I Baked 72 Cinnamon Rolls To Create The Perfect Recipe | Bon Appétit

Developing this

recipe

took two weeks of research, a very complex Excel spreadsheet, six pounds of flour, 20 hours of baking, five batches of

rolls

, that's 72

rolls

, and so many tastings. I'm going to show you how I developed these super pillowy

cinnamon

buns with cream cheese. frosting In particular, I wanted to try making

cinnamon

rolls using a method I've seen a lot online, usually called shokupan Japanese milk bread. The Venus technique is a Chinese word, as I understand it, let me Google how to pronounce it. Oh, there we go, milk bread. It's obviously super popular, you can get it in most Asian bakeries, it's incredibly soft and pillowy, it's really beautiful, I have a feeling it will result in a cinnamon roll superior to the typical brioche style cinnamon roll.

To allow us to increase the hydration ratio in a typical bread dough, I try not to require a special ingredient, so this first time I am going to try it with all-purpose flour and the idea here is to heat the flour with milk or the water will gelatinize the starches from the flour and will allow for better moisture absorption, so we can have more moisture content in the dough, okay, it's getting really nice and thick, it's happening and that's

perfect

, now I'm going to let this sit. cool. until it's at least warm, so it's time for the dough, this is the

recipe

I've been working on and which I'm going to reference throughout this first bake as it's based on some Baker to the ones I've been plugging into Excel, so the baker's proportions are basically formulas.

Now, if you think about a bakery, think properly about the volume of products you produce, so the baker's proportions make it really easy to scale up or down. The proportions are based on one hundred percent flour development, really like that. Play with the proportions depending on what you're looking for. I would say, for example, that for my ratio I need 105 grams of butter in a stick of butter, there are 113 grams. I'm going to try to use the entire bar to make everyone's life easier. I'm going to cross things out just like I've normally done people use active yeast.

I grew up using instant yeast. I prefer it. I think instant yeast is better for those with higher fat content. I'm thinking of adding all the wet ingredients along with the yeast to the tongzong, mixing it all together and then adding the flour and putting it in the machine. That seems to make sense, so I'll do it. Yes, I tell people what to use and when to use. it's how long to use it for what visual cues and I'm learning all that through this first bake. I'm going to stop the mixer and take a look at it properly, it's a little sticky but honestly it's not that bad. we're going to last another five or ten minutes do you want to work on it do you want to structure it I'm going to check it again it's elastic we're fine you can see the little marks of glue itself gluten is a protein that exists in starch that we basically want to activate it and give it shape and that it is what is going to give structure to our dough it is ready for the butter we are using room temperature butter not softened or cold do you want to come see this it looks great seal of approval it looks beautiful right yes it is very silky and beautiful , although did you use AP flower?

Yeah, okay, I did it, Jeff. I wondered why you are using all purpose flour. I'm like people only have power for all purposes, just tell them they shouldn't do it. I don't want anyone to have to buy something just for a prescription, it looks good right, it will be nice to see it go up and then it's okay, yeah, this is also another Moment of Truth that depends on how the increase goes. I guess this will take about an hour until it almost doubles in size now that the dough is ready, the most anxiety-inducing part we can move on to the filling and frosting.

I'm thinking of browning the butter and adding a little cardamom. the filling is a little floral right yeah okay so for the frosting I prefer a thick frosting on top because I like the visual contrast of a layer of white on top of these otherwise beige buns you agree I think that this is so. I think it's a good start. I'm going to choose a stainless steel pan so I can see the milk solids changing color. Browning the butter will actually significantly improve the flavor of the filling, so it's worth it in my opinion, it smells like caramel, it does. liquid gold for the frosting I'm definitely going to make some sort of cream cheese frosting.

I want something thick. I want something that I like to spread on top and melt, but I think I'm going to add a little lemon. zest to really liven it up. I don't want to use lemon juice which can be too strong, but I think if I put a little zest in the sugar that goes into the glaze or I just add a little bit. of lemon zest I would like to wake up the glaze and it will add something instead of having a sweet taste, you know what I mean, it's overwhelmingly sweet, it doesn't really have that spicy, salty taste that I would have expected from the cream. cheese, so I'm going to add another two ounces of cream cheese, which is a quarter cup, okay, I'm going to go back to the browned butter.

I'll add the sugar and spices to make it a little more crumbly than I would have liked, you know? What you might add is a little bit of heavy cream to loosen it up, okay, it looks really good, so it's been like 80 minutes, 90 minutes, it's doubled in size, time to hit. I'm going to take off the rings now, oh that releases the gases, the reason. it's that soft and beautiful and fluffy because of the tanjong, we have so much moisture here, so nice and fluffy, this is like a big dough, okay, the tangjong allowed me to add 25 more moisture than I would have otherwise, but no wants to move right now, why is that happening? you shouldn't do flat work no it's not a deal breaker just twist it a little then leave it and wait 10 minutes then come back and then just stretch gently take it out oh yeah that's ok i already noticed it will stretch a lot more easily, it will spread over the filling.

