Issue #37 Of Glorious Rolls And Spoilt Beverages

Apr 12, 2024

Baking With Edna

I was VERY lucky to have, not only a grandmother who baked, but a generous grandmother who passed on her recipes and knowledge.

And I mean REALLY passed down her recipes - no holding back, no sneaky leaving out important steps or ingredients.

One of the things she taught my mother to make (who then taught me) was heavenly over-indulgent cinnamon rolls.

Her recipe itself is not terribly unique - it’s a pretty standard enriched dough with a cinnamon sugar/butter filling. No extra spices or glaze.

But what makes Edna’s rolls special is the ratio of filling to dough.

We are not talking piddly bits of sugar and minute quantities of butter.

We are talking SUGAR and BUTTER in truly stunning amounts.

The first few times I tried my hand at these rolls I couldn’t believe the measurements in the recipe were correct so I cut the filling ingredients way back. In my defense, I was an inexperienced baker and I had also bought into the popular trend at the time of making baked goods “healthy” as possible.

Sugar was the devil and butter was her evil sidekick.

We were all busy slashing sweeteners and substituting applesauce for vegetable oil and avoiding trans fats like there was no tomorrow.

I’m not trying to rain on that parade. There are lots of great recipes out there if you want to try to scale back on your intake of sugar and increase your fiber and all that jazz.

But there’s some real science behind breads and rolls and pies and cakes made the traditional way. Fats in particular serve a purpose and greatly affect the bake.

Typically, when I hadn’t put in enough, what butter there was melted away and the sugar seemed to completely disappear.

After those first attempts proved disappointing, I went back to the recipe as originally handed down.

The truckload of sugar and butter made all the difference.

Instead of dry vaguely sweet hockey pucks, the result was luscious gooey caramelized heaven.

I hope you all get a chance to dial back from work and stress and spend some time making something incredibly indulgent for the holidays (if that’s the sort of thing that brings you joy).

And, if you have a favorite memory or recipe you would like to share with my readers, send me a message and I’ll put it in a future newsletter. If you just want to mention a recipe - but not give away your family baking secrets – that’s cool too!

Here’s to our favorite holiday bakes!!

Holiday Kitchen

This turns out to be a lot easier than you would think! I made it a while back actually using the aforementioned cinnamon roll recipe.

It’s just a question of rolling the dough out into 4 circles, stacking them on top of each other with filling sandwiched in between each layer, making 16 cuts with a pizza cutter and then twisting the dough. There are several good tutorials online if you google “star bread”.

Keep The Messages Coming!

A big “thank you” to all of you who have messaged me commented or hit “like” after reading my poems and commentary!

I appreciate the feedback and knowing how often I have struck a chord with your lives.

Anne The Passive Aggressive Poet

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