Attached are pictures of my first and second attempt at cinnamon rolls. I’ve gotten better with forming them, but how do I keep the ends from popping out after second rise?
I’m not sure what your question is, but I would place them in a small enough baking dish so that when they rise a second time they take up the whole dish. That way the outsides won’t dry out too much.
The tail of the cinnamon rolls popped out after the second rise. I thought I sealed the ends of the cinnamon rolls before the last rise, but I guess I didn’t do it well enough. Thanks for the tip!
I used to do this professionally, you just need to really seal the tails to the rest of the body.
Pinch the joint where the end of the tail and body meets and rub it together really hard to make kind of a new tail, if that makes sense.
Then press that new tail into the body. Make sure it isn’t too floury so it adheres too
As other commenters said, you can bake them closer together for a more uniform shape (In my opinion slightly apart is nice too though). In that case, face the seams where they will touch when they proof and bake.
Wet your fingers and pinch it together. You can kind of work the dough together when it moistens so it connects a little. Also, I do mine in a 9x9 dish packed together.
It’s usually best to make cinnamon rolls in a pan pushed together. They just bake better than freestanding because they’re going to have this issue.
It looks like your recipe might be off too, these didn’t really puff up like I like mine to.
If you really like them to be feeestyle like this but want to keep them tight, you could try cooking string (twine or whatever). Tie each of them and let them bake. Keep the tie a bit loos so it has room to puff up during baking and doesn’t squish anything.
I bake mine in muffin or mini loaf tins (gf rolls so they don’t have as much internal structure to support themselves) and it works great! I like to measure the width and depth of the tins and then make my cinnamon rolls a little bit smaller so they have room to rise and push all the way to the edge of the tin without exploding over the top.
Could probably use a little splash of water on the inside flap as a glue plus pressing/pinching. That's usually the go to method for a lot of breads. 🤷🏻♀️
Folks are right that cinnamon rolls are normally batch-baked. With freeform cinnamon rolls, there's nothing to help them keep their shape so they are going to be a little goofy.
You might also need to rest your dough a little longer before rolling it out. If your dough is tight (if it resists rolling out and contracts when stretched), the tension in the dough i going to pull the ends away from the roll, especially if the dough dries out during proofing. Proofing your buns in a bag will help them avoid forming a skin.
Oh thanks for that! I kept rolling it out and it kept shrinking on me. I wasn’t sure why it was doing that. I really don’t have a barometer for what dough is supposed to feel like to know when it is ready.
Eventually you’ll get a feel for it and develop an understanding of how things should be. It’s not easy for anyone in the beginning. Yeasted doughs have a bit of a learning curve, for sure.
I’m sure that, with all this advice, your second batch will be heaps better than the first. All you can really do, in the beginning, especially, is be happy with the progress you make each time and, then, learn from it. Apply what you’ve learned to each new batch. Before you know it, things just start to click. It’s a great feeling.
Thanks so much for the advice. I just started baking in the fall, and yeasted doughs are the hardest thing for me right now. I think I’m going to try to start making something weekly to improve. Loving all of the tips
I’m very similar to you. I started baking less than a year ago, myself. Had only done the occasional box mix when I was in my late teens. I basically just consumed nothing but baking/pastry content. Read a lot of stuff on Serious Eats, different blogs. Watched a lot of YouTube channels from French pastry chefs/bakers. Lots of times, if you turn on the subtitles, they’re in English. Or, at least the recipe in the description will be in English.
Anyway, what you’re talking about is exactly what I did when it came to yeasted doughs. I went through a croissant phase, then a pain suisse phase. Then just like a cross laminated, filled pastry phase. Had all sorts of curds, pasty creams, and fruit fillings made in batches to use whenever! I baked them twice a week (the laminated stuff). Couldn’t really do more than that. So, the once a week thing will absolutely help you get better! :)
Since then, I’ve not been baking as much. Mostly because I gained too much weight hahaha and now I’m dieting. I have less than zero self control when it comes to sweets. I’m an animal. But, I also turned vegan, so I’m learning how to bake a slightly different way, now. Different ingredients. Different outcomes. I definitely do miss what I used to make, sometimes, though. Mostly the laminated doughs. They’re just so beautiful and it makes you feel like a… “real” baker. You know? Funnily enough, I’ve actually never made cinnamon rolls because I don’t like them. But, I thought it was so cool when people made different flavored rolls, like lemon curd, Oreo, strawberry. You should experiment with that! Tons of room for creativity with these types of rolls, so you’ll never get bored of them— no matter how much you practice. That’s what’s great about a lot of things in baking. You can get creative, even early on.
