Same recipe, different breads

We have no bread at home so I decided to bake some.  I like to do to trial and error constantly.  I imagined I can use the same recipe I used when I made a dough for cinnamon rolls. Well, it is not a disappointment.  It is soft and buttery, moist and thready texture not airy.  This is exactly I wanted to achieve when I baked the steakhouse dinner rolls.  The big difference between these dinner rolls:  I used eggs with steakhouse dinner rolls and I did not press on dough so much. 

Half of the dough I made, I used to make bread sticks. It did not work because the bread is soft and sweet for bread sticks.  The pizza dough is more appropriate, bake it like a deep dish pizza.

Decorated cookie

This was a cookie and I decorated it.  I did this at work then, Walmart.  An icing was put on top of the cookie and we used spray gun machine to spray coloring.  This cookie cake was requested by my daughter for her 10th b-day in 2008.  That is why I have a photo.

Happy are those who baked deliciously the first time.

Since I have been baking every week at least once, I now have  the confidence to try on my own.  I realized that basically if I can bake a decent bread, I can bake a cinnamon roll.  I used  almost all of the ingredients from the last steakhouse dinner rolls I baked and changed a little bit.  As I have said, the steakhouse dinner rolls taste and look good but I did not like the texture inside.  I watched other videos of how to make sweet bread and I realized that after proofing the first time, I have to put pressure on dough to release the air so it will not be airy texture.  I used the technique on the cinnamon rolls and the texture is so smooth and not airy.  I am not really a cinnamon fan but this is delicious than cinnabon rolls we buy from the malls'  food court.  I think the difference is the caramel sauce and I also made vanilla cream cheese icing.  I immersed the rolled dough in baking pan with the almond caramel sauce and bake them.  The almond caramel sauce is a little bit candied and sticky on top of the cinnamon rolls.

Here is the recipe, the best I can recall.

Dry mix:  2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt

Wet mix: 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup milk, 2/3 brown sugar

Yeast mix: 1 1/2 tsp yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tsp sugar

Just follow the same instructions on the steakhouse dinner rolls video on previous post. The only difference is the preparation of  cinnamon roll. Lay the dough in a rectangle shape.  Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon

powder, ,any grind nuts (optional). Find a cinnamon rolls video on Youtube if needed.

Almond caramel sauce

melt 1/3 stick butter in a sauce pan

drop 1/2 cup chopped almond

add 1 cup brown sugar,  let it caramelized

add 1/2 cup heavy cream or regular milk

Vanilla cream cheese icing

1/2 cup cream cheese, 1-2 tsbp confectioner sugar, 1 tsp vanilla

Improvement on my steakhouse sweet dinner rolls

It is almost the dinner rolls I have wanted to achieve.  I watched this Youtube videos (previous posts) and used the recipe.  I think I am going to check more recipes and learn from them.  The dinner rolls I baked tasted good, sweet and nice outside.  I am missing the texture I want inside.  I want it to be stringy. 

Youtube: Sweet Dinner Rolls part 2

Youtube: Sweet Dinner Rolls Part 1

My sweet buns are good but not what I expected

I was ecstatic when it felt like it was becoming easier to prepare the dough from scratch.  I don't have that feeling that there is something wrong with my dough.  This recipe was from a bakespace.com member and she got it from allrecipes.com.  I followed the ingredients and procedure properly but It did not come out as expected.  These buns are

supposed to be like what you can have from a steakhouse sweet buns/dinner rolls.  Instead, these came out to be buns that I can buy from a Filipino bakery called "pandesal".  I have no complaints about them, just did not expect the outcome.  I should try the Filipino pandesal recipe, it may come out like the sweet, very soft, buttery, American steakhouse dinner rolls. For those who are interested to use the recipe, here it is.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter,softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
3 3/4 cups flour
1 package (.25) active dry yeast
1/4  cup butter softened
Directions:
1Place water and milk in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute or until liquids reach (110 degrees F/45 degrees C). Pour liquids into mixer bowl; add sugar and still to dissolve. Add in yeast and let set for 10-20 minutes to proof (the mixture will be foamy).

- Attach the bowl to the mixer and mix on low speed adding the salt, butter and egg. Once well mixed add in the flour 1/4 cup at a time. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the dough hook. With the machine; knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

- Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into desired shape. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour. (You can place a bowl of very hot tap water in the bottom of your stove and place the rolls in on the rack above it). Gently brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter.

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Upon removing the rolls from the oven brush them with softened butter once again.

I will try to modify the recipe and see what happens and  I will also check other recipes online.