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Fantastic Cinnamon Rolls and Where to Find Them
- Gabrielle
- Apr 2, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: May 20
When Mansfield Park was founded, the main project was to bring a good cinnamon roll to Berlin. Back then, Zeit für Brot was still unknown, and few cafes sold cinnamon buns. Now, it seems every café feels compelled to make some form of cinnamon roll. Coming from my American background, I fondly remember the huge, juicy buns from Cinnabon and wanted to create something similar in a vegan version. It had be those large, squishy rolls that melt in your mouth and are topped with icing, not the Swedish variety called "Kannelbular" that is often baked with a lot space between each roll and thus prone to crust formation and dryness. I crave a large roll with lots of fluffy yeast dough.
So, a recipe from the USA that I discovered in Cooking Light and had been carrying around for a long time was veganized, tested a trillion times and refined over the years.
It all starts with the right ingredients:
Cow's milk was simply replaced with soy milk, not water as often suggested. The dough should be rich, and water just doesn't seem suitable, especially since water will simply evaporte during baking and plant milk has more substance in comparison.
Instead of butter, high-quality plant-based margarine is used in the cinnamon rolls. Oil doesn't work, as the amount of fat needed should not be replaced with liquid oil. The relatively high amount of fat - compared to, for example, a pizza dough, where a few tablespoons are added to 500 g of flour - is important to give the rolls flavor (fat = flavor carrier), make them less chewy, i.e., juicy and therefore easy to chew (= tender). Like brioche, for instance. Since the usual eggs are omitted and they partly consist of fat, the margarine was additionally increased.
For the yeast, a high-quality, finely granulated, and dried product from Italy was used, as it is easier to dose, reacts quickly, and is more durable than fresh yeast. It's easier to work with because you won't have half a cube of fresh yeast laying around. And you can easily activate it by adding a bit of sugar to the yeast and mixing it with luke warm milk. Cover with a towel and let it rise for 5 minutes. Also, I suggest not using yeast from an organic supplier because I personally think organic yeast has a funky smell.
Making the dough: After extensive research, I concluded that it's best to prepare a pre-dough, that is kneaded smoothly for a few minutes before adding the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl. This allows the gluten to develop. Gluten is what you want and need in a yeasted dough, unlike a nice and fluffy cake. So you have to knead, a lot. Like 10 minutes if doing it by hand. The fat is added last when all the flour, milk and sugar have already turned into a sticky, unattractive dough. Only then, it will turn into a lovely ball, smooth and easy to work with. But in order to achieve that, you will have to knead some more! The mixer will really start working and kneads for about five endlessly long minutes until the dough completely detaches from the sides and bottom of the bowl. You really shouldn't stop before that. It takes the gluten to turn the high amount of soy milk into a workable lump that doesn't stick to fingers and surfaces and where you'd be tempted to add more flour. You may NOT add more flour, but knead the dough instead until it is glutinous. More flour would leave you with a dry cinnamon bun and I won't allow that! For the upcoming first rest period, the dough needs to go into a large and well-oiled bowl. Make sure to grease the dough on all sides by turning it around in the bowl. Then, I cover it loosely with plastic wrap. Loose, because it once happened that when the wrap was tightly fastened, the growing dough eventually ran out of air and alcohol developed - that was disgusting. I choose plastic wrap, because it can gently conform to the rising dough and I've ruined too many damp kitchen towels.
The rise: It used to be done in the refrigerator overnight because - and this is important - many small bubbles form that way. We want these and not the large ones, like in pizza dough, for example. A sweet yeast dough must be fine-pored, and this is only achieved by slow rising. The dough develops way more evenly and is much easier to handle when rolling. Because the buns will be quite cold, the second rise phase takes correspondingly longer. If you opt for the refrigerator version - and this is probably my best tip - it is fundamentally important that the rolls are warm before they go into the oven. They must have grown together, touching in the baking pan and feel lukewarm. Otherwise, you'll get very brown cinnamon buns, and you don't want that! They would then be dry and have a hard crust. That. Is. Bad. The alternative to the first cold rising is to give the dough about an hour at a warm environment. I like to put them on the radiator, where the temperature is always the same - a cozy warm 25°C.
The rolling: When rolling out, make sure that the dough doesn't become too thin. Finger-thick is the measure here. This results in juicy rolls. Because I've also tried the stylish cinnamon bun that rolls up from many thin layers. But they dry out quickly and are really not good. It should be a lot of juicy dough that you can squish and decadently tear apart. It should be able to absorb the cinnamon filling, enrich it, and not overwhelm it. That's why I always pay attention not to the width, but to the length of the dough - each roll is 6 cm. So when you get it out if the bowl, where it's risen, don't punch it down and don't use a lot of flour. Simply dust it with a little bit so the dough can't stick to the surface. It's also important that it's rolled out evenly and the ends don't become too thin, which is why they should be rolled over as little as possible and just shaped. Nice corners are crucial. Because when the cinnamon filling is added and the dough is rolled up, even the edge pieces should look good.
The filling at Mansfield Park is a homogeneous paste. A spread. Everywhere there should be the same amount of cinnamon, sugar, and margarine. This is easiest done by making a creamy paste from soft margarine, white and brown sugar, and good Ceylon cinnamon. It can then be thinly and evenly spread on the rolled-out dough. Just make sure to spread up to the edges, except on one long side where it will be rolled up. When rolled up to this edge, the thin strip must be pinched tight onto the log. This way, each roll retains its shape. For choosing the right baking pan, make sure to go with one (or two) that will give the rolls enough space - they shall not touch. I suggest a round pan 26 cm diameter or two loaf pans.
Depending on the method chosen for the first rise, the rolls should then rise a second time, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 to 90 minutes. Until they have grown together - that's very important! Assuming, of course, that too large a baking pan wasn't chosen. It should just provide enough space so that there is around half a centimeter between each roll.
As soon as the rolls have filled the pan and bounce back slowly when pressed with a finger, they can bake at 170°C for 15 minutes. Covered with aluminum foil as soon as you see a light brown color. So, foil on, rotate the pan, and bake for another approx. 15 minutes. The best indicator of finished cinnamon rolls is when the dough of the center ones is torn. Take them out of the oven and immediately brush with melted margarine. This is an essential step on the way to a juicy cinnamon roll WITHOUT a hard crust. If you want dry and bread-like buns, you can also bake without aluminum foil, thus burning them. But if you're after super good rolls, then brush them with margarine. At Mansfield Park, the finishing touch is a thick, fatty glaze with caramel and vanilla. This also keeps the buns from drying out additionally. But that doesn't mean they're still delicious the next day. Yeast dough is not for the following day. They must be eaten right away!
Finally, a brief report about cinnamon rolls in Berlin: My partner once tried one from Zeit für Brot. It wasn't as fluffy and great as the long line there might suggest. The non-vegan ones also taste digustingly like cow (=butter). One cinnamon bun I can live with, is from Cinnamood. The dough has a good texture, so that would be my recommendation when you're craving a single bun.
So, thanks for reading and now, go make some yeasted dough:
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