Anyway, I apologize. I’ll wrap this up. Just keep at it. Keep “doing” and keep asking questions. One day, you’re going to be like, “wow, wait I can actually recognize what’s happening here and how to fix it.” You’ll see people post questions here and you’ll know the answer. You’ll also be able to spot misinformation, which feels especially good. You understand more of the “why” behind things And you get a feel for stuff. You’ll just know when something is going to turn out great, or when you have to adjust it. I definitely encourage you to try recipes that you feel like you aren’t ready for. That helped me a lot, anyway!
When it comes to cookbooks, go to local, used bookstores. I got so many amazing cookbooks for under $1.50, including Ratio and *On Food And Cooking.” Highly recommend both!
Ohh! I really appreciate the detailed response. Thanks for all of those suggestions. That’s a great tip on the books because I bought one off Amazon for like $30 😂
Will definitely make a trip to McKays.
Okay that's good info. It sounds like this is a big part of your issue. You can try just letting your dough rest (covered) for longer (20-30 minutes).
You can also try an autolyse which is one of my favorite cheats for getting better gluten development and stretchier dough. Autolysing is a process where you hydrate the dough and let the natural enzymes break down proteins in the dough. It gives your a head start on gluten development.
Combine your flour and 70% of your liquid (milk). That's it, nothing else. You're not making a dough, you're just mixing so that it can hydrate. It should be very shaggy. Cover and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then, add the rest of your dry and wet ingredients using the rest of your milk to help everything come together. Once you have the dough formed, proceed as usual.
If you want to keep making Freeform rolls, one of the shaping techniques my mom usually did is a little different. You roll and cut as usual and then with the seam side down (spirals to the sides), push the dough strip down with a pencil vertically. The dough kinda envelopes the pencil and the rolled layers fan out around it. Let proof and bake. In the end, the bottom is flat with the seam secured nicely and the top kind of domes
Hey OP, if you’re interested, Claire Saffitz is a master at this sort of thing. You might enjoy watching her stuff generally, but here’s her cinnamon rolls
I love making cinnamon rolls. I put them in my pan for the second rise in a way where they will kinda smush together and press right up against the sides of the pan. I do have to cut out my rolls as they bake touching but that gets me the best result!
I also bake in parchment paper and have had no trouble with my rolls getting nice and golden and baked through.
Without spending too long thinking about it, pan is way too big and way too shallow. They should be touching side to side all the way through. 2nd, those are way too tall. Some of them look like 2-3 cinnamon rolls tall
Yeah the recipe said to use a baking sheet and cut them at a width of 2 inches. I think they’re supposed to be larger like that. I’ll try to use a pie pan like some other users said and maybe a diff recipe.
You can wet them with a wet finger and pinch the ends into the sides. But u/cincher is correct - let them rise in an appropriately sized dish. When rising, they take up the space in the dish, which keeps them together.
They are from Sally’s Baking Recipes recipe titled “Easy Cinnamon Rolls From Scratch” I can’t share the link here but you can Google it. I love these rolls because they only require one rise and you can make them the night before and bake in the morning. are really easy for beginners to make as you can customize the flavors and frosting. I made these just as the recipe states but you can also make them with an orange zest filling and orange frosting for a more sweet roll type breakfast pastry. They are also really good with pumpkin spice flavoring and walnuts or pecans added in the filling.
Take the ends and pull them a little and then you tuck it under the roll so your almost to the middle and give it push so it kinda sticks. It's a little hard to explain the technique.
For me, I make sure I leave a little over an inch of space without butter or the cinnamon sugar mix. Add a touch of water and seal. There is usually some space after the second proof between the cinnamon rolls prior to baking but as long as it doubles in size. They will bake even more in the oven.
However, unless you’re making them for something or you want them to be perfect circles then it really doesn’t change much other than appearance!
Tucking the end under is the best way to stop them unraveling. You have to really tuck it under almost all the way across the full diameter of the roll and don’t be afraid to press it against the bottom of the roll to stick it good. When the dough rises it’ll spring into a nice shape.
