The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

- Chinese Proverb. Also Rafiki, The Lion King

The Recipe

I chose to begin my cinnamon roll odyssey by making the recipe in my tried-and-true Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. It has never steered me wrong, in the 6 weeks I've had it.

Cinnamon Roll Recipe: Better Homes & Garden Cinnamon Rolls

Filling: Cinnamon Sugar

Frosting Recipe: Caramel Frosting

The Attempt

Several things immediately made me concerned about making this recipe.

First off, there were just the standard hesitations and jitters related to trying something new. This was my first attempt making bread from scratch. I imagine Michelangelo was a bit nervous the first time he picked up a hammer and chisel to sculpt a marble statue. Or LeBron James had some anxiousness the first time he walked onto the court during an NBA game. We all know Eminem's palms were sweaty, knees were weak, and arms were heavy while breaking into the rap scene.

Second, I expected to make some rookie mistake while making the dough and I was distraught with the idea of botching it. It'd be pretty embarrassing to tell people you're bringing cinnamon rolls and then show up empty handed. I recently made cookies and cupcakes from scratch, but this was my first time experimenting with yeast. I fully expected to make some fatal error to prevent the dough from rising correctly. For example, part of the recipe called to heat a mixture in a saucepan to 120-130 degrees. If the mixture was too cold, the yeast wouldn't activate. If the mixture was too hot, the yeast would die. I'm not sure about you, but hitting a 10 degree range is way more specific and temperamental than my typical experiences on the range of "get some water boiling and the noodles will cook in any temperature as long as that water stays boiling".

Third, I re-read the recipe like five times to figure out if "one cup of mashed potato" really meant one cup of mashed potato. I've never tasted mashed potato in my cinnamon rolls in the past and it threw me for a loop. What kind of recipe was this?

Anyway, I carried on hoping that this recipe would be forgiving to rookie mistakes and hoping that my cinnamon rolls wouldn't taste like cinnamon-coated baked potato.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of following the recipe once I got started. I broke in a new mixer that made mixing everything together simple and uniform. I even nailed that 120 degree - 130 degree range by letting the sauce pan sit on low heat while I prepared for other steps, and then finding the mixture at a perfect 124-ish degree temperature when I checked on it for the first time. Maybe that was just some divine intervention.

The mixer has an attachment for kneading dough, so I tossed that on and let it do it's thing for several minutes. Way easier than needing to knead by hand. Maybe I'll knead by hand on one of these attempts, but not this one.

The recipe called for 45-60 minutes to let the dough sit covered in a warm place to let the yeast do its thing and make the dough rise. I was especially antsy during this time since, one, I wasn't sure if it would rise, and two, I was on a time crunch trying to leave the house soon. But learning to be a bit more patient is one of the reasons I mentioned when explaining I'm on a journey to make cinnamon rolls, so this was good practice.

However, my increasing sense of urgency grew as I kept working through the recipe's steps. One step called for rolling the dough into an 18x12 inch rectangle. My rolled-out dough was rectangular-ish but could've used some more work. I'm minimally experienced with rolling dough, so I didn't expect to get it a nearly perfect rectangle like the cookbook's photo, but I probably should've cut the edges to help make the rolling part a bit easier. When I did start rolling the dough back up, my rolls got increasingly loose as I got closer to finishing up since I was rushing more and more. So, I was a bit worried that the cinnamon rolls might not be very tightly rolled when they eventually came out of the oven.

The result was two pans containing 17 rolls total. Although two rolls were from the ends of the re-rolled dough and were shaped a bit oddly, like the ends of a burrito.

I grabbed a pan, drove across town, and stuck it in the oven later that evening for a dessert following a classic Dinker's hamburger dinner. Surprisingly, it all worked out perfectly. I'd forgotten that one of the steps was to let the rolls sit and rise again for 30 minutes after slicing them up and putting them into the pan. So thankfully the drive across town and eating dinner first was more than enough time for them to rise some more.

The Review

I'm primarily just glad that this first attempt didn't go up in flames. Not literally, although a kitchen fire is always a possibility with me, but predominantly metaphorically. There weren't hiccups making the recipe. The cinnamon rolls came out of the oven looking like cinnamon rolls. I even cheated a bit on the frosting by utilized a tub of caramel-flavored frosting leftover from cupcakes that I had recently made, and I thought it paired well with the rolls. I'm not a big fan of many cinnamon roll icings since they can get excessively sugary or creamy. So, I thought the hint of caramel helped offset the typical frosting flavor of pure sugar.

Things I appreciated about this attempt:

• Actually came away with cinnamon rolls on my first attempt.

• The rolls had a good balance of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter in the filling. Wasn't overpowering but was still noticeable.

• The rolls maintained their shape as rolls, even though my dough-rolling ability was sub-par.

• The rolls had a nice little crisp on the exterior, and a soft, gooier interior. I set a timing for the lower end of the suggested time to let the rolls bake in the oven, which I thing was the right call.

• The rolls did not in fact taste like cinnamon-coated baked potato.

Things I learned from this attempt:

• Rolling, or cutting, the rolled-out dough into a neater rectangle helps make rolling the dough back up easier.

• I put a bit too much flour on my countertop before rolling out the dough on it. It led to some rolls have a slightly heavy dusting of flour on the exterior. But I expect finding this balance between too much flour and not enough flour, where the dough then sticks to the surface, will come with more practice.

• Knowing when to apply frosting or icing is an underappreciated skillset. Put it on too early and the frosting will melt, making a goopy messy. Put it on too late, and the rolls are already getting cold and the frosting doesn't seep into the roll crevices. Once again, finding that balance where the frosting slightly melts into the roll, but doesn't melt all over the roll making it very messy to eat, will take practice.

• Last but not least, I'm sure all you amateurs are wondering what was up with the mashed potato in the recipe. Believe it or not, mashed potato helps make bread rise faster (due to potatoes being rich in potassium), be more moist and delicate (due to potatoes being high in starch), and have a longer shelf life per Southern Living and TastingTable. Science can be pretty wild.

My other cinnamon roll panelists offered some thoughts as well - Scott, Sammy Jo, and Breckan. Unfortunately, Eliza can't hang or eat cinnamon rolls yet.