Oh yeah! This was my first EVER yeast bread experience. After tasting these succulent cinnamon buns I don’t know why I waited so long! I have to say, I was really afraid to make these since neither my 'Baking with Julia" nor any of my other cookbooks covered cinnamon buns. So I headed to the place that I had seen them made first, Smitten Kitchen. As with a lot of you out there, this was the first blog that I ever followed, but lately I haven’t been back (so many other blogs to check out). It was at an earlier Supper Club that someone alerted me to the buns, and the bun in HER oven (Congrats!).
I was still a bit weary, especially since the 1055 comments on the buns post were all congratulations and not about the actual cinnamon rolls, so I headed to Smitten Kitchens source. Of course, it was Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, and the book I have been reading, "A Homemade Life". If you haven’t picked up this book, run to the bookstore right now. It is such a wonderful read and after every chapter she gives a mouth watering recipe.
Cinnamon Buns After Second Rise
Anyways, back to the point, I read the 96 raving reviews and started. For some reason I thought that I would need a stand mixer so I employed the help of my friend Alex (yes, a man with a Kitchen Aid!). But even though Alex makes mounds of cookies each week he does NOT own measuring spoons or dry ingredient measuring cups, making the exact addition of 2-1/2 tsp of yeast tricky. This is a man who is doing his PhD in cell biology with yeast, so he should know that even 1/24th of a tsp. extra can mean hundreds of thousands more cells. Ug, but we had no choice and had to approximate it using a regular spoon. Everything I have learned in the past 4 years of lab work about precision went down the drain! Oh well, we got lucky and the dough still turned out great!
When we served these at supper club they were highly praised, I will be making these again.
Just some notes:
1. Make the full amount of sugar cinnamon filling, plus 1/2 more.
2. You don’t need a stand mixer, but if you have a friend with one it makes for a fun afternoon.
3. The best way to do a rise is to put the dough in a 150 degree oven for 30 min to an hour.
4. I cut the rolls, put them in the Pyrex baking dish, and then placed them in the fridge over night so that I could bake them the next day. For the second rise I took them out of the fridge and put them into the 150 degree oven until they were big and squished together. (See second picture)
5. Use PYREX, I did a couple in a metal pan and the bottoms burnt so badly. Someone else in the 96 comments mentioned this also. She was right!
6. Use your favorite cream cheese; don’t worry if it’s the fluffy kind. I used the supper fluffy cream cheese and added 250g instead of 4oz. The glaze was perfect.
For the Recipe:
I didn’t change much of the recipe besides the notes above, so please check it out at the Bon Appétit website; this recipe was created and written by Molly Wizenberg. Just click the link!
