Bread Making at its Best

Sometimes there are just days where you have to indulge yourself even though you know it is wrong. The temptation was just too great for me the other day. There are few things that I can’t get enough of in life and one of them is my mom’s “sin”amon rolls. I start to weep just thinking about them so I am going to spare you the bawl-fest with the descriptions and just go right to my little adventure this week.

So, I attempted my first batch of cinnamon rolls……………umm…so…...yah. They are eatable…that’s an accomplishment in itself since bread is not my forte. I know bread is a finicky thing and so I was VERY careful with each measurement and each step, but apparently…not careful enough. I chose to follow my grandmother, Elsie’s roll recipe and since she is a pro, the directions were made for the experienced baker. I made the mistake of not asking enough questions and here is what happened.

I failed to proof the yeast. Can you believe it? Who doesn’t know that you should always proof the yeast? (Make sure your yeast hasn’t expired as well.) The directions said to mix the yeast with the warm water. Let’s just say, no proofy-no risey.

I also thought the salt measurement was a little high at 2 ½ Tablespoons but did it anyway…Holy Moses. Like drinking from the bottle of soy sauce. Misprint, not my fault…supposed to be 2 ½ TEASPOONS.

Then I added as little flour as possible as to not make the end result tough….nope, still tough. Figured out that because it didn’t rise, it bakes more slowly and ultimately, too long. Like eating a kitchen sponge.

And lastly, I didn’t add near enough sugar. Me? Not enough sugar? Impossible. I found out that my dusting of cinnamon sugar was far under the necessary amount to make them worth eating. No one told me that cinnamon rolls should actually be called brown sugar cinnamon rolls. 1 ½ cups brown sugar, yes, 1 ½ cups!!!! Then you add a generous layer of cinnamon sugar on top of that. Boy, was I way off! Cinnabon employees across the nation were shaking their heads in shame. What a waste of flour and cream cheese icing! And might I add, I make a mean batch of cream cheese icing!

So, there you go, eatable if you’re a suck-on-a-salt-lick, chew-on-a-deflated-latex-balloon kind of person. No, they aren’t that bad, I will probably choke them down but they are not drool inducing like my mother’s. As you can plainly see, it’s really icing with a little bit of sodium-saturated cinnamon roll underneath anyway.

I have graciously included this corrected recipe on the right as my weekly TESTED recipe. It should work fine for you unless you forget to proof the yeast, add too much salt, not enough sugar or bake it too long. But don’t come crying to me.