I've had this long time fear of making cinnamon rolls. Something about yeast and me with a rolling pin. I've had a recipe bookmarked for years, but never went through with it. Fortunately the baker scientist in me finally won over and I made TWO versions of cinnamon rolls for direct comparison. If you're gonna cinna-brunch, you might as well go big.
And what did I find out? Cinnamon rolls are fun and kinda easy to make. And if you make two batches you have 24 rolls. Which means you just made up to 24 friends.
I went with a straightforward recipe with a buttery dough filled with cinnamon and brown sugar, and a fancier one from Saveur that involved folding cream cheese into the dough (a la croissant style), maple syrup, and cloves.
The verdict? Anything smeared with cream cheese frosting straight out of the oven is kinda amazing. Both were deliciously soft, fluffy, and all-over-your-face sticky. The Saveur one was considerably more work, but not actually better - the fancy touches didn't really stand out. Cinnamon rolls aren't a subtle food, after all.
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