Weekend Cooking: Cinnamon Scrolls

Well I guess the news is out!! I am super excited to be the new host of Weekend Cooking from next week. This weekly event is the one thing that kept me blogging during a period where I was reading very little. I am therefore excited to be continuing what Beth Fish started so many years ago. I hope that you will continue to join in each week, although I am not sure I can live up to the lofty standards that she set for so long.

Next week I will have the Mr Linky set up ready for you to all add your links.

Can I ask a huge favour....If there is anyone out there who has skills with making graphics/buttons and you would be willing to make a new Weekend Cooking button I would be super grateful. Email me at ozdiamondlil at gmail dot com if you have the skills and/or the inclination.

Now for this week's scheduled post.

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was tempted into re-reading Poison Study by Maria V Snyder.  I am not a big re-reader at the best of times, but it was so nice to revisit this book after nearly 14 years, and it is really great to see that it held up really nicely.  After all those years, it was almost like reading it for the first time, except for the fact that I already knew that I had a predisposition to like it.

In Ixia if you are found guilty of murder, there is only one punishment - death. Yelena has been languishing in the prison for a year when it finally came to be her turn to die. So it is a surprise when she is offered a choice. She can accept her fate and die at the executioners hand or she can become the official food taster to the Commander, a person who is often the target of assassins and it means that she could die at any time, from any bite of food. There is a catch though. Vale, the Commander's chief assassin and spy, is her boss and in order to keep her from escaping he has administered a fatal poison. The only way to stay alive is to receive the antidote from Valek each day.

Yelena chooses life, and begins her life in the castle, studying poisons so that she can identify them. However, the man that Yelena killed was not just any man. He was the only son of General Brazell, and he wants her dead. In her daily life she has to learn who to trust and who not to trust. High on the list of people not to trust - Valek!

As she finds her feet in this new world, she makes friends and in turn they begin to bring her joy and depth to her life. She begins training with Janco and Ari, learning new skills which will stand her in good stead as her role becomes ever more dangerous. But it isn't only her former enemies that she has to beware of. For some reason a powerful magician from the southern land of Sitia seems determined to reach Yelena. Magic has long been outlawed in Ixia and anyone who is suspected of having any magical abilities is removed immediately.

Valek is the Commander's most trusted man, the keeper of the secrets of the kingdom. He is a master swordsman, chameleon like in his abilities to blend in with the crowds around him. He is also fascinated by Yelena, her ability to survive and surprise, her stubborness, curiosity and her talents.

Together, can they keep the Commander safe and help protect the future of Ixia.

This is such a good book. It does have some dark subject matters, there is a touch of romance, there is magic, there is fun, there is danger. I am definitely intending to read the second book in the series. I have read it before but that was as far as I got. There is still a long way for the story to go in the next 8 books in the series.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with Weekend Cooking or Cinnamon Scrolls. I am getting to it I promise.

I have mentioned the Queen Baking Club a few times too, and it seems that one of the go to bakes that everyone has been posting during this period of social isolation is cinnamon scrolls. I can't tell you how many people have made a version of them. And now I have been tempted into trying them myself.

There are lots of inferences of food without necessarily being specific about what is being eaten. After all Yelena is a the food taster to the Commander. Her very job is to taste the food of the Commander to ensure that it hasn't been poisoned. However, the food that brings Yelena joy is that which is prepared for her by the cook, Rand.

I barely noticed when the medic came to check on my arm. She must have taken the tray of teacups, because it disappeared from my lap. I had blocked out all the noise and commotion of the infirmary so that I jumped when a plate containing a round pastry was thrust under my nose.
The arm that held the plate led to Rand. His grin was gleeful.
"Look what I smuggled past Medic Mummy! Go ahead. Eat before she comes back."
The warm dessert smelled like cinnamon. Melted white icing dripped down the sides, causing the cake to stick to my fingers when I picked it up. I examined the pastry closely, inhaling the aroma in search of a foreign smell. One small bite revealed multiple layers of dough and cinnamon.
"My God, Yelena, you don't think I'd poison it?" Rand's face was pinched tight, as  if he was in pain.
Exactly what I'd been thinking, but admitting it to Rand would offend him. His motives for being here were unclear. Seeming nice and friendly, he could be holding a grudge over his friend Oscove, the previous food taster. But then again, he was a potential ally. Who better to have on my side? Rand, the cook, whose food I'd be eating on a daily basis, or Valek, the assassin, how had a nasty tendency of poisoning my meals?
"Occupational hazard," I tried.
He grunted, still put out. I took a big bite of the pastry.
"Wonderful," I said, appealing to his ego to give me another chance.
Rand's face  softened. "Good, isn't it? My latest recipe. I take a long strip of pastry dough, cover it with cinnamon, roll it up into a ball, bake it, and then spread the icing on while it's hot. I'm having some trouble with the name though. Cinnamon cake? Ball? Swirl?" Rand stopped his rambling to find a chair. After quite a bit of twisting to compensate for his unbending left leg, he finally settled into a comfortable position.
While I finished the pastry, Rand continued. "Don't tell Medic Mommy I gave you that. She doesn't like her patients eating anything but a thin gruel. She saays the gruel promotes healing. Well, of course it has an effect!" He threw his arms up, exposing several burn scars around his wrists. "It tastes so terrible that anyone would get better just to get a decent meal!"

Whilst this recipe mentioned above isn't exactly the same as the one that I ended up trying, the mention of it in the book did have me searching for a recipe to make something similar. The recipe below is one that I tried. On the Queen website (where I find so many of my recipes) it is billed as a birthday scroll (hence the sprinkles!). I should mention that I neglected to add the brown sugar into the filling. Still tasted good but!

No Knead 1 hour Cinnamon Birthday Rolls

Dough
1/3 cup (80ml) water, warm, not hot
2 ¼ tsp instant dried yeast (see note)
1 tsp sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup (250ml) milk, lukewarm
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
80g butter unsalted, melted, cooled slightly
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
4 cups (600g) plain flour, sifted
1 tsp salt

Cinnamon Filling
120g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup (220g) brown sugar, packed

Cream Cheese Icing
125g cream cheese, room temperature
50g butter, room temperature
1 cup (150g) icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
Confetti Sprinkles


Dough

In a medium size bowl, mix together water, instant yeast and sugar. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, milk, sugar, melted butter and Vanilla Bean Paste to yeast mixture, whisking until well combined.

In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until dough is thick and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170°C (fan forced). Generously grease a 23cm x 33cm baking tin with butter. Roll dough out on a well-floured surface into a rectangle, approximately 40cm x 30cm

Cinnamon Filling

Mix together softened butter and Cinnamon Baking Paste and spread over entire surface of dough. Sprinkle over brown sugar.

Starting from long edge furthest away, roll dough towards you into a log. Cut dough into 12 slices with a serrated knife or with dental floss: gently slide dental floss under the rolled dough, cross over the ends then pull outward, slicing the dough. Place rolls into prepared tray 2cm apart and allow to rest for another 10 minutes, before baking for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cream Cheese Icing

While rolls are baking, prepare icing. Beat cream cheese butter and Vanilla Bean Paste in a mixing bowl and mix until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Cover with cream cheese icing while rolls are still warm, then sprinkle with confetti sprinkles.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.