You'd think after my comment last week about running out of room on my kitchen bookshelf again, I would have known better than to open my Borders email. But how could I pass up a 40% off coupon, especially since I needed to spend my Borders bucks by the end of the month? Since Jamie got me Pure Dessert for Mother's Day, I decided to pick up something else that I've been eyeing for a while... Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I've seen recipes on a number of blogs. There was also a great article by him in my last issue of Fine Cooking that gave me some pointers that improved my pizza dough.
I'm still working my way through the beginning part of the book, which talks about the whole bread-baking process, but I decided to thumb through the recipe section to see what I might want to make first. The cinnamon rolls caught my eye. It wasn't until I was reading through the whole recipe that I realized why. I've seen them before, here. This was the recipe chosen by Marce of Pip in the City as the Daring Bakers challenge for September 2007. (You can check out her post or Peabody's for the full recipe.)
I did make a couple changes. I left out the lemon extract/lemon zest and added a teaspoon of vanilla instead. I didn't end up using all of the cinnamon sugar mixture, either. Since I love raisins in my cinnamon rolls, I used the flambéd raisins from Dorie's Brioche Raisin Snails in the filling. But since Brianna doesn't like raisins in her baked goods, I only sprinkled the raisins over about three-fourths of the dough. I used mini chocolate chips for the rest.
The result? Brianna, Gillian and I all loved them. And as a bonus, now my house smells fantastic... =) I'll definitely be making these again, once I figure out how to get them done in time for actual breakfast (without getting up at 4am!).
Those look absolutely fantastic! Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorites eats, but I can never get them to look nearly this good!
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