Coffee & Cinnamon Scrolls

Greetings one and all and welcome back to FoodFlurries.com 2012!!

I am aware that I am waaaaaaaaay behind schedule and that most bloggers have probably gotten a head start in their 2012 culinary adventures, but I believe I may have a valid excuse ~ we got a new dog over Christmas.  And his name is Doopey.

Doopey is a 3 yr old Bernese Mountain Dog who once lived on a farm. Then one day he found himself at the animal shelter, awaiting adoption. We took one look at him and our hearts melted. We had to have him!

When they first brought him out to us for our initial meeting he looked like a lot of dog to handle. He was, in my eyes, HUGE. He was a bit wild and excessively excited ~ he couldn’t wait to get out and go for a test walk. He was kind of pully on the lead and it seemed like he was taking us for a walk and not the other way around. I had a lot to think about in terms of ‘is this the dog I want for the next 5-6 years?’

So anyway, ten days later on Christmas Eve, we brought him home and he has been filling our lives with prime time entertainment ever since. He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and is very gullible. He falls down, crashes into things ~ basically a furry bull in a china shop. But he is also very quiet indoors, prefering to sleep at my feet than say bark at the neighbours for no apparent reason.

Mr. Cuteness himself.

Not quite sure where he wants to sleep.

Post vet visit after having his delicates attended to.

 So that, my good people, is my excuse for the very late blog update. My apologies.

Anyway, now let’s get the show on the road and I would like to start off with an email request I received over the weekend from the General Manager of the business R works for. She said she had been craving some of the local confections commonly sold in Australian bakeries and she singled out Coffee Scrolls.

Now Coffee Scrolls are basically like your garden variety cinnamon rolls, but obviously with a coffee flavour. It has a sugar glaze on the top and sprinkled with chopped walnuts or pecans. Delicious with a cup of coffee in the morning to start your day with. The challenge for me was I have never made anything from a yeast dough before. I have never worked with yeast. The closest I have ever come to making anything resembling bread were the buttermilk biscuits; one of my first few posts when I started this blog.

I scoured the internet for a proper Aussie recipe for coffee scrolls and did not find anything I liked. Some sounded way too complex and one even had a recipe for a yeast-free dough. I tried this recipe and it failed miserably. The end product came out looking like cookie swirls rather than fluffy cinnamon buns. Don’t get me wrong tho … they still turned out to be really yummy, but it was not what was asked for.

Failed attempt. These turned out crunchie and tasted nothing like actual coffee scrolls or cinnamon swirls.

Back to the internet and more detective work. About an hour later, and tens of youtube video demonstrations later, I decided to go with a Laura Vitale recipe.  It looked really good on the plate, and it looked easy enough for me to tackle. Be aware that when working with yeast it is not going to be something you’re going to have ready on a plate within the hour. The dough needs to sit for a few hours to rise first. But with a little patience and some time planning you will be rewarded with the yummiest, fluffiest cinnamon swirled buns.

Coffee Cinnamon Rolls (adapted from the recipe of Laura Vitale of LauraInTheKitchen.com)

• 540 g plain all-purpose flour

• 60 g butter, melted

• 250 mls whole milk

• 1 whole egg

• 120 g white sugar

• 7 g dry active yeast

• 50 mls warm water

• 1 tbsp sugar (to activate yeast)

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp salt

1. Warm the water to about 45°C. Add the tablespoon of sugar and sprinkle the sachet of yeast on the top. Set aside for the yeast to activate, approx 10 mins. You will know it is ready to go when you see froth on the surface.

2. Next attatch the dough hook to your stand mixer. Add the warmed milk, melted butter, sugar, egg and vanilla to the mixing bowl and give it a good mix. Then add in the yeast, water and all.

3. Once everything comes together add in the flour in two batches, and the salt. Keep the speed of the mixer on low to begin with then work your way up to medium speed. Once all the flour has gone in leave the mixer on for about 5 – 7 minutes to knead the dough. You may now have permission to walk away and have a cup of tea while you wait.

4. After about 5 mins the dough will be elastic and supple. Using a spatula scrape down the sides of the bowl and place the ball of dough into another deep bowl that has been oiled all the way up the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for 1.5 to 2 hrs for the dough to rise. It must be kept in a warm, draft-free place. If you don’t know where best to store it then place the bowl in your oven with just the light turned on. That should do the trick well enough. Now go and put a movie on and forget about the dough.

5. A couple of hours later your dough would have grown to about 3 times its original size and will resemble something akin to The Blob. Now if you had taken my earlier advice and oiled the bowl well then you will have no problems removing the dough out onto a floured surface ~ just tip and the dough will fall out. Punch down and knead the dough for a few minutes until it is pliable and easy to work with. Roll out a rectangle about the size of the baking pan you intend on using, about 9 x 13 inches. You are now ready for the filling.

Filling.

• 50 g soft butter

• 150 g soft brown sugar

• 50 g white sugar

• 1.5 tbsp ground cinnamon (but I used All Spice because I love the smell of cloves and nutmeg as well)

• 100 g milk chocolate shavings

1. Smear the butter all over the dough, leaving about a 1 inch border.

2. Sprinkle the sugars, spices and chocolate over the butter.

3. Roll up the dough, swiss roll style and secure the edges with a tiny bit of water.

4. Now cut the dough into fairly even pieces and arrange in a well buttered baking dish, making sure you leave gaps for them to expand.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise a second time, for about 40 – 45 mins in the same warm and draft-free place.

6. Remove plastic wrap, dab some melted butter over the tops of the cinnamon rolls and bake in a 180°C oven for about 20 – 30 mins. Your house will smell like a bakery after this.

7. Leave cinnamon rolls to cool in their baking pan.

Coffee Glaze.

– The coffee glaze is what brings this entire recipe together. Usually I am not a fan of frostings or glazes due to their reputation of being overly sweet, but this glaze was really nice since the bitterness of the coffee cut back on a lot of the excess sweetness.

• 185 g plain cream cheese, at room temp

• 200 g powdered (icing) sugar

• 6 tbsp warm milk

• 2 tsp instant coffee granules

1. Stick everything into a mixing bowl and beat with the balloon attachment until smooth and runny.

2. Place the pan of baked cinnamon rolls on some sheets of old newspaper. Then using a whisk, dip and drizzle the glaze over the rolls by flicking the whisk gently back and forth. Sprinkle some more chocolate shavings to finish off the look.

You can catch Laura on youtube or on her website  http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/arch/cinnamon_rolls.html

Enjoy this recipe as much as I have enjoyed making them myself. It trully gave me insight as to how to work with yeast doughs. After this adventure in the kitchen, despite the failures I encountered in the beginning, I came out feeling like I really accomplished something new. I CAN BAKE BREAD!!!!!!!!!!! If you have never worked with bread dough before then this recipe is a good starting point because there wasn’t any fuss involved at all …. the machine did all the kneading and pulling for me. Have fun and happy baking!

~ ENJOY ~