Superior Cinnamon Rolls

I have been on a personal culinary quest for several months. My mission has been to find the very best cinnamon roll recipe ever. I can even name the date that this mission began. December 29th. Very important date. My mother's birthday.

You see, her friend Denice made her a batch of truly scrumptious cinnamon rolls that day. They were just so perfect, I had to have the recipe. But as it is with most great cooks and their creations, there is no recipe. It's some of this, a little of that, maybe cook it for this long and see what happens, then maybe a little bit longer if... you know how it is. So we tried to organize a little cooking class so Denice could teach me how she does it. It has never materialized and so I have spent nearly 6 months trying to perfect the cinnamon roll. And today, I think I may have done it!

I have made lots of batches of these yummy treats and while none of them has been inedible, none of them had been to-die-for either. Now you may wonder how some white bread spread with cinnamon and sugar could be worth dying for, but that just means you've never had a truly amazing cinnamon roll. Take a regular Pillsbury cinnamon roll. It's decent. Now take a Pillsbury Grands cinnamon roll. It's pretty tasty. But take a homemade cinnamon roll and you've got died-and-gone-to-heaven. That's what I mean when I say to-die-for. And yes, it's still an overstatement. But welcome to the world of a foodie.

Anyhow, today's recipe was fantastic! I brought the batch to a friends house for coffee talk time and we all ate two. That is acceptable when something is truly scrumptious. (I confess that I keep thinking of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I continue to write off course...) One of us is pregnant, the other three of us have no excuse... We did share with the kids.

Before sharing the recipe, which honestly has far more to do with technique than ingredients, I will share the most important things I have learned:

1) Do not roll the dough too thin. It will make crispier rolls and I think most of us would agree that we want a super-soft, fluffy roll.

2) Most recipes don't call for enough cinnamon and sugar filling. You are going to lose some during the baking process (it'll ooze out with the butter) so more is better.

3) Most recipes call for baking the rolls for 30 minutes- too long! Unless you cover them with foil while baking until the last 5 minutes or so. Again, they will come out overbrowned and crispy if you don't do this.

4) Unbleached flour yields a really soft and silky dough. Regular flour is fine too, but I have noticed a real difference using the former.

Now, any white bread recipe will work for these rolls so if you have a favorite, use it. You can even use frozen dough. Here is my recipe.

1 and 1/4 cups warm water

1 tsp salt

3 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP butter

4 cups unbleached white flour

2 tsp baker's yeast

I use a bread machine to make all my dough so I have zero tips on how to make great bread dough from scratch. I know it takes a lot of kneading to get a really great dough and I swear by using a little sugar to help activate the yeast and gain a silkier dough. Silky dough is a beautiful thing.

When the dough has risen, punch it down and, on a floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle. Again, not too thin. Mine was a bit bigger than a cookie sheet.

Now the filling can be tricky too because if you use too much butter, it will all melt and ooze out of the rolls. This will inevitably happen, but this seems to help:

Mix 1/4 cup of room temperature butter with 1 cup of sugar and 1 TBSP cinnamon. Use a fork to mash it and make a paste. Spread and pat this over the dough.

Roll up the dough carefully, into a long log. Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough into about 1.5 inch pieces. I got 12 pieces out of mine and this was perfect. Lay each piece on a greased cookie sheet (I recommend using 2 pans so the rolls have room to rise and spread). Allow to rise in a warm place (I use a slightly warmed oven). When they have doubled in size, they are ready to bake. Cover loosely with foil. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the foil. Bake for about 5 more minutes. Don't allow them to get too golden- just a hint of color.

I am not especially fond of powdered sugar icing, but today I made a thick batch that worked well.

I softened 1 TBSP of butter in the microwave, almost melted. I added some powdered sugar, perhaps a cup (see, starting to work without a recipe) and added a bit of milk. Mix with a fork. If too thin, add some more sugar. If too thick, add just a tinge more milk. Mine was about as thick as cake frosting. When I applied it to the warm rolls, it didn't melt off for being too thin and glazed up very nicely.

It's hard to believe that a few simple ingredients and a bit of technique can produce something so sublime, but I challenge you to give it a whirl. It's so easy and, my cooking wives counterparts agree, delicious!