New Thing #42 - Nuggets of Sugary Heaven from the Past

This week, I’ve had an incurable hankering for cinnamon rolls. And not those ones you bust out of a tube. Or the frozen Rhodes ones (which are actually incredibly tasty). Even Cinnabon didn’t sound good to me. I wanted the mouthwatering nuggets of heaven from my youth...also known as my mom’s cinnamon rolls. Homemade and hand made with love, these cinnamon rolls are probably one of my all-time favorite foods. And one of the reasons I was a bit round around the middle growing up. If you're related to me, or lived with me in college, you know what I'm talking about.

Due to unforeseen obstacles, my previously chosen new thing this week was ditched, so I decided last minute that the best way to cure this craving was to just make them myself. Which I’ve never done before. My mom actually hasn’t even made these in a really long time. She has two different dough recipes that she’s used over the years, and while still yummy, the dough she makes more recently isn’t as good as the ones I wanted to make. And I don’t even remember ever making the dough with my mom. I have vivid memories of helping spread the cinnamon and sugar and then rolling the dough into the “rolls”, but that’s about it.

I’ve conquered a few other confections from my childhood, banana nut bread and dream bars in particular, and am proud to say I’m damn good at it. I could make banana bread in my sleep, and will often make it for my friends when my bananas get too ripe. Some friends have even offered to drop off THEIR old bananas. But other than quick breads, I don’t really bake that often for myself. It’s not that I can’t, it’s just that it’s an awful lot of work and clean up for just myself. Plus, I’d end up eating the entire batch. Not. Good.

First order of business was to call my mom and make sure I had the correct dough recipe. It’s called Easy Roll Dough, so I’m hoping it lives up to its name. She gave me a few tips and tricks after she tried to remember them herself. I told you, she hasn’t made them in awhile either. Since the three of us kids have left the nest, she doesn’t really have many reasons to make them. I also realized that I do not have a stand mixer with dough hooks. I have my grandma’s vintage 1950s stand mixer, but no dough hooks. Fortunately, mom told me that the dough will remain fairly wet, so I should be okay with the regular beaters. She also told me that once the dough is ready to work with, I don’t have to make all cinnamon rolls. I can roll out into regular rolls and bake those. Uhhh...wtf...if I’m going through all this trouble, I’m going to make as many cinnamon rolls as possible! ;-)

Next, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few more ingredients, primarily yeast and more flour. And a sifter. And a rolling pin. I told you, I don’t bake that often. Back to my house, I went to start the dough. This recipe calls for the dough to be chilled over night, so I made the dough last night and then created and baked the rolls today.

I also figured I should probably try out my grandma’s mixer to make sure it works. My mom told me it did when she gave it to me last year, but it’s just been sitting in my kitchen since then. That would really suck if the damn  mixer didn’t work. My little $5 hand mixer probably would have caught on fire trying to mix the dough. .....um, so yeah, it worked, but it also vibrated halfway across the counter in the process. And that was on the lowest speed. This is going to be fun.


I mix it up...old school style.

The first part of the recipe calls for boiling 1 cup of water and using it to melt 3/4 cup of Crisco. Sounds really weird. I’ve never done that before. In the meantime, I dissolved two packets of regular yeast (not the quick-rise) into 1/2 cup warm water. In another bowl, I combined 2 beaten eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 1 cup cold water. And tried to keep mixer on the counter. I stuck the beaters up as far as they would go into the top of the mixer, but they were still hitting the bowl, which made the vibrations worse. I found that by holding the head of the mixer up slightly, it wasn’t quite as bad. But I also ended up redecorating my kitchen with dough batter.


Melting the Crisco.

Once the Crisco was dissolved, I added it to the egg mixture, beat a few more seconds, and added the dissolved yeast. Now, it was time to add all the flour. 7 cups to be exact. Mom recommended I sift the flour, to make lighter rolls. But, I don’t have a sifter. So, I bought the baby one at the grocery store. It was on sale for a buck. Bad. Idea. I think I got carpal tunnel in my wrist just from trying to sift the flour. It took for-bloody-ever. I kept having to switch hands. Note to self: sometimes it’s okay to spring for the larger, more expensive model. I added the flour one cup at a time, but since my Turbo-charged mixer was possessed, I think I ended up with more dough and flour on me and my cabinets than I did in the actual bowl. Seriously, I could not believe how fast “Low” really was. It got a bit better the more flour I added. I think the extra weight kept the mixer from vibrating as much. Unfortunately, the more flour I added, the more difficult it became to mix. After the 5th cup, I had to just mix by hand, because the dough was crawling up the beaters and causing a jam. Maybe Santa will bring me a shiny new KitchenAid this year. With dough hooks.


Smallest. Sifter. Ever.

The dough was definitely not stiff and was actually very easy to mix by hand. It was incredibly sticky though. Everywhere I touched, I stuck to dough, and then stuck the dough to something else. How I ended up with the full amount of dough in the bowl, I’ll never know. The recipe calls for splitting the dough into two bowls, covering and placing in the fridge. Mom told me to leave it in all night, so today I created the actual rolls. When I finished with the dough last night, I was happy. Until I started cleaning up and realized I could not get one of the beaters out of the mixer. Damn it. I cursed a little bit, or a lot, but I still couldn’t wrestle it free. I let it soak and figured I’d come back to it today. But, I still couldn't get it out. I guess there's some kind of trick to it, but I couldn't figure it out. Grrrr.

So, this morning I got to work rolling out the dough. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that. I’d say probably not since high school. I thought I put enough flour down on my counter, but I forgot just how sticky the dough was. I eventually got half the dough out of one of the bowls and coated it, the rolling pin and myself in flour. Once I got it rolled out, it looked a bit more like an amoeba than a rectangle. Ah well. No one will care. I spread the top with softened butter, sprinkled the cinnamon and sugar and started to roll the dough into a long log. Well, I tried. Apparently, in the process of rolling out the dough, it had pushed all the flour to the edges, so there wasn’t any left underneath. I had to pry and scrape the dough off the counter as I rolled it up. Good times. Eventually I had the dough rolled up in the log. It wasn’t pretty, but it was done. I cut the log into even pieces and placed them in my pans. I ended up with four separate batches of dough to roll out and each try was better than the last. Most of the flour ended up on me, but at least it stopped sticking to the counter!


Looks like a pizza.


No comment on what this looks like.

I ended up with a little over 4 dozen cinnamon rolls in 5 separate pans. Not bad. I left them on the stove for a few hours to let them raise and double in their size. Damn, more waiting. I wanted cinnamon rolls NOW!


Pre-rising.

I came back from the gym and the dough had risen nicely. Time to pop them in the oven. It took a little while to get them all cooked since I had so many pans. But, oh my gosh, my house smelled AMAZING!


Post-rise. They doubled up quite nicely!

After they had time to cool, I made the icing. Just a simple recipe of 2T melted butter, 1 2lb package of powdered sugar and a little milk. And just a few sprinkles of cinnamon. I could probably eat a bowl of just the icing. Of course, I'd be sick afterwards, but it might be worth it. Nah, probably not.


The finished product! Yay!! Yes, there are only 4 pans in the picture. I had to try them out! I mean, seriously, I couldn't give these away without making sure they were edible!

So, my first foray into the homemade cinnamon rolls went off with only a few glitches. They weren't really difficult to make, just time consuming. And yes, they ARE as good as they look.