Quick Cinnamon Rolls

I meant to post this a while back, but other things kept cropping up. I like cinnamon rolls, a lot, but every once in a while I get a serious craving for them that won't go away for weeks until I finally have some. Late one night, I just couldn't wait and I stopped off at the supermarket on my way home to pick up a roll of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I won't scare you with the information on the nutrition label, but I made a conscious decision to say, "What the heck, I need these rolls tonight."

However, I've been sitting on a recipe I copied from The Best Quick Recipe (from Cook's Illustrated). Can good cinnamon rolls be made in an hour's time? With Moocow up to visit a week ago, I finally had someone other than myself as taster. The recipe was simple and, as we had our dinner that night, the rolls were baking in the oven.

They came out almost picture perfect, and smelled just as cinnamon rolls should. However, I found that some of the dough in the middle, where it is in contact with the brown sugar and cinnamon filling, was still rather damp and had the flavour and aroma of uncooked dough. Not entirely pleasant, to my mind. Moocow and my roommate, however, didn't seem to find it as objectionable. From others, I've heard that some people like the dough a little undercooked.

Nevertheless, I am determined to see if I can improve on this attempt. Next time, I believe I will make the dough sheet a little thinner before I add the filling and roll it into a log (so that the layers are thinner). The recipe called for it to be baked at 425 F, which is kind of high. I'll lower the baking temperature to 400 F, and extend the baking time for 10-15 minutes, to see if I can get the inside to cook better before the outside is over-brown.

If I can get this recipe to work correctly, it would be great to have fresh cinnamon rolls in just over an hour. The best part is, I only used 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons) for the recipe, which makes 8 rolls. That means only 1 tablespoon of butter in each roll!! I've convinced myself that that's a paltry amount.