Cinna-MOM Rolls

Life has kept me busy. I have spent a lot of time in Seattle and not as much time back home in Fargo, with my family. If you have been following, you know that I have kept occupied on some weekends with cooking classes. Surprisingly it wasn’t a dumpling class. Although, I hope to take a soup dumpling course in March of this year. My family loves my new dumpling making skill.

One of the classes I took was a bread making 101 course. Interestingly enough, we didn’t bake a loaf of bread. Instead, we learned the secret to making cinnamon rolls from a recipe that the Cinnabon cinnamon rolls originated. We also made a honey-wheat dinner roll. Both were very delicious.

I baked both rolls with another student in class and we split the batches with both of us taking half of the rolls home. I ended up with four cinnamon rolls and six honey-wheat dinner rolls. They served us a cinnamon roll in class and it was heavenly. Very rich, delicious and filling. It was so filling that after the one roll I had, I felt I was good for the next few weeks without needing another one. I was that satiated. I also enjoyed one of the honey-wheat dinner rolls fresh out of the oven with some delicious sea-salt butter. I brought the remaining four rolls to work the next day and they were devoured by some of my teammates.

Over Christmas break, I went back to Fargo and one the first things I did was run to Costco and pick up a container of their Ground Saigon Cinnamon. This was the cinnamon we used in the cinnamon rolls. If you ever buy it, open it, and take a big sniff. Just don’t inhale it or try the cinnamon challenge. The aroma is heavenly.

The recipe we used for the cinnamon rolls had two different types of flour that originated and were milled in the Skagit valley in Washington. It was milled by Cairnspring Mills. I didn’t have access to purchase that flour and take it home to Fargo, nor was it available in North Dakota. Plain old all-purpose flour was called in to substitute.

I baked the cinnamon rolls at home one afternoon. I had the luxury of a stand mixer to make the mixing and kneading a little easier. They turned out wonderful. I served them at a post Christmas brunch and my family loved them.

Fast-forward to the middle of January. I am back in Seattle and in the apartment. Stories of the cinnamon rolls make their way to one of my team members and she is excited to sample them. She is so excited, she runs to the grocery store and Costco to get the yeast and cinnamon I need.

I baked the rolls later that week, on Sunday, without the aid of a stand-mixer. I was worried about doing it right. Then I thought of my mother and my grandmothers. They baked bread, rolls, and other pastries without the aid of a mixer. They would knead the dough by hand and not think twice about it.

So, I went forth, and started to make cinnamon rolls. I joke about this now, but I was determined to make enough rolls for everyone that I work with on the project. So I channeled my thrifty grandmothers and tried to make the rolls stretch by cutting them into smaller pieces and putting more in the pan.

That works in theory. In real life, when you go from two rows of four (2×4) to three rows of four (3×4), the middle rolls don’t get the same amount of warmth and head they need. They get a little underdone. So do rolls in the middle on the edges. By the time you could get the other rolls baked, the outer ones would be underdone.

I know, I shouldn’t strive for perfection on just the third time I made the rolls. But, I was planning to serve them to my teammates. The people I have been working with daily and that I would continue to work with for the foreseeable future. The last thing I wanted to do was to make them sick.

Now at the beginning of February, I got to travel back to Fargo again and see my family. My mom was going to stay the after my nephew’s basketball game. I had started to make the cinnamon rolls before she arrived but there was a kitchen incident. I stared again that night.

Learning my lesson on the 3×4 rolls, I decided Mom and I would make a half batch of the recipe and try stretch it out into 16 rolls instead of the 8 it would normally produce. I wanted to see if I could make them slightly smaller so I could feed more people.

Working together we achieved success. After preparing the dough, letting it rise, then rise again, we rolled it out into a thin later, slathered it with an insane amount of butter, then covered it with a cinnamon and brown sugar blend. I rolled the dough up into a log ensuring there were many layers. We stretched the rolled dough log so I could cut 16 pieces instead of 8. We placed them in pans lined with parchment

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I didn’t capture the whole process while making the rolls with Mom. She snapped pictures on her phone and uploaded some to Facebook. Finally, they were done. Around 11:00 pm that night, we were having what I now call my Cinna-MOM rolls. It is a requirement that you must try one shortly after they come out of the oven. Quality control and all that. They were delicious. She had one for breakfast the next morning, and I sent half the batch home with her.

I didn’t capture the whole process while making the rolls with Mom. She had snapped pictures on her phone and uploaded some to Facebook. The pictures in the gallery above are her photos. A lot of her friends were asking for baking lessons and the recipe.

Tomorrow is a holiday and while half of the team has the day off, the other half of us will still be working. During my breaks, I hope to bake the Cinna-MOM rolls so I can bring them to work the next day. I plan to bake the full recipe and stretch them like I previously did into smaller serving sizes. I already promised the team they would be getting them. I can’t break my word, nor can I fail them again. Anxious to hear how it turned out? Stay tuned….