Amy Went To King Arthur Flour and Made Cinnamon Rolls

Yesterday, Amy took the King Arthur Flour cinnamon buns class and I get to enjoy the results. You can see that we have made a lot of progress on them. She made two kinds: Quick Sticky Buns (in back with the pecans) and Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls. The recipes that she brought home are below.

It seems that every cook in Vermont knows how to make cinnamon rolls. In fact, the cooks at school make them (from scratch) every Friday morning. Do you know what it is like to go to work and smell baking bread that sends a cinnmon and yeast aroma throughout the school? Amy's cinnamon rolls almost taste like the ones at school, except there was a hint of maple in them. She says there is no maple but I tasted it. The sticky buns were superb, also.

There were 11 people in her class. A couple of the students were men about my age. Amy says she was the youngest one there. That makes sense to me, because I was trying to schedule a class. They wore big white aprons, measured out their own ingredients and baked in huge ovens as big as refrigerators. There was one huge worktable in the room (I envisioned a big room with many tiny kitchens, like our home economics class in junior high school in the sixties.) There was always something to do, and no time to sit around having a Coke while their buns baked.

Ultimate Cinnamon Rolls

American sticky buns and cinnamon rolls derive from the German kuchen tradition of sweetened yeast breads, though there are British precedents as well. German and Dutch settlers used to serve similar coffee cakes when entertaining neighbors informally, in afternoon-tea fashion, and we think the gooey buns still make a better snack than a breakfast bread, side dish, or dessert.

Ingredients

For the dough
2 teraspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) warm water
1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk
1 egg
3 cups (12 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

For the filling
water to coat
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 to 5 tablespoons cream

Method

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Prepare the dough by combining the yeast, water, butter, sugar, salt, milk and egg.
• Stir in enough of the flour to create a shaggy mass (lumpy).
• turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed to create soft dough, about seven minutes.
• Lightly oil a medium bowl.
• Transfer the dough to the bowl and turn it to coat the dough with oil
• Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, 30 minutes to an hour.
• Roll the dough out on a floured board into a rectangle about 12x14-inches. Brush with water and sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the dough, leaving a small border free of filling.
• Roll up the dough from one of the rectangle's longer sides and pinch the seams together well.
• Using floss or a serrated knife, cut off slices about 1-inch wide. Place slices in an i-inch greased pan, placing one slice in the middle and other slices around it.
• Let the rolls rise until they fill the pan generously, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Bake in a 350°F. oven about 15 to 20 minutes. If rolls get too brown, cover with a piece of tin foil until the end of baking. Do not over bake rolls.
• Remove rolls immediately from pan by inverting onto a plate and then tip over onto another plate to right the rolls.
• To make icing, stir in enough cream into the icing ingredients to create a thick consistency.
• Spread over warm rolls as soon as they are placed on a plate, allowing the frosting to melt.

Quick Sticky Buns

Ingredients:
For the caramel topping
1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup (3 ounces) pecan pieces, optional

For the dough
3 cups (12 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspooon salt
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) fresh buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
Water to coat
1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar

Method:

For the caramel topping

• Melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the brown sugar.
• Stir until the sugar melts.
• Remove from eat and stir in corn syrup and pecans.
• Spray an 8-inch pan with vegetable spray and pour warm topping over the bottom.

For the dough

• Preheat overn to 400°F.
• To make the dough, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
• Whisk buttermilk and four tablespoons melted butter in measuring cup or small bowl.
• Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy) (Amy says shaggy means lumpy), about 30 seconds.
• Transfer dough to a floured surface an dknead just until smooth and no longer shaggy.
• Using plenty of flour, roll dough out into a 12x9-inch rectangle.
• Brush dough with water and sprinkle brown sugar over dough, leaving a small border free of filling.
• Roll up from one long side and pinch seams well. Filling may be messy, but that's okay.
• Using floss or a serrated knife (Amy used floss, like real dental floss) cut about 8 rolls (1 to 1 1/2 inches wide) and arrange in the pan on top of the topping, pretty side down.
• Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes.
• Cool about five minutes before inverting.

The instructor also made another roll with a pastry cream filling. I don't have the roll recipe but the cream filling recipe is here:

Pastry Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups (16 ounces) milk
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sugar
6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) cornstarch
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons (1 ounce) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

• Place 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Watch that mixture does not boil over.
• In a bowl, mix together the cornstarch and the remaining sugar. Slowly whisk in the remaining milk. Add the whole eggs and yolk and mix until very smooth.
• Temper the egg mixtures with the boiled milk/sugar and return to the saucepan. Bring back to a boil, constantly whisking to prevent scorching. Remove from the heat.
• Stir the butter and vanilla into the pastry cream, cool it an drefrigerate until needed.
• When ready to use, whisk the pastry cream until creamy. Fold in 1/2 cup whipped cream to make diplomat cream.

Enjoy and let me know how good these are! You can find more King Arthur recipes, ingredients, recipe books and kitchen equipment here. At the same site you can click th EDUCATION tab for classes in Norwich, VT, online classes and national classes.

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