Cinnamon Rolls using bread dough

I haven't posted in a while so I'm going to put up a few of them. Oddly enough its the fact that I can't find my camera charging cord that has put me off from blogging more than a lack of time (though that is a constraint also).

I'm continually experimenting with bread. Sometimes I knead it, sometimes I don't. I play with how 'firm' I can make a no-knead dough and how 'soft.' I play with the time, the yeast, the ratio of grains etc. You should too, because it makes you dare to experiment more.

Lately I wondered if you could make cinnamon rolls just using ordinary bread dough. There are plenty of cinnamon roll recipes out there certainly, but I didn't want to learn another recipe. Or if I ended up doing so, I wanted a good reason. When you stray from straight bread you start seeing things like eggs, milk, and/or oil ending up in the dough. These do a number of things, but I'm saving those experiments for later. My question is, how much can you do with basic bread, in particular, how much can you do with noknead bread?

So far I've managed to make a stiff enough no-knead dough to make rolls and bread bowls. I have found though that taking 2 minutes and kneading it a bit helps, but its still optional. So those were some victories. But what about something like cinnamon rolls?

I hit the web and looked to see what I could find. The closest thing was a woman using frozen bread dough (that you can buy at your grocery store) to make them. It looked simple enough and it was.

Step 1: make up bread dough. If you're doing a no-knead (long rise) dough, then do it the night before you want them. I set up the dough in the evening to bake them the next morning. You'll have to play with the amount of yeast as it will depend on your home temperature, season and the type of grains you're using and how long you want to let your dough rise. EXPERIMENT! :)

Step 2: When the dough is ready (for me this was the morning), heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare some sort of greased (I use butter) dish to bake in. I use a cake pan and can fit all the rolls in (squished together) and when they bake they puff out and up and make a lovely sight. Dump out the dough on a well floured surface and stretch it into a rectangle with your hands. I'd say go for about 1/4 of an inch thickness maybe? You're going to be rolling this dough up, so the thickness of your rectangular will be the wall thickness of your cinnamon rolls.

Step 3: Brush on melted butter. Be generous, half a stick goes a long way and I can make a dozen rolls from this, so its not going to end up being that much fat.

Step 4: Sprinkle with brown sugar, though I'm going to try just regular sugar next time.

Step 5: Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Step 6: Now roll up the dough. If its no-knead then it may stick a bit to the counter despite your best efforts, just be patient and work at it. Once its in a log you're ready to cut.

Step 7: Cut the rolled up dough into slices, I make mine about 2" thick, but I'm only eyeballing that measurement. I wouldn't go too much bigger however.

Step 8: You should have put all your slices into the baking dish. Now put that baking dish into the oven for 30-40 minutes.

By squishing them I generally get a crisp exterior and a more moist doughy (but cooked) interior.

While they're cooking, make up a glaze. I use about a cup of powdered sugar, a couple tablespoons of butter (very soft), a half teaspoon of vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons of warm water. Beat it with a whisk. You can mess around with the consistency and the flavor of course by changing the ratios. Put it all in a ziploc bag, cut off the corner (just a little bit, you don't want a GIANT hole) and use it like a frosting bag. I go back and forth over the finished cinnamon rolls making a criss-cross pattern and the glaze melts and runs and ends up covering the whole set. You could probably even half the amount of glaze you use (I already did once) and still get that sweet warm cinnamon morning flavor you want.

Next step....Bagels!

Will the real bathroom flooring please show up...

Today I started poking away at the flooring. I knew the floor was several inches too thick to account for the visible linoleum and the planks visible from the basement. As you can see in the pictures there are a number of layers. Several layers of 'plastic' floors including some contact paper I think. But the biggest surprise was hardwood floors. Yes, hardwood floors. The thick, tongue and groove kind. Not bad actually and Sara and I have wondered if we could salvage them or refinish them. Not sure yet. I do need to get up new sheetrock before winter.

So I think I'm just going to set the depth gauge on my Skilsaw and cut out a perimeter trench around the walls I want to sheetrock. Then I'll demo/excavate the materials and I'll be able to get in there and do a decent job. Pictures will follow. Three days left...

A tribute to my Dad (who's alive and well)

I don't have very good timing (school/work starts in a week and I'm still tearing the bathroom apart) because this kind of a post would be better for something like Father's day.

