getting richer...? - sorry, I digress) I have been letting the good times roll around our house for the past week. Cinnamon Rolls that is.

I made some cinnamon rolls with a potato dough a few days ago and also yesterday with a white bread dough. All this also comes to you courtesy of National Sticky Bun Day coming up on February 21st. I have a couple more recipes I want to test this month on the subject, and yes, I will openly admit that I am now grasping at any excuse at this point to justify to myself and my husband the number of breakfast breads that are coming out of the kitchen that are without a doubt NOT helping me eat healthier.

To quote another french inspired saying, "C’est la vie". At this point, it isn't going to make or break me, so I will just enjoy having something ready to eat for breakfast that, while not the best choice perhaps, comforts me in this time of hibernation.

Anyway, I have to say, that while these cinnamon rolls were wonderful (and I used the same glaze as for the potato rolls) that I actually preferred the potato roll dough. It stayed more tender and had a nice flavor without drying out over time as much.

However, this recipe below is actually for white bread and is a very large recipe (3 loaves). Well, since loaves don't go that quickly around our house, I played around with the dough. So, what you see here is one regular loaf for sandwiches, a loaf where I kneaded in 1/3 cup of cinnamon chips (like chocolate chips but cinnamon flavored) that I had around the house, and made cinnamon rolls with the final amount.

The other thing I did do this time around was to slice and freeze a portion of the cinnamon rolls individually so that I could thaw and bake them at my leisure over the next few weeks. (Yes, I have an impish grin on my face at this point and that was a "mwa-ha-ha!" you heard resonating from my kitchen).

So... sorry about that little detour again... the point is, that though I think I like the potato dough better for making a large amount of cinnamon rolls at once, I also like this dough for its easy "freeze-ability."

You can see the potato rolls and find the glaze recipe here. For the bread and rolls show on this post, see below.

Expect more rolls to come...

WHITE BREAD & ROLLS

½ C butter
½ Tbsp salt
½ C sugar + ½ tsp
1 C milk
2 C cold water
1 ½ Tbsp active dry yeast
½ C warm water (105° to 115° F)
11 C all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten slightly

In a large saucepan, heat butter, salt, sugar and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly until butter melts. Remove from heat; stir in 2 cups cold water.

In a small bowl, combine yeast and ½ cup warm water with ½ tsp sugar. Let set 1 minute. Then stir to dissolve. Let rest 5 minutes or until frothy.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter mixture and 3 cups of the flour; add yeast mixture and eggs, mixing well. Add 6 more cups flour, two cups at a time. After each addition, mix for 1 minute until the flour is incorporated. Add the remaining 2 cups flour by hand (unless your stand-mixer can take the full volume – which mine can’t). To add the remaining flour by hand, place the final 2 cups onto a clean surface and knead the remaining flour gently in till it is all incorporated.

Cover the dough with a piece of pastry cloth and let it rest 5 minutes. Remove the cloth and with lightly floured hands knead the dough until smooth, elastic and small bubbles appear, about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a large buttered bowl, turning dough over to grease top. Cover with kitchen towel and let rise in warm place about 1 to 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.

Punch down dough; let rest 15 minutes till soft and pliable again. Divide into 3 pieces and form loaves. (I like to gently press the dough down with my knuckles and fold it in to three pieces like a letter, then press into a loaf shape, sealing the seam and tucking the ends underneath on the seam side. Then just use the sides of your hands along each long side of the loaf tucking and tightening the dough until you have a nice loaf shape that is even and as long as your pan.) Place the loaves into 3 (9x5x3-inch) loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour or until doubled again.

Heat oven to 375° F. Bake 45 minutes or until loaves are golden brown. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks away from drafts.

Makes 3 loaves.

VARIATIONS:

Because this is such a large recipe, I like to experiment with the dough. Here I made two loaves (slightly smaller than full size) and 18 cinnamon rolls.

When dividing the dough, I divided it into three pieces, but slightly uneven, leaving a little extra dough for the cinnamon rolls. You could simply divide it evenly into three pieces and make a pan of rolls with one of the loaf pieces. Just follow all the steps above through the 15 minute resting period (and I like to form the rolls last so they get a little longer rest since that portion of dough will be worked the most). Roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about ½ inch thick.

