Part Whole Grain Cinnamon Rolls {bba}

As I was getting ready to bake the next bread in Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (as part of the BBA Challenge) I wasn't as worried about being stuck in the seemingly-endless "C" section of the book as much as being mired in enriched sweet breads (with more to follow upcoming weeks). But it wouldn't be a challenge if all of the requirements were easy, right? Plus, even though I was tired of it, many people that I know would consider homemade sweet bread to be a treat so I knew that I'd be able to share my batch of rolls.

Now, on to planning how I was going to bake these.

The recipe has two variations: Cinnamon Rolls or Sticky Buns. None of us like the ultra stickyness, so cinnamon rolls it was. (Asked about sticky buns, J.D.E. said "ooh, pecans... no")

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made my cinnamon rolls with about 1/3 whole grain (oat flour and white whole wheat), a bit of all purpose flour and 1/2 bread flour.

- I have a fairly fresh batch of fresh yeast in the fridge, so I used it for half of total yeast, and half was instant yeast.

- To keep the citrus accent very faint, I used a bit less than half of the lemon extract specified in the recipe.

- For the filling, I used brown sugar with cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom, mimicking the cinnamon filling from the cinnamon roll muffins that I'd recently made (and gave to my mother)

ready to proof

- I tried to make the "small" rolls, and cut 14 out of my rolled log. (Since my log was tapered a bit, my rolls were of varying sizes.) The rolls were huge by the time they came out of the oven! After making 8 recipes from this book, I've come to the conclusion that Peter Reinhart doesn't do small bread!

- Additionally, I didn't make the fondant glaze in the book (also has lemon in it) but just stirred together confectioner's sugar and milk then drizzled on a tiny bit of glaze over the finished rolls.

ready for the oven

the verdict:

These cinnamon rolls were a thousand times more to my liking than the ones I made with the brioche dough. The crumb wasn't as cakey; it was chewy, moist, yet tender. The brown sugar/ cinnamon was intense and a tiny bit of confectioner's sugar glaze was the icing on the cake so to speak.

[I'm sending these rolls to Yeastspotting!]