I’m from the School of Perfectionism. Just ask Dan and he’ll tell you that when I don’t park straight, or the car is sticking out — it aggravates me and he’ll have to pull me away because I want to fix it. Let me fix it…just let me fix it! He finds it hilarious and tells me to let it go. Argh.

When the cinnamon rolls didn’t live up to my expectations, there’s no question I’d make them again until I get the results that other people achieved. I needed to know what I did wrong (as you can tell from my comments here, I did some research on the possible reasons for the non-rising dough) and make it right. The next evening, I worked on a new dough (Sorry, Bean) and paid attention to the details.

“Try and try until you succeed” was the corniest motto from gradeschool that I remember. I made fun of it a lot of times, but look who’s laughing now –

I’m just glad this second try was a lot better. It was a nice encouragement as a new baker.

Go ahead, take a bite…take a piece of heaven with that cream cheese glaze:

Mmm…enjoy the sweet taste of success: the batch of cinnamon rolls that gave me a good night’s sleep.

So what did I do differently this time?

1. I used less flour. No overzealous flouring this time. In fact, it was sticking to my hands, but I persisted.

2. I warmed up the milk really good (130ºF) AND dissolved the yeast in it. Dan’s mom reminded me to do this before I made them. I guess I didn’t warm it up enough the first time!

3. I mixed the dough manually — by hand. The recipe called for a stand mixer but we don’t have that. I used a hand mixer for the first mixing, then it’s all spatula and hand from there.

4. I made sure the “warm draft-free area” was really warm. The day I made the first batch, it was cold in the apartment. I placed the bowl with the dough in the oven, and realized after 2 hours that it was too cold in there. :( The second time I warmed up the oven, turned it off and let it cool off for about 10 minutes, then put the dough in to rise. I did the same thing for the 2nd rising to get these plump dough rolls [unfortunately, with melted butter, too]:

5. The dough after the first rise was light and airy, and smells yeasty as it should be. My hands and nose suddenly recalled the pizza doughs I made years ago (3 of them — my first ever rising dough)…it was like instant recognition. Eureka!

6. I didn’t over-flatten or over-roll the dough. I kept a light pressure to spread it into 1/4-inch thickness.

** What I would do different next time: Start checking the rolls after 15 minutes. Twenty minutes turned it too brown.

It doesn’t hurt to give a recipe a second try. It’s good to learn from one’s mistakes and make the necessary adjustments for next time. You just might be surprised with something so good and satisfying:

If you want to make these, I’ve included the recipe below. If you have useful tips for making cinnamon rolls, I’d love to hear them! Read the full story

In March Bon Appetit‘s issue, Molly of Orangette had a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls in her monthly column. Dan’s mom told me that she tried it and it didn’t rise the first time when she followed the recipe exactly, but the second time when she added the yeast into the warm milk before adding the other dry ingredients, it worked. This makes perfect sense to me from what I can remember when I successfully made believable pizza dough two years ago and I did that as well.

Unlike Molly, I do not have any fears of yeast except when I think about the experiments we made with yeast in school — makes me cringe. I’m okay with yeast, and I was confident and very hopeful about making these rolls even if the closest I’ve been to making them were the Pillsbury ones. Classy. I took a lot of pictures during the process. I was drooling and imagined arias of Thank You‘s and You’re Wonderful‘s from Dan when he tries them. [In my head, everything is theatrical. There's either a dramatic wail or a cry for joy...nothing in between. I blame being a Leo for that.]

Meet Bean, the promising seed of dough that I thought would come to life. He was very pinchable.

I think this is where my first problem lies: I could have put too much flour. After doing some research last night, I read that some people have a tendency to over-flour the dough for fear of it sticking to their fingers. Uh, that would me.

Read the full story