knick knack paddy wacks

  

(Picture of a pack rat in a kayak)

   Seth and Arron just pulled out of our  driveway with two canary yellow 10 ft  Old Town  kayaks strapped in the back of their white  Pickup. 

    They were happy.

    I was happy.

      Even the dog was happy.

     We crossed paths  via Craigslist.

      My wife was questioning the wisdom of  my  original purchase after Seth and Aaron left  so  I patiently  showed  her just how good a deal everyone had gotten. 

      I’d purchased the pair  for  just under  $1000.00  on line.   ( The suggested retail was   $569 each)  I can still remember the rush  of  watching that  semi trailer pull  next to  our driveway and drop  those two large boxes off.

    Over the next two years  I would feel a wave of pleasure and satisfaction  every time I looked at them. 

      Last September, Kristina  (a fellow blogger) and family came to visit for an extended weekend,  we decided to float the river.  We ended up hiring a canoe outfitter to shuttle us-   our 2 kayak stayed at home.  

         In the two years  we’ve owned them , they have only been on the water once.

        A few weeks ago I suggested to my dear patient   wife  over coffee maybe we could/should consider unloading them on Craigslist. 

      I listed them  for $850.00. 

      Got  three  calls, two e-mails- no body seemed  interested in paying more than $600 for the pair- and I’m quoting 

 ”cause you can buy a new  kayak for $250.00“

     Yea, I’m thinking but these are not  “cheap” kayaks- these are LOONS- brother-  

    

      Night before last, Seth called and by the end of the conversation  had offered me $700.00.

      Sold!

      I can just hear someone say\  “You mean to tell me you lost over $300.00 ,  used them once,  and  you still think  you got a good deal???” 

    Take $300.00 , divide that by 24 months, that comes out to $12.50 a month.  What else can you do for $12.50 a month that  gives you that much enjoyment?  Been out for dinner or to a movie lately?   You can spend $5.00 on a little tub of buttered popcorn.

           A  much  wiser man than me once said, “The eyes of man are never satisfied.” 

       Why are  we attracted to “stuff’?”

       I believe it’s a universal problem.  You may not like  the same sort of stuff  your neighbor does  but I’m willing to bet if  I were to  look  long enough, I could find something you have a weakness for.

    Friend of mine who was an investment counselor once said to me, most people who make a lot of money spend it just as fast as they make it.   Whereas, you and I of modest means  might collect  Hummels, antiques or shoes, the wealthy  just collect bigger toys. 

     There is a man who lives about 30 minutes from us that collects train paraphernalia , I’m talking  real train stuff.  He  has a caboose and two train cars in his back yard and probably 20 smaller  rigs in his driveway. 

         Two weeks ago, our town had  it’s semi-annual clean up days….you know, you dung out your basement and put the pile on the curb.   One man’s junk is another man’s treasure right?   We were putting in a new driveway for someone  that week and I spotted my next door neighbor rooting through a pile just up the street.  I had two thoughts…Oh-oh…if his wife only knew..she hates it when he drags stuff home.  and secondly,   I wonder if he knows I spotted him.

    So what do you think?      Is it really a universal problem?  What  is you drawn to?    Are you a saver or a pitcher?     

 As always, thanks for reading my stuff! DM

31 years on the anvil of life

       I looked @ my wife Wednesday  as we sat in  bed sipping on our morning coffee  and said-  ”Can you believe  it was thirty-one years ago today we were married?”

      We spent some time reflecting on some of the stuff we’d been through,  It has not been a smooth ride.

        It started on our honey moon.  She got her period on day 2.

 Day three wife says to me-  “I need some time alone.” 

  Say what????  

     I can still remember those stupid little ducks running around the lakeside cottages near Hot Springs Ark.   Duck crap on the ground, wife wanting to be by herself- not exactly my idea of the perfect honeymoon

     Six month  later,   wife is in the  midst of daily  vomiting.   She had it bad.    This pattern would repeat itself  every time she became pregnant.

      I said to her Wednesday -  “How in the world did you do it with 4 little ones?????!!!”  

   She said,”  When I was pregnant with  JD , I would have to take Pinky (who was a toddler) into the bathroom with me  so I could keep an eye on her when I felt sick.”

    I (DM)  remember  feeling overwhelmed with the added expense of  diapers, baby formula,  medical bills.    I  had no idea  what  my wife’s days were like.

       The 3rd year of marriage we moved next door to the County Care Facility-  It was home not only to the elderly but  people with  issues.  Dave wasn’t mentally retarded so I figured all he needed was a little encouragement.   I would invite him over Monday nights to talk.     We would sit around our little kitchen table,  drinking  chocolate milk, trying to get to the bottom of Dave’s problems while my two young daughters flitted in and out of the kitchen. This went on for 2 years. 