I'll add it in sections just to make my life a little easier. It smells so good you can smell the brown butter the next time. The order of the day is to roll and cut, usually the recipes will have you roll from the long side, if I roll it from the short side I will get more swirls, it is quite fat, in fact I wonder if I will take a piece pretty generous of The floss that I'm going to pull out to cut it is not as twisty as I expected, but I mean, I'm going to take my buttered nine by 13 inch baking dish and I'm going to put three over four down, 12 total.

I'm going to put it back by the window. and let it sit for another 25-30 minutes, so it's been like 30 minutes, they look a little tight here. I don't love it, this will be nice to see how they taste and I can improve the pictures for the next cook. Through the cinnamon rolls have risen significantly more than ideal, for this it is the first baking, so I will learn something. Okay, they have mushrooms, this happens with bread pudding, but I don't want that for cinnamon rolls. I just want feedback on I want to improve this, okay, pretty, the texture of the bread looks good, it has a nice structure, it's very soft, it's so good, it's very soft, it's very pillowy, oh my goodness, I like the amount of frosting.

I also like the frosting. it stays put, it's not glazed, yes I'm obsessed with the dough, I think it's the little touches you put in here for me. Elevate this, then, like your Google cinnamon roll recipe. I've been the zest to the frosting, yeah, what do you think? of the volume as I know they are quite large, you could divide it into two different panels so you can see how the middle ones are a little bit tight and these guys, yeah, I think they will have a little more space. Oh there is cardamom in the filling, could you say no, does that mean lose it or increase it?

I wouldn't be opposed to losing him personally. This is incredible. I'm taking this which was significantly better than expected. Everyone was very happy with the dough. which was really good. I don't have to make any changes there. I'm going to go in and adjust my initial recipe pipeline to reflect the changes. They don't want the cardamom to be there, so I'm going to lose that. I'm going to increase the cream cheese in the frosting so I don't have any left over. I can use a block. I did a lot of final work that turned out to work and turned out as I expected, so it's a great feeling, but I'm excited to get them

perfect

for the next round and really focus on the cinnamon roll images.

I'm going to move the coke up to number two for this bake. I'll really focus on timing and visual cues. This time I'll be taking notes more actively the first time I used a Baker's ratio for Tang dong but included elements from a Brio program so I increased the amount of butter. I'm really glad that that worked first because I spent a lot of time doing some initial research playing around with your Baker proportions. I'm ready to get started on the wedding ingredient and I'm going to set the timer so I can record how long it takes me to mix this.

I'm going to time this portion. Plus, it took me about a minute to get the dough to come together. I'm going to note how long it takes to get to a really beautiful elastic state. It's a little sticky. I don't think it's going to pass the window glass test. I think so. needs a few more minutes actually worked great 18 minutes to need the window pane this time I added the butter in one edit instead of two the texture is beautiful it's nice and shiny and smooth two minutes to incorporate the butter now I'm going to move To make the filling this time I want to try using butter that is not worked or solidified and I want to see if the heat it gives off melts the sugar a little so I don't have to rely on the heavy dough. cream I'm not going to add cardamom this time according to the notes, so it's still not as doughy as I would have liked, it will probably require the brown butter to cool and I will use heavy cream in the filling as well.

The only change happening to the frosting this time is that I'm adding a lot of cream cheese, so I'm a little late today. Yes, crunchy, I missed a cinnamon roll using the Tandon method. The goal was very spongy, very padded and most importantly. The important thing for me personally was to make the effort last for days. I love it, you know you relied on a technique that doesn't normally appear here. I think some things, the sweet and salty balance for me is perfect, oh yeah, it's really nice. like the overall balance of flavour, there's a nice openness and lightness, the bread I want almost like a little bit closer in texture, maybe it's like an extra yolk, do you think it needs more richness?

It's just a question, do you want to hear the idea I had. what they told me not to do is take free form, well I said bake free porn, I said break up before and they told me not to do that and also who told you not to do it, okay, like free form, you know. Bun, it's not the thing that's just going to fall apart, the other thing was baking it when I'm in style, that might be the smartest kind of approach, but I'd say I'd try it maybe side by side, but I saw it, Yes cool.

I work today thank you, it's okay, thank you. I'm going to finish rolling this out, spread it over the cinnamon filling, roll it up, put them in the baking pans and put them in the refrigerator and I'll deal with it tomorrow. I'll just do it. These are like this because I don't have time to make all the different baking containers right now. We're finalizing the flavor profile of these tomorrow and then I'll play with baking pans and texture. I'm serious, can I continue? very early and by very early I mean 10 a.m. It feels really early because I left really late last night, we basically set aside a cinnamon roll from the first batch we

baked

yesterday and I just want to make sure I'm getting it.

I like going back for the fact that it is super cushiony and soft. It still has a really nice mouthfeel. This isn't even microwaveable, but the fact that it's so soft is amazing. Last night I went to bed obviously thinking about what I did. that day and I thought I had ruined the frosting. I feel like the maple syrup in the glaze is really going to make a big difference in the flavor. I think it's going to bring out that toasty nuttiness from the brown butter and add to it as a whole. I think it will be very delicious, so we are going to make another glaze.

