Just Baking

I’ve been unable to post in a while, but right before Christmas, I tried my hand at cinnamon rolls. I’ve found I really like the King Arthur Flour cinnamon filling; you just add 1 tablespoon of water per quarter cup of filling, stir until it’s goopy, then use as needed.

I used a potato dough, with scalded milk, butter, mashed potatoes, all purpose flour, yeast (of course), salt and water.

The cinnamon filling really makes this, but to top if off, the cream cheese icing my wife makes is just killer! She takes 8 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 stick of butter and 1 pound of powdered sugar. That all gets blended up until creamy, and I always get the bowl and beaters afterwards!

The cinnamon rolls got rolled out differently than cinnamon bread. The bread was rolled out to approximately 24″ X 8″, but the rolls, I did more like 16″ X 16″. The goopy cinnamon topping is added, leaving a 1″ band at the top, then the dough is rolled tightly. I cut the rolls at about 1 1/2″ intervals, and put them in a greased 9″ X 13″ baking dish. They rose over a couple of hours this way, then I baked them at 350 until they were done, about 15 minutes or so. I just checked the look of them to decide, really.

Once they were out, I had to ice them and try them when they were hot! WRONG THING TO DO!!! That filling is HOT HOT HOT!!! But once it cooled down enough to tolerate, wow!

The holidays are over, so I’ll be moving away from these more traditional American things like white yeast bread and cinnamon stuff.  Well, I’ll not be posting as much, but I’ll still make them now and then!  My next endeavor will be to get back to some artisanal style breads again.  If you’re interested in other beginning bread bakers, check out Dave at the Fumbling Foodie and Adam (who also writes for Get Your Grill On here with the Well Fed Network) at Men In Aprons as they tackle bread baking for the first time, too.