There was never any change in his life.  

     I came home from work one day.   My wife looked at me  and said, “Dave came over uninvited today.”-

      Not good. 

    I went over to the care facility and chewed him out.  He knew he wasn’t supposed to be coming over unannounced.  The more time I had spent with him, the more convinced I was  there were things going on in his life that were beyond me.   Come to find out later, he  got in trouble with the law doing some inappropriate stuff with young boys….hummm

   As our kids hit the teen years, that’s when it really   hit the fan.  Cindy  ran away when she was 14.     Our third daughter  battled a  mysterious medical issue  for a year  before the Dr diagnosed it as panic attacks.

     I remember standing in the Dr’s office during this season of our lives   feeling like an elephant was stepping on my chest.  It was stress.  A couple of years later, one of the girls was sexually assaulted.    I can still remember taking her to the emergency room and making a  statement to  the police.   I  wanted  to find the young man  and break both of his legs.   I didn’t want to kill him-  just get his attention.   

    I recently told a friend who is an atheist  “Christians are far from perfect. If you  ever run  into  one  that claims to be, stay as far away from him as you can  because he is  lying.”

     Too often, people of faith are guilty of  portraying their lives as one big success story.   They mistakenly believe that to allow others to see them struggle will somehow  lessen their credibility, when in reality I believe the opposite is true. 

     We have a dear friend who recently lost her husband of 35 years.  She  and her husband have been the  couple  we’ve turned to  when we’ve needed some help working through an issue.  She told us  she had been  invited to get together recently with 5 other widows-   she  came away from their conversations  very frustrated.   All they wanted to talk  about was the positive.  What  she longed for was have someone ask her how she was  really doing.  She asked one of the women a pointed question about her own grief and  she didn’t know what to say.     

      Here’s a toast to living life more authentically.

    I have to tell you one last story. 

     A few years ago,  we became friends with a single mom.  Things started out great.  She added a whole new dimension to our lives.  Then things started to get wierd…that’s all I’ll say about it except for this:      That relationship brought more stress into our lives than the other 25 years combined.

     My wife said to me Wednesday  my eyes still twinkle when I look at her.  I would have to say the same about her.

      I just finished reading the rough draft of this to my wife and here’s  what she said:  “That is just some of the ”stuff”  and secondly-  You did want to kill him- “

    As always, thanks for reading my stuff.  DM

   

Making Love

      

 One of the wisest men I know, Alexander Papaderos, is the director of the Orthodox Academy of Crete.  Unfortunately for me, he lives ten time zones and thousands of miles away from Seattle.  Even when we are together, we are separated by the subtleties of language.  His English is far better than my Greek, but we are both seriously limited by lack of common cultural experience.  We get by in English on most mundane topics, but when we reach for deeper understandings, we must be careful, lest we assume we are communicating when in fact we are not.

      As 1992 became 1993, we spent the New Year holidays together.  For all the romantic images a summer trip to Greece may suggest, the island of Crete in winter is a cold, windy place.  A time to sit indoors by an olive-wood fire, drink raki and retsina, eat prok sausage with fresh bread soaked in new-pressed olive oil, and talk late into the night of weighty matters.

      One evening we spoke of marriage.

       In Crete the custom of arranged marriage continues.  Even when a marriage is not initiated by a family, the wisdom of family experience is brought to bear in a way Americans would find anachronistic.

     The Cretans think romance is nice enough when it happens, but it is not a particularly good basis for marriage.

      Papaderos had stumbled over a concept he had found in Western literature. “Making love.”  It confused him.  “What is this making love?”

       I explained it was a popular euphemism for having sex- going to bed…whether married or not.

    He replied that for Cretans, “making love,” is a serious notion summarizing the process of marriage and family.  When two families agree that a son and a daughter would suit one another, it is expected that over time the man and woman will work at becoming compatible partners in the same spirit one might work at achieving competence in a life’s vocation.  This is making love.

      Time and experience mistakes and difficulties- are all part of the equation whose sum is a lasting relationship.  Love is not something you fall into.  Love and marriage are “made.”

    Thus in Cretan terms, when a married couple have been overheard arguing or fighting, the Cretans smile knowingly and say, “Ah, they are making love.”

      During this same winter trip, Papaderos took my wife and me along as guests in the home of a Greek family on New Year’s Day.  Though I hate to admit it, I am a closet football fan, and this was the first time in memory I could not be spending the day watching representatives of American universities struggle to resolve the great human crisis of who is Number One.  Nor would I be in touch with the professional- football run-up to the Super Bowl.  I was vaguely anxious.