Growing up my father was something like Hephaestus who was the god of crafts, technology, smithing etc. Whether it was wiring, plumbing, carpentry, foundation work, you name it. He's a mill wright by trade, which naturally lends itself to knowing many things. In my adult life whenever I embark upon something crafty I think of my dad. Of course I've had a lot of experiences in my life that contribute to my knowledge, so its not that I necessarily recall lessons he taught me. Rather he's sort of my patron saint of fixing and building.

The number of fixing and building activities has been rather numerous lately and so I've been thinking of my Dad a lot. There are many little triggers to do this. We both wear Hanes T-shirts, often with pockets. Our t-shirts are kind of ratty and smell of sawdust and sweat. Like many men he'd enjoy a couple of beers over the course of the day when working on some project. I don't drink very much, but when I work on fixing and building I find that a cold beer is a good way to step back and think about what's going on. I think I dwell and worry more than my dad, so the beer helps there too. Of course I drink better beer than Dad (sorry Dad, but its true :)

He'd also smoke a cigar (Garcia Vega). I tried that years ago while working construction...cough cough cough...never really took. But nevertheless I can smell it while working, or at least I think I can. He's a good image to have in my head while working. I never remember him cursing or becoming upset while working on something. He'd silently ponder the situation and just carry on, somehow he knew what he was doing....and this was before youtube!

So as I sit here, taking a break from my recent destructions/discoveries, and I sip on a summer ale (Shipyard)I remember Saturdays watching This Old House and The Woodwright's Shop. I think of hot summer days helping him work, his eyes concealed behind photosensitive lens, a cigar slowing burning in his mouth. Its from him that I learned, implicitly (he never said it) that a job worth doing is worth doing well. There was no place for sloppy workmanship no matter what the chore. Stacking wood was done as methodically as building a roof or pouring a foundation.

So thanks Dad! The frustration I feel for poor workmanship, the time I spend trying to do the very best job I can and the know how to get the job done I owe, in large part to you.

A bit better

Not the greatest picture. I was tempted to just take the window out of the wall and tear everything out and reframe everything, but with school starting next Monday I thought better of it. Instead I worked with what I had. I was too lazy to look up the details on how large the header should be, I figured 2x10's sandwiched together ought to be fine (Sean?). In any event I feel good about this. The studs are plumb and the window is level (though it may not look that way).



Sara helped out today and yesterday tearing out the remaining lathe. Now to move the previous GFI, put up some temporary lighting (we'll be at this for a while and currently we just have a lamp in the bathroom).

Then the floor. I'm pretty sure it's about 3-4 floors deep and so sheetrocking would be rather difficult. We can't get out all the old lathe at present. So I suppose we attack the floor. Hopefully that goes as planned....hahahahahahahaha

This is why...

With each bit of exploration I find so much more work, so many more things than I would have thought. If this had been properly framed it would be straightforward to deal with, now its going to take some time...sigh...

On a more colorful note

One of the blogs I follow is Farmgirl Fare and each Friday she just posts a picture of something on her farm. In that spirit (but with no ambition of becoming regular about it...and its not Friday).

There's a hole in my wall, dear Liza, dear Liza

Feel free to hum the melody to There's a hole in my bucket (a classic children's song) while reading the title of this post.

After the last series of discoveries I turned once again to a task I thought was benign. In all reality it wasn't bad, but it seems unlikely that any task in this fortress of stupitude will leave me without some interesting anecdote of harrowing tale of discovered idiocy. The bathroom had what looked to be a wainscoat around the perimeter...well most of the perimeter. I don't know why they never finished it, but then again I couldn't begin to explain any of the former owner's motives other than to frustrate me.

Turns out it was just really really cheap faux wood paneling painted to look like really cheap faux wood paneling. No surprise there and at least it came off the walls pretty easily. Over near the mysterious concrete corner though I pulled off a sheet to find the above (with the old dryer vent still in the wall of course.

Okay, well why not...then I pulled it out and saw....the exterior siding. They had just sided right over it. Doh...Doh...Doh!



Then....(there's always a 'then' in these posts), I look even more closely....



Yes that's a stud...in the exterior wall. If you've ever seen a framed wall you know that the MAJORITY of the wall is empty space. Its trivially easy to fine the space BETWEEN the studs, in fact it can be frustrating to find a stud in older homes (what with all the plaster and lathe covered up with sheetrock and paneling). But these ninnies, this buffoons, installed a dryer vent by cutting through a stud!

With what I've seen in this house so far I fear my imagination is insufficient to anticipate the antics that will be uncovered as time goes on. So if you like chuckling at the misfortune of others, you've found your blog (at least when I'm not talking about cooking or preaching about how easy it is to be green (apologies Kermit)).