Is there really any benefit to baking cinnamon rolls close together?
I made Zolablue's cinnamon rolls, or a heavily modified version thereof, this morning.
The original calls for 25-30 minutes @ 375 F. Mine were still raw at 30, so I baked them for 40. They were still raw-ish (but edible) at 40, but the tops would burn if I let them bake any longer, so I took them out.
I know the reason they didn't bake through: the space I left between then (~1") pre-proofing went to 0" by the time they were fully proofed. Once oven spring kicked in, it was squish city. No room for them to expand.
It seems like every picture you see of cinnamon rolls, the final product has them all squished together.
Question(s): Is there some logic to baking them in close proximity to each other? Wouldn't it be better to pan the rolls such that they'd never touch or squish each other?