Cinnamon Rolls- cutting out morning rise time
I have been making my mother's cinnamon rolls for the last few years but have never figured out a way to have them ready first thing in the morning (without getting up at the crack of dawn).
The recipe is a basic yeast dough with a significant amount of sugar in it. It's usually mixed up and then left to rise overnight in the fridge. I then roll out the dough and roll it up with the cinnamon and sugar. I cut it and then place them in the pan for a second rise and then bake (with cold dough the 2nd rise and bake process is often 1 1/2-2 hours).
My three options to eliminate some of the time in the morning are as folllows:
All of these assume the first refrigerated rise was done at some time previous.
1. Cut and place dough in pan the night before and place in fridge. Hopefully it will rise enough overnight and I can pop straight in the oven in the morning.
2. Follow usual steps night before and then par-bake at least until oven-spring is done.
3. Stop just shy of fully cooking the night before and just pop in to warm in the morning.
What's my best option?
I bet you could make some test dough trials without wasting the cinnamon/sugar part of the roll and just use the tests to see how well things are rising.
I think the easiest option is to fully bake them, wrap them in foil, put them in a freezer bag, and freeze them. Then take them out of the freezer the night before you want to eat them, thaw them in the fridge, pop them in the oven, then heat them up.
If you feel this might be cheating, you can go through your normal preparation process including the rise before they go in the oven, then freeze them at that time (right before they'd go in the oven). Let them thaw overnight covered in the fridge, then bake them in the morning.
-Mark
Mark,
Option 1 seems almost like what you are suggesting except they are just refrigerated instead of frozen and defrosted. Why would freezing be preferable?
The difference is if you fully proof them as if you were going to bake them (in your normal preparation process), then you freeze them, all you will need to do is thaw them to bake. No rising is necessary when they are cold. This is the way I sell sticky buns to a restaurant here, completely proofed and frozen. They thaw them at room temp in the morning, thaw the spread, and bake them. It's easier for them since they don't have to know anything about proofing, plus I can prepare them whenever I want since they'll be frozen.
If you plan on prepping the night before and proofing in the fridge, you'll have to be a little more aware of the timing to make it work. Of course it's possible, but just a little more difficult in my opinion.
-Mark
About how long would it take to thaw them? I make my rolls where they rise about a 1/4 inch below the top of a standard cake pan.
that if you thaw them in the fridge it'll take about 6 hours, on the countertop around 1.5 hours. It depends on how dense they are and how much butter, sugar...My visual clue that something is thawed from the freezer is that the condensation/wetness is mostly gone. Of course this will vary with the humidity. If you have a probe thermometer, you can carefully stick the center of one.
Mark,
My intent is to find a way to just get up and have them ready to go in the oven. If I have to get up to thaw them for 1.5 hours, I might as well just get up and proof them the way I used to. It doesn't take that long to roll them out, cut them and get them in the pan.
So I'd just take them out of the freezer at night, cover and put them in the fridge overnight, then they're ready to bake when you wake up.
I was just giving an alternate to thawing them in the fridge, not saying it was an additional step.
I should have written it as "...about 6 hours in the fridge or alternately if you thaw them on the countertop, about 1.5 hours"
OK. Thanks.
You mentioned timing being the problem with just letting them rise in the fridge. Is the issue that too long in the fridge might cause them to overrise or is there another concern that would make timing so critical?
Often sweet doughs have a lot of yeast in them to counteract the fats and sugars added to them. If after shaping my sticky buns, I put them right into the fridge for an overnight proof, they'd be ready for the oven in a few hours since they're going into the fridge warm. They'd be overproofed by morning. However if they go from the freezer to fridge, the thawing will take a lot longer and they'll basically remain dormant until they hit the oven.
Your option (1. Cut and place dough in pan the night before and place in fridge. Hopefully it will rise enough overnight and I can pop straight in the oven in the morning.) will also work.
Before I retired and my kids were still in school I worked a split shift and was home during the middle part of the day. I would cook supper, leaving it in the pots on the stove and make my dinner rolls...let them rise about 1/3 of the way up the pan and stick them in the frig. They would finish rising in the frig. My kids would take turns heating the food and baking the rolls when they got home from school so dinner could go on the table as soon as my husband and I got home from work.