Got a comment over the weekend that while the cinnamon rolls and sticky buns I made look inviting, they are rather small — not at all what people are used to these days, either here in the states or in places like Sweden where the truly giant bun is said to have been invented. To […]
READ ONIf this doesn’t light’em up at the office, nothing will. Sticky buns are a simple variation on the cinnamon roll idea. The difference is they’re proofed and baked on a layer of caramel, then flipped over à la upside-down cake. I like to make them in a cast iron skillet since to me the sticky […]
READ ONYou have to hand it to those Arabian spice traders, they really knew how to protect a brand. When asked by ancient Greek tradesmen where their cinnamon came from, they spun an elaborate tale about the cinnamon bird, a flying beast so large it could easily carry off a man, and which built its nest […]
READ ONTurns out I missed Pauline’s deadline yesterday. However the critical detail there is that Pauline lives in New Zealand, so…talk about being behind the eight ball. She was on her way to work before I even got to writing up the post yesterday afternoon. But, like any intrepid baker, she carried on without the benefit […]
READ ONAlrighty. We’re under a little time pressure here because reader Pauline has to get these made for tomorrow morning. ;). So let’s dive into it, shall we? Begin by dusting your surface with flour. Dump your batch of cold brioche dough (recipe under “Pastry Components” menu to the left) out on the counter and forming […]
READ ONIt seems PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has petitioned ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s to replace the cow’s milk they now use in their ice cream products with human breast milk. As if that company wasn’t already having trouble enough with its brand ever since it was acquired by Unilever back […]
READ ONCinnamon is the archetypal “sweet” spice, though as I’ve written, in days gone by it didn’t always occur to people to eat it — at least in the Western part of the world. Though it probably arrived in the Mediterranean as early as tree thousand years ago, it was used as an embalming compound by […]
READ ON…but what about the cinnamon? What is it and where does it come from? It is, in a word, bark. The inner bark of the Cinnamomum tree which first sprung up in India, but which spread (or was spread) to China and other locales. Cinnamon is harvested by breaking off the hard, outer bark of […]
READ ONThen brioche will indeed be a very challenging dough to make. But let that not concern you. The old school dough-and-melted-butter cinnamon roll recipes are, as I said, highly bankable. Take care not to overwork your dough and the rolls will be fantastic.
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