     My youth and early manhood were permanently affected by Vince Lombardi, the coach of the legendary Green Bay Packers football team.  Lombardi was about winning,  Fair and square and by the rules- but winning.  Winners worked harder and smarter.  Winners were never wimps- when knocked down, they got up again.  Winners played tough in the face of adversity, injury, and pain.  Winners played hurt.

     These thoughts floated in my mind as I coped with the unfamiliar traditions of a Cretan New Year meal.  The old customs of the mountain villages prevailed.  Instead of the Anglo-American whole roasted pig with an apple in its mouth, the Cretans celebrate with boiled sheeps’ heads.  Yes.

      Skinned, simmered, and served with eyeballs intact, the head is split, and the brains are scooped out with a spoon.  The tongues are sliced and eaten like Pate.  The delicacies are savored by the grandparents and other senior members of the family, but not by the younger generation of Greeks.

      I watched the grandmother as she ate.

      Eighy-eight years old.  Blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and shriveled by time and a hard life.  She helped herself to each dish as it passed her way.  She ate carefully, thoughtfully, and with undisguised pleasure.

     I knew that she had survived mountain life, two world wars, the Greek civil war, and the repressions of the Dictatorship of the Colonels in the 1970′s.  Her husband was taken into the army.  She did not hear from him for almost seven years.  Her village was leveled by the Nazis, and she was imprisoned and beaten.  For two years she had lived in caves, eating roots and rabbits to stay alive.  No home, no job, no income, no medical care or insurance, no retirement plan or Social Security.  She had lived without electricity, running water, even without fire at times in her life.

      At the end of the meal, she challenged the “children” at the other end of the table to a singing contest.  The “children” were men and women of middle age- her nieces and nephews, cousins, and in-laws.  She and her equally ancient husband began the keening drone of a Cretan mountain song.  It worked like this:  The challenger makes up a four-line rhyming verse, then everyone sings the common chorus, then someone from the opposing team makes up a four-line verse responding to the verse of the challenger, and again the chorus, and so on.  It’s a can-you-top this contest in song.  Extemporaneously and fast, it ends when one team or another cannot come up with the verse without missing a beat.  Not easy.

      The old lady sang her opponents into exhaustion.  She literally left them speechless.  Her last verse contained a hope that this coming year would be even better than the last, and who knows, if the rest of them lived as well as she, they might be able to keep up with her in a singing contest, though she doubted it.  They doubted it too. And so did I.

      Never mind the bowl games.  This New Year’s Day I had seen a winner.

     If Lombardi had a backfield with her kind of stuff, the Green Bay Packers would still be winning. The lady was a champ.  A winner of a lifetime contest.  She had faithfully played her part despite injuries and sorrows. 

     She played hurt- every day of her life.

     Football is only a game.

      When the dinner was over, the old lady went into the kitchen insisting on helping with the dishes.  She came to the kitchen door with a bag of garbage and barked at her husband of sixty years.  He groaned up out of his chair to do his duty, and she barked at him some more and he groaned back some more.

      “What’s going on?” I asked Papaderos.

      “It seems her husband did not eat all of his salad and was singing off-key,” he explained.  “They are still making love- it takes forever.”

__________________________________________________________

That story is taken  from Robert Fulghum’s book  Maybe (Maybe Not)  If you would have stopped by our house tonight, you would have found us sitting in  our  cream colored comfortable stuffed chairs reading to each other from this book.  I would have invited you to pull up a chair and  join us.      G-nite.   DM

So You Want to be Famous

      I will give the first person who recognizes this man $10.00  cold hard cash.    This is not a gimmick.  If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know I’ll do it.

     Ever since I came across his picture this past Sunday my mind has been pondering  the human  tendency to want to be noticed, and be recognized .

     We may not do this consciously but deep down,  I don’t think I”m the only one who wants to  leave my mark.

   The more I’ve thought about this the more stupid the whole thing becomes. 

      How many of you know much about your great-great grandfather on your  mothers side?  Could you even tell me his name?  What kind of person was he like?  Where did he live?  What were his interests?  Was he happily married?  Was he a good man?  Unless, you’re one of the few people who are interested in geneology, I’m willing to bet you can’t answer  those questions.

    In another 100 years- how many people  are going to remember who you were?  And even if someone does come across your name, how much time do you think they’re going to spend pondering your life?- Not very much.

      Let’s look at this another way-  Couple of times a year, my wife and I will stroll through our local cemetary  we live in a town of about 3600 population. The tombstones that you can read with any clarity go back to the mid/ late 1800′s.  Many of the early city fathers are buried there-  Fallwell, George, Carpenter-  these were the guys with the money to have large family monuments errected.  I’ve lived here most of my life, and I could tell you very little about any of them- and have no intention of digging any deeper into any of their lives…and the last time I checked, there was no big push to do anything more to enshrine their memory either.  Give it another 100 or 200 years  if the Good Lord doesn’t come back before then and there’s a good chance you’ll no longer be able to even read their grave stones.

