Postmortem: Cinnamon Rolls

Last Breadnesday's cinnamon rolls were a big success! Blogging about has proven to be a bit trickier... But here I go!

Although everyone enjoyed them and they disappeared quickly, there is always room for improvement.

The finished rolls were easy to eat, but still had a bit of chew to them. I think they could've benefited from additional rising time. I warned in advance that I was likely to rush the rising in order to finish at a reasonable time and I think the dough would be softer and fall apart in your mouth. Where I used 90 minutes on the initial rise and 45 minutes on the second rise - that could be expanded to the full 2 hours initially and 1 hour (or more) on the second.

The dough was very easy to work with and rolled up nicely. The cinnamon sugar I put inside melted in the oven and a significant amount dripped out the bottom. I'm not sure if this is something i can avoid, but the finished rolls could have used more cinnamon inside and more sugar wouldn't have been a bad thing. In general, a more cinnamon-heavy mix would've been good. I mixed my cinnamon sugar back in December, so I don't remember my proportions at all - unfortunately that makes it tricky to improve it next time.

The icing I made was exactly what was recommended in The Bread Baker's Apprentice - but it was a very simple powdered sugar and milk recipe and I think was the least liked part of this week's bread. I think a cream cheese icing would have a slightly more complex flavor and be tastier than just eating sugar.

Time for some pictures!