Sustainability, quality, and cinnamon ribbons
Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting
For many of us, the mall holds fond memories of adolescence. My first job was at the mall, and my social freedoms started at the mall. I can’t help but still enjoy the design and the smells, the lack of natural lighting, the pumped in music. The smells have stayed longer for me than the social memories. One smell in particular is Cinnabon.
You don’t have to even see a Cinnabon outlet to know one is around. Its aroma is distinct from the smell of cinnamon or spiced cider, and you consume a roll first through smell. Intoxicated by the bouquet, you never question what goes into a Cinnabon roll to make it so soft and sticky sweet that you have to fight to eat as much as you can before tapping out. Their franchise has produced the gold standard cinnamon roll in American life. Home bakers everywhere chase that same taste and texture.
I challenge myself every year to try to recreate some of those notes while holding strong to my values of quality and sustainability. Can whole grain flour, unrefined sweeteners, and local dairy still add up to nostalgic delight? Short answer, yes. And what a journey to create a cinnamon roll that packs a punch.
For our cinnamon roll, we make rich dough of organic Burroughs Family Farms eggs and butter. Capay Mills whole grain flour produces a nice and soft crumb. The trick to a gooey roll like Cinnabon is shaping tall rolls and baking them just long enough to lightly brown the tops but leave the centers soft. For the cinnamon ribbon, I mix spices and honey into a persimmon butter. The paste is sweet without the addition of any sugars. I tend to overfill the rolls: when that happens, filling pours out the seam of the rolled dough. Not a bad problem to have. Once the rolls cool, we add cream cheese frosting, sweetened just lightly with honey, with a tiny bit of lemon juice for balance.
Enjoy our cinnamon rolls this winter holiday and see for yourself that local ingredients can still work nostalgic magic!
