Another Bread Wheel?

After my last post you might think I would be avoiding circular breads for a while, but I decided to go for overkill with this 'wheels within wheels' bread instead

Risen and Ready for the Oven 

 It's a Scandinavian Classic, A Boston Cake - 7 Cinnamon Rolls in one.

A Boston Cake

 First you make a Swiss roll with a sweet dough and a cinnamon butter filling.  Then cut it into slices and arrange as below:

The Starting Point

 After proving and baking you can tear the rolls off one by one: The original 'Tear and Share'.  But there is an advantage in that the closely packed rolls in a circular tin force the rise to go up rather than out. Also the close packing means that the rolls don't unwind when they bake. The offset is that you get less crust.

The Crumb Shot

 So here's what they turn out like if you bake them on their own:

Singletons

(You can see the tendency to unwind)

By the way these are different from the buns I made previously (Pain Aux Raisins ala Joe Ortiz) as they are made to a traditional Norwegian recipe (Signe Johansen's) with a cardamon flavoured sweet bread dough and no dried fruit. The only adaptation I made was to add a sugar glaze - which was a bit of a liberty as there was already a sprinkling of demerara sugar on them.

Had a bit of a bread kick this weekend (breadsticks, ciabatta and wholemeal multiseed bread), but also did battle with the weeds at the allotment for a couple of hours in the intermittent rain).   What else are weekends for?

Cinnamon Swirls - Take Two

I promised to make these again over Christmas:

I learnt from my first attempt a couple of weeks ago,  and this time went the whole hog with the fondant icing:

A real festive treat..

I think we have another annual tradition!

A Bread a Day Week, Day Three - Cinnamon Buns

A sweet dough is a novelty for me, but the sticky dough made photography rather difficult.  So there are only  pictures of the finished product:

This is a previously untried recipe from Joe Ortiz's "The Village Baker",  a book I've had for many years, and learnt to rely on. There are still some recipes I've never tried, like this one.

My execution was not really very good but the camera is forgiving, and so were the family who scoffed the lot.

The principle is that you roll out a sweet dough, wash with an egg wash, spread with a currant, sugar and cinnamon mixture and then roll  up like a Swiss roll.  Slice into discs with a (very) sharp knife and flatten each disc with the palm of your hand before rising and then glazing with a vanilla flavoured sugar syrup. You are supposed to drizzle with a fondant icing, but this was a a step too far given my rudimentary buns.

The family verdict: "Can you make these again for Christmas, Dad?" A winner. I will... and presentationaly  I will make a better job of them too.