To the victors belong the spoils.

The Recipe

Cinnamon Roll Recipe: Better Homes & Garden Cinnamon Rolls

Filling: Classic brown sugar & cinnamon

Frosting Recipe: Caramel Frosting & Cream Cheese Frosting

The Attempt

March is one of the best months of the year. Yes, it is frustratingly cold as winter lingers like that 90s song by The Cranberries. But the month is redeemed by the month-long men's college basketball tournament, rightfully called March Madness. This is the third year that I've created a March Madness Tournament Challenge pool with friends. However, I increased the stakes this year by adding a half batch of cinnamon rolls as part of the prize. That little addition spurred this year's Challenge to have the highest participation so far! Multiple people let me know they were doing it for the cinnamon rolls. Fast forward a couple weeks and the winner had locked up the title, even before the semi-final games were even played. It was time for me to pay up with the rolls. Additionally, a friend had stopped by to show me how to put tile up in my kitchen for backsplash. I decided the other half of the batch would be a thank you gift to him.

This Sunday was a bit unique because we had church service in the evening. This opened my morning to make the rolls and frosting. I wanted to do one more attempt with the same cinnamon roll recipe that I used for the first four attempts for two reasons. First, I wanted to tweak the recipe by using bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. I read some other recipes online that swore by bread flour for cinnamon rolls, so I wanted to try a known recipe to see if I could notice a significant difference. Second, I just didn't want to try a new recipe and mess up the rolls for the victor. Messing up a new recipe would be a crummy trophy. Or maybe a crumbly trophy?

Either way, I made the rolls. I made the mashed potato on Saturday night to speed up the process on Sunday. Things were going swimmingly, and I felt like this attempt was the first one where I could really enjoy some of the breaks while the dough was rising. I mentioned that one reason for committing to cinnamon rolls was because the process had enough breaks that would force me to slow down but find something relaxing for a decent stretch. In this instance, I cleaned up the kitchen and read through the first half of Ecclesiastes.

I was making great time and rolled the ball of dough out. I was just about to lather the dough with butter when it struck me. I had once again forgotten to add eggs to the mixture when beating it all together. I was irate. Reliant K has a song titled Who I Am Hates Who I've Been, and let me tell you, in that moment I hated that I'd been a person who had once again forgotten a key ingredient in the dough.

I eyed the clock. I had just enough time to restart and have the rolls ready to bring to the champion at church service that evening. Probably. This felt like an important life lesson in perseverance and patience. So, I started a speed round of cinnamon rolls, remembered to add eggs, finished Ecclesiastes while waiting this time, baked the rolls, and got to church service right when it started. Okay, I was actually roughly 90 seconds late.

For the frosting, I couldn't decide between caramel or cream cheese frosting, so I made both. Scott and Sammy Jo Olson still said the caramel frosting from the first attempt was their favorite, and I wanted to try again. But I also hadn't tried a normal cream cheese frosting yet, and I wanted to give that a try. I packaged up tubs containing both frosting options and squeezed them in the pans with the baked rolls.

The Review

Things I appreciated about this attempt:

• I once again was humbled and had my patience tested.

• I felt like there was some poetic irony going on as I read through Ecclesiastes, and had my vain toil and ambition come to naught after spending a lot of time messing up the recipe again.

• I was thankful I was able to finish up the recipe though and bless some friends with fresh cinnamon rolls.

Things I learned from this attempt:

• Bribing people with cinnamon rolls yields high engagement.

• I didn't know there were different types of flour. It makes sense, but not something I'd ever given much thought to.

  • What is the difference between all-purpose and bread flour you ask? The primary difference is their protein content. Bread flour has a higher protein content. More protein leads to more gluten (generally), which gives the dough to provide more structure, body, and sturdiness. Without getting into the chemical reactions associated with dough, the general idea is that the additional gluten allows the dough to stretch more, and the carbon dioxide bubbles produced by yeast can grow larger. The larger pockets make the bread fluffier. All-purpose flour is typically used for cookies, cakes, and biscuits, while bread flour is typically used for rolls and bread.

• One pan of cinnamon rolls looked a bit burnt compared to the other, even though I baked them slightly less than the duration given in the recipe.

  • My hunch is that the bread flour impacted baking time.

  • This was a lesson to originally set the timer a bit low and check up on them frequently over the final couple minutes.

  • Additionally, I should rotate the rolls between the oven racks to avoid the inconsistencies between pans.

• I also believe that the relationship between the bread flour and oven temperature impacted the final shape and appearance of the rolls. The outside edge on the rolls looked to be extra expanded and fluffy this time. However, if you look at the semi-burnt rolls, the inner rolls were much more compact. Some parts of the inner roll look like they didn't expand at all in the oven. The unburnt rolls don't seem to have this issue. My hunch is that the extra heat baked the exterior quickly without letting the middle bake at the expected rate. But I'm not sure. I'm no professional.

Did I notice a difference in the texture between these cinnamon rolls and the past attempts that used all-purpose flour?

• I did steal one of the small end-piece rolls to try it, and I once again validated that my palate is unrefined. I think there was a slight difference in texture, but I'm someone who needs both variations in front of me at the same time for me to really notice.