Sunday Reflection-Sweetness
A delicious by-product of yet another bank holiday Monday is the unhurried nature of the weekend. And in our household, that means cinnamon rolls.
A recurring childhood memory is of sitting at my grandmother’s table watching her work away at cinnamon rolls. Quick as a flash her hands would fly over the living dough…rolling, spreading, buttering, sugaring; the scent of cinnamon lingering in the toasty kitchen. If I stayed long enough I knew I would be rewarded with one of the doughy end bits and if I was lucky, there’d be a dash of butter and sweet cinnamon in it.
As I anticipated marriage and setting up my own household, I remember asking my grandmother for the recipe of this family favourite. She couldn’t do it. Oh, not that she wouldn’t do it. She couldn’t. This was one of those elusive recipes of bygone days where if the cook thought about what she did to achieve such sweet bliss, the end result would be ruined. The success of the baking was that she didn’t think really think about it. It just happened. A dash here. A smidgeon there. That was how she operated.
So I’ve had to find my own way to ’sweet bliss,’ taking sage wisdom offered by Veteran-Cook-And-Mother-In-Law-Phyllis. ‘Find a bread recipe that you like,’ said she, ‘and stick with it. Use it as the foundation for the all bread baking you do. Alter it, sweeten it, add grains to it, cheese it…whatever you want, but stick with a good base.’ Good advice.
Our customary pan of rolls has the obligatory ‘baker’s dozen number 13′ squished in for good measure. And according to the family, they should never be overbaked…the doughier the better. Coupled with a good cup of coffee…a lovely way to start any day.
It has been a banner week for cinnamon rolls in my house too! Mira has suddenly taken an interest in baking and she wanted to try her hand at cinnamon rolls, so we were rewarded with two pans of cinnamon rolls last week. And because they were sooooo tasty, I made a batch for my last class pot luck. Everyone had to agree that they were wonderful!
06 May 2007 at 1:05 pm
looks good - but for some reason cinnamon is a winter thing with us. don’t know why, probably a christmas spice - though I know that people in other areas use it for meat dishes etc. we’ll have rhubarb cake instead - no working the dough and not much waiting time either:)) we’re all for instant gratification over here!
06 May 2007 at 1:07 pm
I’ve just risen from the table, but seeing your pictures and hearing of yur grandmother’s way with these delicious morsels, I’d like to sit back down again. So good!
06 May 2007 at 7:25 pm
Not having lived in the States for so many years, I have forgotten some of the things I miss. Now you have reminded me of cinnamon rolls - wonderful!!
06 May 2007 at 7:30 pm
I remember that the main reason our grandmother couldn’t write the recipe for the cinnamon rolls had to do with the dough. She worked the dough with her hands adjusting the ingredients until the dough “felt right”. One of the funniest stories about Granny is the day she was making the dough and took it out of the bowl to work it with her hands. She was kind of throwing it from one hand to the other somehow and got a little too vigorous. The dough got away from her, shot across the kitchen and hit our mother.
06 May 2007 at 10:53 pm
The cinnamon rolls look lovely and tasty. I enjoyed the description of your grandmother’s recipe “dis-remembering” and your MIL’s advice, too. Thanks for sharing the memory and good guidance.
06 May 2007 at 11:20 pm
Oh they look so good! They look like the rolls we traditionally do in Finland, too, wonder if they taste the same.
07 May 2007 at 12:41 pm
Cheryl, do you know I never tasted or heard of Cinnamon rolls until I went to Dubai of all places last year and had them in this huge shopping mall. I can’t remember the name of the coffee store but goodness the rolls were so good. I went back twice more for them ( 2 different days that is). I must find a recipe to make them but I’m not great when it comes to cooking with yeast. Have you found anywhere in Ireland who stocks them?
By the way, yours look so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
07 May 2007 at 12:50 pm
We love to add flax seeds to the dough, to give it an extra-nutty flavor.
This is not diet food. Sigh.
08 May 2007 at 3:17 am