Whatever you like to call them, just make sure there good & fresh preferably.

I make cinnamon rolls freestyle.  That means I make the dough, a cinnamon sugar mix (just to clarify I like to use 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar and as much or little cinnamon as you like, no cinnamon creates caramel tasting rolls/buns), and melt some butter then just start making them!

This site from King Arthur Flour has good pictures and recipe for doing them at home, I do them in bulk, you know 300 or 400 at a time!

King Arthur Blog - Cinnamon Rolls

I don’t use flour to form, roll, or flatten the dough.  Just a little oil or no-stick spray on my hands.  Then I beat the dough down after it has risen double in size.  Smash it out (flatten it) with your hands until it resembles a rectangle.  Pour a little melted butter and squeegee it all around the rectangle then sprinkle your cinnamon & sugar mixture around on top of that.  Yes, it will be messy but who cares?  Its a cinnamon roll!!!

Roll it up and start cutting your cinnamon rolls out of it…making sure to roll them real tight but don’t worry about how much the mess on your hands is sticking to the dough.  That’s trivial.

If you want to be more precise (but why?  The dough is going to swell and rise again so who cares if the cinnamon roll is not perfectly round?) you can use thread or floss to slide under the log of rolled up dough then pull the strings together on top until it cuts everything between the circle of string.  (kind of like choking somebody from behind with rope on a scary movie except that you carry all the way thru with pulling the string till the formed cinnamon roll pops off the end of the log!).

They make them pretty close to the way I do, using a soft white bread dough recipe.  Where they use milk to spread on the dough for the cinnamon sugar mixture I use melted butter, makes it more caramel-y. (yeah, that’s not a real word)

Use parchment paper for easier clean-up in your pan, pyrex, or glassware.  Yes its available in your ‘home’ size at the grocery store along the same aisle as plastic wrap and foil.

Well here are pictures of the ones I make, hope they make you hungry and inspire you to try your own.  Quite buying those ones at the grocery store and get over your fear of yeast!

This chafing dish - 2.5″ steam table pan holds approximately 24 rolls, I made about 15 of these pans.  None came back.

As you can see there is good color on the cinnamon roll sides and easy cleanup with the parchment paper

Pull one out to reveal the soft bread and see the dough has cooked

You want to keep that thick rich creamy white look to your glaze?  Add in some cream cheese to your basic powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract recipe.

Another trick is to NOT glaze them but put pecans (or nuts of your choice) in the bottom of pan before putting cinnamon rolls in, then after baking flip them over on a plate or tray and have pecan covered sticky buns with the caramel tasting syrup running over the ‘bottom’ now turned top.

These are from scratch cinnamon rolls folks, please, please do not go trying to make a ‘diet’ or non-fat version of these or making them with wheat flour, there CINNAMON ROLLS for crying out loud!

*(actually besides the butter that adheres the cinnamon sugar mixture -which is also substituted by milk sometimes- and maybe a small amount of oil in the bread dough, there is no fat just loads of sugar in the icing!)

Focaccia (pronounced [foˈkatːʃa] foe-CAT-cha) is a flat oven-baked Italian bread, which may be topped with onions, herbs or other foodstuffs, related to pizza, but not considered to be the same. The word is derived from the Latin focus meaning “centre” and also “fireplace” — the fireplace being in the centre of the house — and this is a bread baked in the hearth. In English, it is sometimes redundantly referred to as focaccia bread.

It is typically rolled out or pressed by hand into a thick layer of dough and then baked in a stone-bottom or hearth oven. Bakers often puncture the bread with a knife to relieve bubbling on the surface of the bread. Also common is the practice of dotting the bread. This creates multiple wells in the bread by using a finger or the handle of a utensil to poke the unbaked dough. As a way to preserve moisture in the bread, olive oil is then spread over the dough, by hand or with a brush prior to rising and baking.

Focaccia can be used as a side to many meals, as a base for pizza or as sandwich bread.  (parts excerpted from Wiki-Pedia)

Here is my version used as a ’side’ bread (like Spaghetti Bolognese last Monday night on the ship) or making incredibly delicious sandwiches.

Some of you (friends, families, catering clients…) have tasted my focaccia before.

I mix herbs in the flour when making the dough.  What you see on top of the focaccia is a butter, extra virgin olive oil, herb and chopped garlic mixture that was applied before and once after baking in the oven.

I usually add the herbs and garlic to the butter and olive oil before heating everything together in a pot or in the microwave just to allow the ‘essence’ of the herbs and garlic to infuse into the butter and olive oil mixture.

Most common herbs I use for focaccia are:  Oregano, basil, rosemary.  But don’t limit yourself, a bit of tarragon or fresh thyme…the possibilities are endlessly delicious!

In West Africa…no airconditioning in the kitchen/galley. Mercy Ships, M/V Anastasis (ship)- Cotonou, Benin & Monrovia Liberia