No, I didn’t have twins! Rather, I made my first from-scratch cinnamon rolls!
And I must say, though they weren’t the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had–an idea enforced by my constructively critical cinnabun-queen of a mother–for a first attempt, they were not bad at all! In fact, they came out much better than I expected.
I know, I know. You’re thinking, why is Nora, who is such a good baker, speaking as if cinnamon rolls would be such a challenge (or at least I HOPE you’re all thinking that!) ;)
Well, it was more of the fact that I wasn’t sure how fresh our yeast was and that I used white whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour for which The Joy of Vegan Baking calls, resulting in a pretty tough dough that seemed loathe to rise. I was slaving away over the stand mixer at three in the morning because I couldn’t sleep and I thought it’d be fun to surprise my mom in the morning, since she’d cheekily–and presumptuously–asked me, before going to bed, “what’s for breakfast tomorrow?! My semi-insomniac dad wandered in at about five am and asked me what the hell I was doing with a rolling pin at that hour, and I proceeded to tell him in a discouraged tone that I was trying to make cinnamon rolls, but they were sure to fail. I even asked him if I could just throw the dough away. I’m always emotional about my kitchen failures, but I was so tired at this point that I was seriously on the verge of tears!
After sulkily retreating to bed, I awoke the next morning to a tray of significantly risen doughy rolls. I almost cried again, this time for joy! I popped them in the oven, and felt silly for worrying so much.
These rolls have raisins in the filling, so I thought I’d make an apple cider glaze to go with them instead of a more traditional vanilla one. I followed the recipe in JOVB, but subbed unpasteurized apple juice for the soy milk, and also added some cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and a splash of maple syrup!
They were delicious! A bit dense, but for whole wheat rolls, not too bad! I’d use whole wheat pastry flour next time, although there’s so many good vegan cinnamon roll recipes out there, I’m pretty sure I’ll be trying a few others before I ever come back to this one.
I do know that my next venture into the cinnamon bun world will be in the form of peanut butter or pumpkin ones. Who can say when though? ;)
