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The cinnamon rolls met with universal acclaim at my husband's office, and he was told many times to thank me for baking them. Two were left over, so I brought them home, and I ate one with my coffee after lunch. Oh, my, oh my! These are incredibly delicious. As the recipe write-up states, they are like sticky buns with no nuts, and they do not have to be dumped out of the pan, since the glaze is added on top after they bake. They have a slight caramel taste to them, and they are not too sweet with the glaze.
I did change the mixing instructions. I'm puzzled by the ones with the recipe, which seem to make it harder than it need be and to mix in an odd order, as well as knead by hand when one has a perfectly good stand mixer used in the first mix.
After I proofed the yeast, I added the sugar, milk, butter, and eggs. I then mixed it to incorporate the eggs. I then added the 2 1/4 cups flour (I substituted in 1 cup white whole wheat and added 1 Tbs. flax meal), and mixed with the paddle until fully incorporated. I then let it rest for 10 minutes. I switched to the bread spiral, added the rest of the flour, mixed with the salt, and incorporated it, before kneading for 4 minutes on 3 (Cuisinart stand mixer--3 is my usual kneading speed). I initially held back 1/2 cup of the flour, but after adding 1/4 cup of that, I concluded that it needed all of it. Rising times were as stated in the recipe. I baked it for 22 minutes.
Note: I could not spread the filling on the dough without tearing the dough, so I dropped clumps of it all around, and spread it with my fingers as best I could. I only left a "one-inch border" at the long side toward which I rolled up the dough. On the other three sides, I spread it right to the end. To cut the rolls, I used a piece of my handy-dandy non-flavored dental floss.
One more note: the recipe equates a package of yeast with 2 1/2 tsp. However, I've always seen it as 2 1/4 tsp., so that is what I used, and it worked fine.
Now I just need an occasion with enough people attending to bake these again!
I think that cookies that use only baking soda tend to be flatter than cookies that rely on baking soda and baking powder. The Butterscotch Barley cookies from KAF that I baked last week use only baking soda, and they are flat, and meant to be, as the texture is chewy.
I've not frozen cookie dough, although I keep meaning to try it. Part of the issue for me is freezer space. The other is plenty of people around to eat the cookies, or else I bake a half recipe.
The coffee flavor does mellow after a day. My husband, however, does not care for it. That is unsurprising, as he does not like coffee. He does like the cake, so I may see if some other frosting will go well with it. The cake is still tender and not dried out today. (I didn't refrigerate it once we cut it.)
While no one gushed about the cake, I noticed that everyone finished off his or her piece, so that would be success.
If I have occasion to bake it again, I will either use mini-chocolate chips in the cake--and not a lot of them--or leave the chips out altogether. The cake is wonderfully light (probably too light to hold up the chips), and having the chips concentrated in one location messes up the slicing. I'm not sure the cake needs chocolate chips in it; this cake can stand on its own. I'd still decorate the top with mini-chocolate chips.
I would cut back a bit on the espresso powder, if I use KAF's powder, which I think may be more concentrated than instant expresso. The frosting did work well with the cake, so it balanced out, but I still thought the coffee needed to be toned down--and I'm a coffee devotee.
Apparently they sank for a person who commented on the recipe page. That person told the site to specify parchment paper to line the bottom of the pans, since otherwise the chocolate chips would stick to the pan, making it hard to remove.
There may be something to be said for dense cake when it must support add-ins. 🙂
Update: I frosted the cake this evening. I had trouble with that caked KAF espresso powder. Even after I ground it in the coffee grinder, it wanted to clump, and that may have affected measuring it. The frosting has a slight bitter taste to it. I'm hoping that with the chocolate chips on the top, and in combination with the sweet cake with its chocolate chips, that the bitterness will mellow out. I decided to put the two bottoms next to each other, so it will look like I meant to have a chocolate layer in the center next to the frosting!
