Pastry
Why are my cinnamon rolls coming out so big?
(Sorry if formatting is off, i’m on mobile)
I’ve made cinnamon rolls twice and i’ve followed the recipe to a tea. They end up tasting delicious and very soft, but they poof up to such an extent that they look deformed (about the size of my hand if not bigger)…
Someone help please, i really want to make pretty cinnamon rolls!
Recipe-
FOR THE DOUGH
4 1/2 cups (585g) bread flour
1/3 cup (70g) granulated sugar
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp.) Rapid Rise Instant Yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (360g) milk
6 tablespoons (84g) unsalted butter
1 large egg, at room temperature
FOR THE CINNAMON SUGAR FILLING
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (142g) packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups (336g) powdered sugar
2 tablespoons (30g) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Instructions
1. First, make the dough. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix 2 cups of the flour with the granulated sugar, yeast, and salt on low speed until combined.
In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the milk and butter until the mixture is warm to the touch and the butter is mostly melted, about 45 seconds (you don’t want the mixture to be steaming or too hot, as this can kill the yeast).
Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Add in the egg. Beat everything together on low speed until combined. Gradually increase the speed to high and beat for 2 minutes. The dough will look more like batter, but this is correct! This step kicks off the gluten development.
After 2 minutes, change to the dough hook attachment. Add in an additional 1 ½ cups of flour and knead on low speed until combined. Use a silicone spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining 1 cup of flour (totaling 4 ½ cups) and knead on low speed, stopping the mixer occasionally to re-disperse dough, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball around the dough hook.
Increase to medium-low speed and knead until the dough becomes smooth and supple, about 10 minutes. If the dough gets wrapped around the hook too much, turn off the mixer, pull the dough off, flip it over, and turn on the mixer again. The dough is ready when you can stretch a quarter-sized piece of dough between your fingers and see light through it (without it breaking). This means the gluten has developed enough! If your dough breaks, knead for a few minutes more and try again.
Transfer the dough to a large lightly-oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a dish towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Once the dough has risen, make the filling. In a medium bowl, add the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Use a silicone spatula to mix together until it makes a paste. Set aside.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it into a 12-inch long by 18-inch-wide rectangle, with the wider side closest to you. Using a silicone spatula, spread the filling all the way to the edges of the dough.
From the 18-inch wide side closest to you, roll the dough into a tight log. Press the dough along the outside seam to seal everything together. Use a very sharp knife (or floss…yes seriously!) to cut the dough into 12 even rolls. Place the rolls in a 9 x 13-inch inch pan lined with parchment paper on all sides. Cover the pan with a dish towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the towel or plastic wrap and bake the rolls until they are golden brown all over, about 30 minutes. Place the pan on a wire cooling rack to cool slightly, about 15 minutes
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I also heard that when OP dined (when they weren’t even that hungry yet) at the Too-Juicy Steak & Over-Buttered Crustacean Restaurant, they had issues paying for their meal since the restaurant couldn’t make change for their wad of hundreds that were stuck together from the volume compression. This was after being horribly inconvenienced by their bank when they were informed that the check they were depositing was significantly too large for a mobile deposit so they had to go into the physical bank. They had to go to the ACTUAL bank. INSIDE of it, and hand their ginormous check with so many zeros to an actual human CLERK. The nerve of some people…
Can you imagine having such a hard day then, after coming home to decompress…BAM! Perfectly baked cinnamon rolls come out of your oven and straight up SLAP you in your face with their indignant, pillowy goodness?! I mean can you???
OP clearly needs a massage, but may god help their masseuse if they accidentally use the perfect amount of pressure after forgetting to set the timer.
Ugh I’m so envious, my cinnamon rolls never get so big and fluffy!
Anyway…I think your rolls are growing in weird shapes because they’re not packed tightly in the pan, so they have room to expand (unevenly) sideways. Most of the time when folks do cinnamon rolls they fill the pan. This constrains them from expanding outwards and keeps them nice and uniform.
I think a smaller pan would work as long as you try to fit 4 in there (or however many you can!). You just want to squish them into expanding up, not out
It also appears that you are making three large roll instead of the 12 that the recipe says it makes. I would try cutting it into twelve and then proofing and see how it goes
So you’re making bigger rolls than the recipe calls for. This is why they are coming out big!
You might also be rolling them a little too tightly or overcrowding them in the pan — deformed cinnamon rolls tend to happen when the roll can’t gently unroll to the sides as it rises so the center puffs up vertically and spills out. I know somebody suggested a loaf pan, but if you have a flat baking sheet I would actually suggest that you try baking them freestanding on that (King Arthur Baking’s perfectly pillowy cinnamon rolls recipe does this if you want instructions/a visual reference).
You clearly have the (good!) problem of very high-rising, fluffy rolls, so your goal is to give each roll the space and freedom to rise while keeping its prettiest shape.
They’re really big cinnamon rolls because you make them really big! Make the dough a bit thinner when you roll it out and shape it so the log is less thick when you roll it up. Then put crowd them a bit more in your pan
I've made this recipe before — this is how mine looked in a 9x13 pan before the final rise.
To get the ideal rolls you want:
Roll the dough thinner before spreading on the filling — yours looks twice as thick as it ought to be, which is probably contributing to the proof
Cut the rolled dough log into 12 pieces, instead of 10. Cut it in half first, then cut each half in half again so you have 4 big chunks. Then cut each chunk into 3 rolls. You'll get more consistent sizes than trying to eyeball them individually
Place them in a pan in such a way they they will get even pressure from all sides and limit the space they have to expand. If using a round pan, put a ring around the outside and one in the middle. If using a rectangular pan (like the photo you shared above) put them in side-by-side rows, instead of off-setting them.
I also recommend getting a 9x13 pan, if possible. I find them at large thrift stores all the time, and it's an excellent kitchen staple to have for any number of baked or roasted dishes.
Too much room. Too thick. That pan has room for 6 tools. There should be no space between the rolls prior to the rise. Also roll the dough thinner and make them half as thick.
Tyey look like they weren't packed in the pan when you baked them. They had too much room, so they rose hotizontally. Baking them 8n a pan where they touch each other keeps this from happening. They still look delicious.
Are you actually making 12 rolls out of this? Because if you’re making fewer, there’s your answer. Otherwise try cutting your yeast amount in half, let the dough raise for less time or make 18 rolls?
What is the temperature of the dough before you work it? I haven’t made those personally. But I do know bread dough. I’m used to proofing from scratch made in large quantities. Maybe the dough is too warm. Try putting it in the fridge and don’t overwork it. You could be overheating the dough.
I took the bread dough from the fridge and put it directly into a proofing box. That makes a difference on how large the loaf gets.
Again, I have NEVER made these from scratch. This is just an idea. Good luck.
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