1 C light brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
¼ C butter, melted
¼ C honey

Place in microwave safe bowl and whisk all ingredients together. Heat in the microwave until it is all soft and mixed together. Spread this onto the dough rectangle in as even a layer as possible, leaving a 1-inch strip at the top clean to seal a seam. Roll the dough, starting at the bottom jelly-roll style. Cut the dough into 1 ½ inch pieces. Place in a buttered baking dish and cover with buttered plastic wrap. Allow to rise till doubled in size (about 45 minutes to 1 hour). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 375° F. Remove from oven and allow to cool before glazing with frosting.

Football Grub (and an excuse to make something sweet)

Our very first Superbowl party! To be honest, every year around our house the Superbowl pretty much comes and goes unnoticed. We may tune in for half-time or some of the commercials - the only time of year I will purposely watch a commercial and not change the channel - but never the game, let alone the whole thing.

What is different this year? Well, for the past several years my husband has worked with mostly women who weren't interested in football, and frankly, neither was he. Now he works at the indoor wind tunnel in Ogden, IFLY Utah. He has been a skydiver for years and has almost 4,000 skydives and roughly 130+ BASE jumps. Also, he and his best friend got sponsored for skydiving for the first time last year and are loving it.

You would think that all of that would be enough. It isn't. He is also a huge Supercross fan and will watch any of the X-Games type sports. Never really any mainstream sports though. Now, this year, he is suddenly watching a lot of football. Not really obsessively, and I don't think he even has a favorite team or feels the need to watch. I think he just enjoys watching a good game. So, this presents an interesting first time opportunity for me since we have never thrown any kind of "tail-gate" like party. This is more his speed.

I guess on this we both win. I get to plan a fun menu of things I don't really make all the time and he gets to have his buddies from work over to watch the game. This makes it rather difficult to impress him. His buddies however, I am hoping will be properly thrilled. Did I mention that only one of them coming over isn't a bachelor? Oh yea. I've got good guinea pigs coming.

So, I thought I would tell you about a few of the things we had. I made mac 'n cheese again as well as potato wedges and chicken bacon bites. Other than that I didn't have luck with getting pictures of some of the other things, so here is what I did get.

I made these rolls as buns for mini cheeseburgers and had more dough than needed for buns...so, I made cinnamon buns with part of the dough. Yeah, yeah, yeah - I could have just made less dough, but there have been some interesting mishaps in the kitchen lately... that, however, is another story (which I will confess to in the near future).

In the mean time, though I didn't get pictures of the hamburger rolls, I did get pictures of the cinnamon rolls. This dough makes a very soft, pillowy cinnamon roll. I don't recommend it for sticky buns, but they are great for cinnamon rolls. The only change I would make from below is to decrease the amount of salt in the dough.

POTATO ROLLS (for mini hamburgers)

Makes 30 to 35 rolls.

INGREDIENTS

2 small russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 packages active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar, plus a pinch
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled, plus more for bowl and plastic wrap
4 teaspoons coarse salt
5 1/2 cups to 6 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting

DIRECTIONS

1. Place potatoes in a medium saucepan; cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cook potatoes until knife-tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid. Mash potatoes; set aside.

2. Cool reserved liquid to 105 degrees. In the detached bowl of an electric mixer, whisk liquid, yeast, and pinch of sugar. Set aside until mixture is foamy, about 10 minutes.

3. Attach bowl to electric mixer fitted with the dough-hook attachment. With the mixer on low, add remaining sugar, reserved potatoes, buttermilk, 4 tablespoons melted butter, and salt. Gradually add enough flour to make a slightly sticky dough. Knead dough until smooth, about 2 minutes. Brush a mixing bowl with butter. Place dough in bowl; cover bowl with buttered plastic wrap. Set aside to rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

4. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough out 3/4 inch thick. Cut dough into 2-inch-wide strips. Cut strips into triangles or squares; place at least 1 1/4 inches apart on baking sheets. Brush tops with remaining melted butter; cover with buttered plastic wrap. Let rise until dough does not spring back when pressed with a finger, 15 minutes. Bake until golden, 18 to 20 minutes; serve.

VARIATION:

CINNAMON ROLLS

For the filling:

2/3 C light brown sugar

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C butter, melted

1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

For the glaze:

2 C powdered sugar

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp milk (plus additional if needed to get desired consistency)

Whisk together til smooth in a small bowl.

For the cinnamon rolls after you turn the dough out roll it as above into a rectangle. Brush with the melted butter, leaving a strip clean at the top to seal the dough after rolling. Spread with the cinnamon mixture and press lightly into the dough. Cut into 1 1/2-inch slices using a sharp serated knife. Place in buttered baking dish to rise again (about 30 minutes). Bake as above, 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before adding the glaze.