Hey,

I've been after the cinnamon rolls like my Mother-in-law made for years, I finally decided to learn about bread making and how flour, yeast, salt, water, milk etc. work together.

This was an eye opener for me, you may already know. Yeast grows from sugar, and the growth is controlled by salt. Try a little more yeast, don't lesson the salt, the rolls will taste flat. I always buy the fleschmans bulk rapid rise and keep it in the freezer.

I use almost the exact recipe as the first reply for ingredients.

My problem - the water here, it inhibits the yeast I use any drinking water not distilled, made a big difference.

A couple of other things, cinnamon kills yeast, don't put it in the dough. for the center I melt margerine, 1 stick, add one cup sugar and 3 Tbs of cinnamon in a bowl, then I mix with flat blade on stand mixer, or beaters on a hand mixer and add flour until it is about the consistancy of glue. Apply to the rolled out dough with a rubber flat thing, whatever they are called.

Here is where I go against the wisdom of almost all experts. Look at the ingredients of the flour, find a brand without any barley content. for dinner rolls I love the taste of the flour with barley, but for nice fluffy cinnamon rolls I have better luck with just wheat flour.

The icing, again from mother in law. Melt a couple of tablespoons of margarine, or butter or milk in pan, add around a cup of brown sugar, boil 1 minute or so, then add the powdered sugar to make the thickness of icing, also I throw in a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. This is a little thick, but a nice golden brown color.

A couple more things, I am in the process of making a batch for my sunday school kids.

I typically don't restrict myself and experment a lot, which means sometimes I don't read the directions. But the below has been learned by making rolls for kids for 15 years most Sunday Mornings, some weeks, cinnamon, others Kolachies, other pigs.

I do not flour my counter when rolling out the dough, my dough is just a bit tacky, not sticky. I roll it out on granit chunk left over from counter tops

I don't roll out the dough until the spread is ready, then I microwave the spread just before I put it on to soften it.

The manditory stuff.

AFTER YOU PUT THE ROLLS ON THE SHEET, SMASH THEM DOWN FLAT, THEN LET RAISE AGAIN.

I always baked bread at 425 degrees F, not these 350 for 25 minutes. I was excited when I purchased a new convection oven. It seems to make the rolls tough to me, use bake, and of course the middle rack bla bla bla.

The other thing is fat softens the dough, so if you want tender rolls, add another bit of butter or margerine

Keep after it
Sparky