STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

17. Cinnamon Rolls

Honestly, Dudes: everyone loves these... and me, too. No further explanation needed, right?

The first time, I really (= out of movies/TV) came into contact with these, was in a café on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Cape Breton National Park near Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. The display was empty except for two reasonably-sized – means a European can eat them without exploding from their sheer size – cinnamon rolls.

Fearing diabetic shock – you North Americans eat everything so effing sweet! – but being hungry from a long drive and the sea air, I ordered them and a strong coffee (without sweetener, milk, etc.) as "counterweight".

I was surprised, almost shocked: the cinnamon rolls tasted only a teeny weeny bit sweet. Moreover, I could taste actual cinnamon and even the slight sourness of the yeast in the dough... plus they were definitely handmade according to the varying size and shape of the roll.

Anyway, since then I LOVE cinnamon rolls.

Weird enough, they weren't offered in Germany. After I returned, whenever I asked for cinnamon rolls at various bakeries, I got blank stares and a perplexed, Huh?

I thought – and said – "Guys, it's not rocket science. Why don't we have them in Germany?"

Alone that I – a German – asked another German that, made me .

Fun-fact my fickle ego likes to claim for itself: since I returned from NYC (where I ate quite some yummy, but WAY to sweet specimen, too) last fall, suddenly all my usual suspect bakeries (except one) offered them (and that in the "understatement-way" like the Canadians in Nova, see above).

COINCIDENCE?

Anyway, although the bought ones are really yummy and of good quality (= handmade), I finally wanted to try them myself. The recipe I got out of Elisabeth Grindmayer's Ein Jahr in Schweden. (A year in Sweden, only in German).

She used the typical Swedish recipe – oh, and did you know that the Swedes have a WHOLE day dedicated to the Roll: October 4?

Quite likable, eh? It's time I finally pay Sweden a visit!

I must say my first try really turned out yummy.

Okay, appearance lacks a little: they're too small, and too... "crunchy". When they were golden brown (as stated in the recipe), it was too late... but at least the core is mellow and .

Oh, and probably Laura makes them for Vince in her big "Appeasement Offensive" in last year's NaNo-Novel, after her colossal blunder that nearly ripped them apart.

Okay, okay!

I'll stop babbling and go to the kitchen already – greedy poops!


Note: I adjusted the recipe to the amount of yeast I had left. Didn't want to buy / start a new one when the old needed to be used up. It can't be kept in the freezer forever. MY measures are in brackets



Serves: 12 (recipe); 18 Me. That should've made me think in the first place since I only got ingredients for 10 See above.

Prep Time: 1.5 - 2 hrs including rest & cooling off times

Degree of Difficulty: Easy




WE NEED My measures in brackets



DOUGH


25 (20) gr / 0.9 (0.7) oz. fresh yeast
250 (200) ml / 8.5 (6.8) US fl.oz. milk full-fat

500 (400) gr / 1.1 (0.9) lb. flour Spelt here. Oh, and use organic, because conventional US flour is so contaminated with pesticides that you could also drink them directly

50 (40) gr / 1.75 (1.4) oz. sugar used up muscovado (brown) sugar as I like its aromatic taste
1 pinch salt
75 (60) gr / 2.7 (2.1) oz. butter



FILLING

90 (75) gr / 3.2 (2.7) oz. softened butter
50 (40) gr / 1.75 (1.4) oz. sugar 50:50 muscovado-white
2 tbp ground cinnamon rather heaped
1 tsp cocoa NOT heaped, and also not sweetened, or otherwise effed up


PLUS

sugar crystals for sprinkling
milk for brushing the rolls with so the sugar adheres, 1-1.5 US fl. oz.




WE DO


1. Heat the milk on lowest heat until lukewarm, then dissolve the yeast in it. Take care it's really only lukewarm, otherwise you kill the yeast... it's a very delicate "animalcule" Set aside.


2. Melt the butter, also on lowest heat; otherwise it burns A Sauerei to clean.


3. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar + salt. Add melted butter + yeast milk and knead into a smooth dough. Dough should come loose from the bowl's side. I used the dough hooks of my hand blender first, then finished kneading it by hand. Let rest covered for 30-45 minutes.


4. While the dough rests, line (a) baking tray(s) – in my case it 2 – with baking paper, and mix butter, sugar, cinnamon + cocoa into a smooth mass.


5. Flour a worktop and roll out the dough to a 50 x 40 cm / 1.66 x 1.3 ft. – 40 x 32 / 1.3 x 1.1 ft rectangular onto which you evenly spread the filling. I give the adjusted measures but I rolled it out to original size.




6. Roll up the dough from the longer side so you get a long roll, which you cut into 12 (10) same-sized pieces. Guess here aesthetics short-circuited my brain! That roll was long, and I feared I'd get cubes (instead of rolls) when I do that, not to mention that the dough raises even more in the oven because of the yeast... so I cut 'em smaller. Therefore the large number of rolls.


7. Place the cinnamon rolls with cut side up on the baking tray(s), and let them rest covered for 15-20 more minutes, while you heat the oven to 225°C / 440°F. Note: that's the temperature of the recipe. I only did 210°C / 410°F for safety because baking paper burns at 220°C / 430°F max




8. While the oven heats up, brush the rolls with the milk and sprinkle with sugar crystals.


9. Bake them for 10-12 minutes OR until golden brown. Ye know by now that every oven is an individual and it can take longer/shorter. BUT,Again: if your rolls turn out small like mine as well, when they're golden-brown, it's too late and they're hard. WATCH THEM like little kids.


But otherwise...


Guten Hunger!