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Cinnamon Rolls
1 compressed yeast cake in 1/2 cup lukewarm water. 3 eggs lightly beaten. 1/3 cup Cottolene. 2/3 cup sugar. 1 teaspoon salt. 4 tablespoons granulated sugar. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
Flour.
Supplementary Recipes PROCESS: Prepare a sponge when scalded milk is lukewarm by adding two cups flour and dissolved yeast cake; beat thoroughly; cover and set to rise. When light, add well beaten eggs, Cottolene worked to a creamy consistency, sugar, salt and flour enough to knead (about six and one-half cups). Knead until smooth and elastic. Roll out to one-fourth inch thickness, spread generously with soft butter, sprinkle thickly with sugar and cinnamon, mixed and sifted. Roll like jelly roll; cut off slices one-half inch thick; set them close together, cut side down, in a greased dripping pan. Brush between rolls with melted Cottolene, cover and set to rise. When light, bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven, remove from oven and brush over with white of egg diluted with two tablespoons cold milk. Return to oven to brown; repeat, to make them glossy.
A standard enriched sweet dough, but the ingredient list is incomplete and the fat is a product that no longer exists. Read the process paragraph before shopping.
- The missing milkThe process calls for scalded milk to build the sponge, but no quantity appears in the ingredient list. A dough taking about 8 1/2 cups of flour total wants roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups of liquid; start at the lower end and add flour by feel rather than by the stated 6 1/2 cups.
- CottoleneA cottonseed-oil shortening sold by the N. K. Fairbank Company, discontinued long ago. Substitute an equal measure of vegetable shortening, or butter for better flavour. "Worked to a creamy consistency" means softened and beaten smooth, not melted.
- Compressed yeast cakeOne cake was about 0.6 oz of fresh yeast, equivalent to roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet) of active dry or instant yeast. Dry yeast can go straight into the 1/2 cup of warm water as written.
- Scalding milkWith pasteurised milk, scalding is generally held to be unnecessary; the enzymes said to weaken gluten in raw milk are largely dealt with by pasteurisation. Warm the milk, then let it cool to lukewarm, around 105F, before it meets the yeast.
- Moderate oven350F. Thirty minutes suits a full pan of rolls set close together; check at 22 minutes and look for 190F in the centre of a middle roll.
- The two sugarsThe 2/3 cup sugar goes into the dough; the 4 tablespoons granulated sugar are for the cinnamon filling, sifted together with the 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Most modern palates will want double the filling sugar and a full teaspoon of cinnamon.
- The egg-white glazeThis is the step that distinguishes the recipe. Two thin coats of white of egg thinned with cold milk, each set briefly in the oven, give a hard glossy shell rather than a sticky icing.
- Rising timesThe original gives none. Expect 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the sponge, 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the shaped rolls in a warm kitchen; a modern refrigerator overnight rise for the shaped pan works well.
- YieldA dripping pan is a shallow roasting pan. This quantity of dough fills a 13x18-inch sheet or two 9x13 pans, giving about 24 rolls.
52 Sunday Dinners (1913) was compiled by Elizabeth O. Hiller and issued by the N. K. Fairbank Company to promote Cottolene, its cottonseed-oil-and-beef-suet shortening, which is why the fat is named as a branded ingredient throughout the book and why melted Cottolene is brushed between the rolls, even though soft butter goes into the filling. Cinnamon rolls of this type \,, suger Enriched dough rolled around butter, sugar and spice, sliced and baked shoulder to shoulder so the sides stay soft, are often said to have reached American home baking through German and Scandinavian immigrant households, where similar coiled buns are known as Schnecken, or snails, for their shape. The egg-white wash rather than a sugar icing is characteristic of the period: glaze was applied in the oven, and the sweet white frosting now assumed on a cinnamon roll belongs to a later era of baking.