BBA #8: Cinnamon Rolls

Back in the land of the familiar, after last week's only partially successful attempt at ciabatta. This week it was cinnamon rolls, and while it's my first attempt at Reinhart's version, I've made similar recipes. A favorite for a number of years for Christmas morning was "orange swirl buns", which were basically cinnamon rolls with the cinnamon replaced with orange peel.

I kept the dough quite wet--letting it knead in the mixer for most of the stated time before adding small amounts of flour. I let it rise, shaped the rolls using KA's cinnamon filling instead of the cinnamon/sugar mixture, then put the rolls into the fridge. This was not to be able to have hot cinnamon rolls the next morning, but because it was already midnight and I had to got to work the next day. :) The next evening the rolls came out of the fridge when I got home from the office, and I let them rise and come to room temperature for about an hour and a half before baking. As they had risen a good bit in the fridge, I didn't think they needed more time.

Baking went pretty smoothly, though my inability to get a very even size as I sliced the rolls had a few extra-tall rolls that got a little too brown before the shorter ones were done. (I was initially trying for 16 smaller rolls, but gave up after the first slice and went for 12.) A few pieces of foil protected the worst spots from burning.

I'm not much on the powdered sugar-and-liquid frosting/glazes, so instead I faked a cream cheese frosting. I had a small cube of cream cheese and added a dab of butter, some powdered sugar, and a dash of vanilla to make a few tablespoons of frosting. My sister-in-law had already carried off 4 rolls sans frosting for their breakfast, but I spread a little of my cream cheese mix on my roll the next morning after warming it up slightly in the toaster oven.

Taste test: it's a very light-textured roll, almost too much so for me--I think I like a little more chew in my cinnamon rolls. The little lemon flavor in the dough was good, but like others have said I'm glad I didn't add more lemon in the frosting. My brothers (older brother was down for the weekend) both approved of the rolls. However, I think next time I need cinnamon rolls I'll either go to the orange swirl buns recipe, or go back to trying to replicate my father's biscuit-based cinnamon rolls, a treasured memory from my childhood.