Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

After talking with a friend the other day about cinnamon rolls, I decided to try the Homemade Cinnamon Roll recipe that Molly wrote about over at Orangette a few weeks ago. The recipe was actually posted in Bon Appetit March 2008 issue and her article about it was great - I had clipped it out and bought the ingredients for it, but hadn't made it yet. It focused on being afraid of baking with yeast which is completely my problem. I am so bad at dealing with dough. As a result, I don't bake bread, I don't make pizza dough, I don't make my own pie crust. I also don't have a standing mixer, but rather only a food processor and a hand mixer. It's probably ridiculous and not difficult at all. So, I decided to give it a whirl. I used the plastic blade on my food processor and it wasn't hard to make the dough. My confidence is rising (no pun intended, but I'm pretty pleased I just came up with that).

I wrote the above after the dough was finished while it was rising. Here's how it ACTUALLY panned out

Looking back, it did take significantly less time to work it into a smooth dough than I expected. I probably added too much flour on the counter while I was kneading it. Red Flag #1. I set it out to rise with rapid rise yeast and it should have doubled in 1 1/2 to 2 hours. At 3 hours it hadn't done much at all. Red Flag #2. I panicked and called my mom "What the hell do I do???? The dough hasn't risen and I even put it on top of a warm stove to help it along. I swear I measured everything out the way you're supposed to...spoon the dry ingredients in and use a knife to smooth out the top. I knew I'd f* up the dough. THIS is why I don't make things requiring dough. DAMMIT." Yes, dough really stresses me out. I think it's b/c I'm a math/science type of person and the fact that I can't figure this out pisses me off. In all fairness, I've mostly given up and not tried it again though, so I'll have to work at it more I guess. Cooking is just easier for me than baking.

Anyway, Shelagh helped me roll it out, put the filling in, roll it up and get it into the baking dishes. Once again, it didn't rise after 1 1/2 hours. DAMMIT. Red Flag #3. I just said "screw it" and baked them. They came out with good color and the frosting was perfect (I love cream cheese frosting), so I slathered the extra frosting on top to make up for what was bound to not be a good roll. Final result...they weren't too bad, but not what I was going for. The roll was too bready...more of a tough texture than a moist, wet type of texture that I like. Either way, they went over fine at home (Shelagh will eat anything with sugar in it and love it. Joe liked them too, but agreed with me on the texture) and went over fine at work this morning. Here's a picture of 1 roll. As you can see, I compensated for the roll with the frosting. If I made them again, I would also increase the brown sugar/cinnamon/ butter filling. I like them a bit more gooey too.