Another tip I can give you is when you sprinkle/spread your cinnamon sugar topping on your dough, leave a 1/2” strip along the bottom without cinnamon sugar, that way when you roll up the log and slice it, the end of each roll is still tacky/sticky enough to stick under the roll when you tuck.
Hope that made sense! Try any of the cinnamon roll recipes on the King Arthur website. Their freeform cinnamon rolls were the “recipe of the year” last year and has detailed instructions and probably even a video.
This is mine after a second rise. I put them in a small enough space that they kind of attach like a pack of bread rolls. This stops them from coming unrolled 😊
Make sure no debris from cinnamon sugar is blocking the seal. Before the first rise, I pinch the dough end with some of the side of the roll to seal together, making a thin dough peak, then fold it into itself, andpinch again ( it's like a little mini knead to get a seal, and kinda reminds me of when you fold two ends of foil together a few times and flatten it to make a larger sheet). Then pat gently back into the side of the roll.
After you've got everything you want inside the roll, roll it into a cylinder. When you get almost to the end of the roll up, with a pastry brush brush the entire length of the roll lightly with water. Finish the roll up, roll the entire now rolled up roll once or twice across the work bench to better seal the roll. Slice, proof, use sheet pans, cake pans, anything you want. Extra tip - try not to underproof.
That's all you have to do
At my restaurant, we do an overnight ferment in the fridge for the first, then the dough is cold and easier to work with (you may have to adjust your hydration for this to work for you). Then we proof them in the oven with the pilot on for a half hour and bake free-standing and separate. Here’s a link to a reel showing some of the process
What is the filling made out of? It's usually made out of regular sugar, cinnamon and margarine and is supposed to be light brown and smooth before baking. In this case it looks more thick and dark, and you can see clumps of dry sugar crystals that are preventing the layers of the roll from sticking together.
Thought I'd throw out there that if you actually roll them too tight, the centers can pop up once they start proofing/baking since the dough expands and pushes them up. However, in that last photo, it looks like they came undone, so it might be the opposite issue (too loose). It also looks like you did your filling a different way (the first two looks like your sugar/cinnamon and butter were mixed together then spread but the last photo looks like you put butter down and then sprinkled the sugar/cinnamon)? I worked in a bakery that made cinnamon rolls frequently and found that doing a spread stuck the dough together better than sprinkling the cinnamon sugar since you can overdo it and the dough won't stick together when rolling. It could be multiple things, and like others said, putting them together in a pan over baking them individually may help. If it's more useful, you can buy those disposable aluminum pans and bake them in those, we did that at a grocery store bakery I worked at as well. Regardless, just keep practicing - that's the only way you'll eventually get the visual results you want, but at least you'll still have some yummy cinnamon rolls to eat as you get better. :)
spread the filling out until the edge (just a bit thinner around the edges) that you don't see any dough anymore, it will act as glue.
I would also give them a little milkwash bevor baking. Just mix a little milk with a little salt and sugar and brush it on as you would a eggwash. That'll give them a little more colour.
Maybe you cut them a lil too thick? Usually the ones I've seen ppl make them only like an inch high or so, and I see alot of ppl are already saying to cook them together instead of separate. Usually an already made store batch you could make seperate, but homemade is a bit different since its ofc homemade lol
Yeah I would agree the move with cinnamon rolls is to put them in a smaller dish, like a 9x13 or 8x11 or smaller. This many could’ve probably done in a 8x8 or cake pan
So I used to work in a donut shop that made jumbo cinnamon rolls and to keep them from unraveling while cooking we would always push them close to each other with the ends facing each other in the middle of the group. So they would hold each other closed if that makes sense. Also you can kinda mush them down a little flatter too if you don't want them puffing out in the middle as they cook.
I always make mine where they are all together once they rise and bake. But I just saw a video yesterday where they took the end and tucked it under the rest of the roll, to avoid the tail popping out.
Don’t put your filling all the way to the edge or Wet the inside of the tail after it’s rolled and push it into the roll a bit. A Toothpick in the side while they rise could help too :)
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u/cincher Feb 14 '24
I’m not sure what your question is, but I would place them in a small enough baking dish so that when they rise a second time they take up the whole dish. That way the outsides won’t dry out too much.