Lighter, chewy cinnamon rolls
Hi all,
First post, but long-time reader of the boards. I'm seeking advice.
There's a restaurant in Port Angeles, Washington that makes giant cinnamon rolls unlike any I've ever had. My wife and I found them 10 years ago on our honeymoon. I'm trying to make something similar and I'm asking for help trying to figure out a method.
Let me know if the below picture doesn't come through and I'll link to it:
When i think about cinnamon rolls I think of the ones in the can at the store...dense, soft, and feel somewhat unstructured, with ribbons of cinnamon and sugar.
These rolls were very large, somewhere between a softball and a cantaloupe in size. They were more of a dinner roll or white bread in consistency, but chewy and not flaky. The cinnamon and flavors were mixed in with the dough...there were no swirls and it doesn't seem like they rolled it out.
In the picture it looks like they were made in extra-large muffin tins and I think the picture shows one flipped upside down. I'm wondering if they put the topping in the bottom of the tin so when they flip the tin over, it's all ready to go.
Any suggestions on a base dough recipe to start with? I think generic white bread would be to "crumby". The bread wasn't flaky or sponge-like...It was almost like a Hawaiian dinner roll.
Thanks for suggestions in advance!
The picture isn't displaying.
Thanks! Does it work now?
Yes, very nice!
A cinnamon roll that is not biscuit based is an enriched, yeasted bread dough. The enrichments are sugar, egg, fat and milk. Any basic dough with these ingredients will work fine.
If a toffee topping is used, it is poured into the bottom of the pan and the pan is flipped after baking. It's not clear to me what kind of topping is used in the picture, but that is not the bottom of the roll showing, because it would be flat. There is another method that might have been used. That is, after the rolls are in the pan ready to bake, cream is poured over them. I've also seen a recipe where after the cream, a mixture of brown sugar, butter & cinnamon was poured. This might give the shiny, gooey-topped roll that is pictured. It would also distribute the flavours throughout.
Of course, various icings can be applied to the top when cool.
...
Morning bun. That would be.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/joanne-changs-sticky-buns-recipe-1947951
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bas-best-morning-buns
I make morning buns quite often and they do not look like this when turned out of the tins. Since they are made with laminated dough they have well defined distinctive layers. I'm making them this week and will post a comparison picture later this week. I think Moe is on the right track that there is both a topping in the tine first and some sort of cream topping poured over after baking.
Janice
This is awesome, I didn't expect such detailed answers so fast! Thank you all! At least now I have a direction to look in.
if you scroll through their Facebook page there are images of the product and pan. It appears that the goo is applied after baking rather than being in the pan. It would not surprise me if it was a riff on white bread dough. That”s how my cousin makes them in his diner. See the BA morning bun recipe linked above. Unlike the traditional Tartine style, it is not a laminated dough.
Thanks for the nudge to the BA link. I hadn't seen this version of morning buns. Looks like made with a brioche type dough, and looks very good. I'll have to give them a try
This may be a dumb question, but have you asked the restaurant if they'd share their recipe?
Is the restaurant Chestnut Cottage? (I got a partial image match there.)
Here's an article about Morning Buns, with a pastry that looks startlingly similar:
https://leitesculinaria.com/371682/recipes-morning-buns.html
I could not see the BA article - it's behind a paywall.
I think what TwistingSister linked is probably right, and I do think they look like they've been flipped upside down after being in a muffin tin. I think it's not flat on the bottom because the dough rose upwards, pushing off the bottom instead of into it.
Your picture very much reminds me of these buns that I've made a few times: https://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/apple-cinnamon-buns/ . I know the pictures in the recipe don't look the same as yours, but when I made them without the cinnamon sticks and didn't do a good job sealing them on the bottom, the apple filling leaked out underneath, and when turned out of the pan, they looked very much like the bun in your picture, just with less liquid and some apple chunks.
When I think about a recipe for these cinnamon rolls, a few ideas come to mind. Maybe we can start with a basic white bread recipe and tweak it a bit. For example, we could add cinnamon and other aromatic spices to the flour to give them a unique flavor. We could also try increasing the liquid content in the dough to make the rolls more tender.