The Oven has baked its last loaf. This blog is no longer being updated.

My cooking videos appear at youtube.com/janeragavan

I write on food at star2.com

Sourdough Surprises: Cinnamon rolls

Saturday, July 20, 2013

CINNAMON ROLLS THAT JUST DON'T ROCK 
Meet my sourdough cinnamon rolls chums, Blah McBland and Hock E. "The Rock" Puck.
Sure, they may be dolled up in cream cheese bling and filled out with cinnamon sugar padding, but underneath it all, they're flat and unexciting.
I used this recipe from The Fresh Loaf for the dough and cream cheese icing, and Ciril Hitz's recipe for cinnamon bun filling from his book Baking Artisan Pastries & Breads. The dough was perfect – it was quite wet but I used the slap-stretch technique of kneading and it was manageable. So in no way do I fault the recipe! Others have made these cinnamon rolls as billowy as their name suggests.
Let me just describe the rolls without too many details. I made two batches of rolls on different days. The first one is on the left in the picture. They rose a little in the oven, but they just would not colour and came out with a light crust! Also, there wasn't enough filling so they were anaemic and tasted insipid.
The ones on the right were more elegantly formed into rolls and had more filling. They looked like they were taking on good colour in the oven, but didn't rise and ended up as dark river rocks with the texture of dry rusks. Oh dear, oh dear.
That's my chums for you. I may try this recipe again in the future, but for now, I'm just going to admire what the other bakers on Sourdough Surprises did.




12 comments:

  1. Oh Jane, I feel your pain! I have tried this recipe before and its a sticky mess! LOL I don't know how everyone else did it because I couldn't get mine to look like anything other than blobs. They were tasty blobs, though! That's how we learn, though, right - try again? At least yours look very nice! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry your buns didn't turn out. :( And you tried twice and got 2 different bad results. Maybe it was the weather?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also feel your pain! I also have tried this recipe and mine were far from Billowy:) When I saw that this months challenge was for cinnamon rolls, I moaned~ I have had some nightmarish experiences with sourdough cinnamon rolls in the past! Oh Well...at least you tried:) And I agree, they look very nice:) Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines

    ReplyDelete
  4. I will never understand risen baked goods! I used the same recipe I think, and mine rose a ton. No yeasty anything ever rises as much as it's supposed to for me, so this result was a complete shock. Since I used all AP flour instead of sneaking any whole grains in, I assumed that's what I'd done right. Now that I've read your story, I'm even more confused!

    ReplyDelete
  5. O no! I had issues too but that was related to my starter. In the past, I've gotten billowy rolls. Definitely no rocks. Cinnamon rolls are always a challenge for me, however, because I can never get the rolling right. These days I just chill a lot. I spread the filling then chill and use my mat to help me roll then chill again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had a horrible time with the first attempt. The dough was closer to a soup than real dough! I ended up adding flour and proofing it in the fridge and for the last 20 minutes I even put it in the freezer. That made it work the second time around. But for the first attempt I got messy heaps that looked nothing like cinnamon rolls

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh no! I am so sorry, but insanely impressed with your multiple attempts. These certainly were challenging for many of us for a variety of reasons, but major kudos for sticking with it!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I too can feel your disappointment, my dogs love me more when I failed in my bakes though lol! she always gets a treat when that happens!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh no, all that work for no cinnamon bun love :( I wonder what happened? Sending you good vibes for your next try, because dang, when they work out, these babies are tasty!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm sorry but I couldn't help but laugh. I love that you made the best of it. I had to throw out my first batch so I do understand.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh no...I hate it when a recipe doesn't work out as expected :) I love the names you chose, and that you had fun with it. Better luck next time!

    ReplyDelete
  12. My buns turned out but I couldn't link up. It's always something, better luck next time!

    ReplyDelete

Your views are welcome and appreciated. Have a nice day!