My plan for today is to start by baking last night's batch and I want to try another glaze, so my goal is to confirm the glaze and filling. Through a tasting, we're going to bake a bunch of cinnamon rolls in a bunch of different containers and we're also going to play around with a richer dough and we're going to play with a few different baking styles to see which one produces the optimal results and then depending on everything the information we get from that and the tastings what people like what they don't like what I like what I don't like the third and final bake will hopefully produce my perfect cinnamon roll okay, we have to repeat it no , that's great, these are the two nine-inch cake rounds from yesterday that you're going to make and then we're going to ice them with the two different frostings,In the meantime we will make the glazes, the changes continue to happen until the end, the goal is I like to get the best possible version of whatever you are making.

This is the second batch of cinnamon rolls. They look great. I like the color. The texture seems solid. It's bouncing. One will get the maple glaze and the other will get. Yesterday's powdered sugar glaze. I am very glad I chose the two nine inch rounds. I feel like they don't look tight here and still have enough room to grow and puff out nicely. Oh, two different ones make the same dough. this is basically the dough i made yesterday before i talked about the frosting is different the maple is enhanced by the brown sugar brown butter more like yes this is made with powdered sugar wow such nice flavors not too sweet i think i love cheese frosting cream yes a lot in general, anyway you want to be able to taste and then score with lemon lemon juice is okay, it's so good, this feels more classic.

I agree, we will go with this one since I think everyone likes it better, the filling is confirmed and for the frosting we are going to make the cream cheese with powdered sugar and now that everything is confirmed I am going to start preparing some different container options to bake foreigners, oh wait, the third one didn't even turn on foreigner, this is the original dough

baked

freeform this is the dough with an extra yolk baked freeform the dough with an extra yolk baked in a nine-inch pie pan the original dough the nine inch pie pan these are like our controls the dough with the extra yolk baked Queen Aman style and this is the original baked dough Queen between the style Queen Aman is a type of dough that is usually made with a dough of croissant as a laminated dough that is baked in a muffin pan covered with sugar and butter so that it is caramel-like on the outside.

That's essentially like a thin layer of hard candy and the crunch is amazing. I have no idea what's going to happen. Chopin Hannah mentioned worrying about it collapsing on itself because there's nothing to contain it, so this is a trick I've seen on the internet. Basically, you cover the cinnamon rolls with heavy cream before putting them in the oven. The idea here is to add even more moisture and fat. I'll check that the clean buns come out first, they are baked individually so they need less times they look great. I'm so glad I tried this one because I feel like it's the most interesting thing I've ever seen, so fun, oh my god I'm obsessed, I don't think they make it.

Going out though 30 minutes with these has proven to be perfect. I'm interested in seeing the difference in texture between this one that has the extra yolk. They're like so big and in charge, it's not really happening, oh it's super clingy. the bottom part you were right you want to see it looks like something you would get at a state fair yeah they don't look like cinnamon rolls there was nothing holding them together to hold them together those are the heavy cream ones I can see there's like a puddle of sugary caramel and cinnamon on the bottom, which could be good, but I don't know, we'll have to see when I try it.

Normally I would spread this amount of work over a week, we started yesterday at nine so it's been like 18 hours I'll put them on ice and then call Chris Hannah whoever is nearby to come test them and make a decision final about the route we are going to take for these cinnamon rolls, okay, yes, it is fascinating, now I will say that the yolk dough was a little more annoying, it needed table flour because it was stickier, yes, it was stickier. I think depending on how it tastes is really going to determine whether or not it's worth that extra hassle, okay it's kind of like a donut, having a little crunchy texture on the outside is nice, yeah sure, but does that mean that you're kind of a corner person?

This is free form dough, yes, I feel like something has been lost here, but I don't know if anything has really been played, it's okay that way if anything seems even softer to me, it's just not a cinnamon roll, Let's try this next. I feel like it will be the ultimate in softness, yes, but what people want is for it to feel moist and squishy, ​​like us. I like to remove the texture last, but not least, what looks like it will be the winner: the yok dough versus the no-yo dough. I really thought there was going to be a difference even just in terms of looking at the mass, yeah I mean it's like it's literally indistinguishable, yeah the difference in mass is negligible, it's not enough to bother someone like you have to go to banking yeah yeah so this is it yeah congratulations thank you how many people will love this okay it'll be easy for me too. right, one last question, yes, what should the name be?

I feel a sense of relief now that we are near the end. I'm so glad I made all these different variations. Let's do it one last time. Perfect and make sure everything is fine and the process doesn't end here. The recipe will go to a cross tester. They will make sure the recipe as I wrote it works and then my job will be done. reviewed by a recipe editor and then go to photo where a food stylist will make the recipe and it will be photographed for the website. These are my super pillowy cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.

In the end, we have gone through all these problems. because we really want someone to make these recipes, so I hope you give them a try. Can we get someone with arms here? Do you go to the gym? I don't.