Cinnamon Rolls: The series - Kneading

[Livingston]

I'm posting a series of questions using a CR recipe I use as the basis. I bake a lot of these at the holidays for gifts and am fairly successful. However, I'm not sure I understand when one batch is great and another is OK so have lots of detail questions hoping to improve the results and to teach me about baking these types of doughs. Along with technique I will also end up starting threads on ingredients.

KNEADING: I use a KA mixer with a dough hook for most of the kneading and finish with a minute or two by hand adding the final flour and to get the consistency right.

How does kneading effect the final product? Can you over or under knead? Will kneading have an effect on the rising (volume)? Any other things about kneading that are important for this type of dough?

Thanks

Livingston

 

[Alix]

Hi there Livingston. I'm not a very technical person so please forgive me if my answer is too simplistic. Yes, you can overknead your dough. But, what specifically is the issue you are having with your cinnamon rolls? I suspect it would be better to dedicate an entire thread to this discussion than a series of them. You will get more consistent responses.

Yeast dough is a picky beast. Weather changes, age of product and a host of other things can make a difference from excellent to mediocre dough. Can you post the exact recipe and the specific issues you are having?

 

[Livingston]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the post. I've tried both approaches to the threads (one vs breaking things up). The one thread approach didn't work as well as I would have liked although I got some good information. When you have as many questions as I do it seems people will sooner than later give up reading a long thread unless it is pretty specific.

My intent was to ask questions about baking in general using a CR recipe as the base that would help me both improve the recipe and educate me (and hopefully others) on the basics. My learning style tends to want to make isolated changes to the recipe or technique and then observe the results. BTW, I thought I attached the recipe, including annotation from what I learn hear, to my last post here.

In this particular thread I was isolating the kneading process and how it contributed (or hurt) the outcome. In others I will end up asking questions like how the depth of the pan, or the fat content of the milk, or the length of the rise, or, or, or, have an effect on the outcome.

Thanks

Liv