    So why do we want to be noticed, acknowledged, and remembered in this life?  Who is really going to think much about us other than our immediate family-  and once that generation is gone,  then the odds are pretty good that Nobody is going to think about you ever again-  nobody.

    Even the people today who  are  ”famous”- In another 100 yrs and nobody will remember most of  them either.

      It’s a big smoke and mirrors game- that is, if your goal is to leave a mark this side of eternity-  Now, if you want to talk about leaving a mark on the other side of eternity- that’s a whole different story.  I believe it is possible to  do things in this life that will follow me  into eternity- and I’m not talking about being surrounded by 70 virgins-    But that’s a bunny trail for another day…..

     So as I’ve pondered the life of the man whose picture I started this post  with,  he’s been teaching me a life truth by his very obscurity.  Don’t waste my time trying to be noticed, or famous – it’s an illusion.

     The more this truth trickles down into the soil of my soul the more profoundly it strikes me.

Into The Woods

     “Did you know there is an old abandoned apple orchard back in the timber just west of your parents?    I bet there are at least 20 to 25 trees.”

        My buddy Jim   told me about this orchard last Summer.  My first thought was-  why in the world would I want to mess with more apple trees-  We  already have  100  of them on our acreage, which is more than  enough to keep me entertained.   ;-)

     My curiosity got the best of me last Fall however and I decided to stop-  to see what I could see.  And what I discovered got me excited. 

       There in the middle of a timber was an old orchard filled with heirloom trees- apple varieties  I have never seen before.

    One of them especially caught my eye- White, firm and sweet. .

       That discovery set in motion my latest project- grafting

 I marked the tree the white apples were  on and made a mental note to come back this  February.

   I’d attended a grafting workshop last April and  knew I needed to find some new growth if I wanted a successful graft.  The first step is harvesting the young branches at pruning time while the tree is dormant.

    You’ve probably seen those apple trees you can buy with 6 different varieties of apple on the same tree- here’s how that works-  it’s not the root of the tree that determines the variety of apple, but the branch.  

     So I pruned 20  small watershoot branches off this antique  tree this past February, wrapped them in a wet paper towel- tucked  them in the walk in cooler   I ordered some  semi dwarf  (EMLA7 ) rootstock off the Internet and will do the actual grafting this week.

     There are a couple of important tips to this type of graft-

#1  make sure the very outer layer of the branch and rootstock line up-  The life of root flows into the branch through this layer.

#2 make sure the joint is completely sealed. 

      I had  a profound spiritual insight as I’ve learned about grafting-  In many ways, you and I are like the different varieties of apple trees in my orchard.  We are not alike- the attributes of our Braeburn trees (see picture below):

are different from our  Suncrisp: (See picture below)

     Both of these trees are attached to the same rootstock (Semi-dwarf- also known as EMLA 7)   and yet, the color of the fruit, the time of year they mature, whether they make a better eat or cooking apple, on and on…that is determined by the branch not the root.

        So too, as individuals,  you and I  have different gifts, different interests, different personalities and yet, in order for us to have a fruitful, abundant life, we need to have a firm spiritual connection to our creator.   This union does not take away my individuality.

     Why are we so afraid to be different from the pack ? 

     And in terms of fruitfulness, apple trees go through various seasons-  they need those times of dormancy  to recharge for the next seasons crop.  Just because the branches don’t have any leaves on them – let alone apples, doesn’t mean the tree isn’t alive-  it is very much alive.  I could go on..but don’t want this to sound like a sermon   if you’ve read this far- I’m impressed.  your friend DM

Cinnabon® Cinnamon Rolls Clone Recipe

For something  completely different- Here is the Gordon family “Cinnabon® Cinnamon Rolls Clone Recipe“  DM

Cinnabon® Cinnamon Rolls Clone Recipe

Recipe By: Ron and Shallen Gordon
Serving Size: 15 Rolls
Preparation Time: 3 to 4 Hours
Categories: Baking, Bread, Muffins, Rolls, Sticky-buns

We’ve worked very hard over the past several years to develop an accurate clone or copycat recipe that you can prepare at home for Cinnabon® Cinnamon Rolls. The recipe below is not their recipe, but one we’ve engineered through extensive research, careful tests, and much experimentation. We’ve improved upon our earlier recipe and after many test batches, we’re convinced that this revised copycat recipe will enable you to recreate that wonderful taste!

You may wish to visit their website, The Cinnabon Experience, and review their wonderful presentation, The Cinnabon Story. There’s some interesting information at their site, but alas, no recipe since the actual recipe is proprietary. Although several other Web sites claim to have the real recipe, we hope that you’ll find that the one presented here provides the most accurate taste and appearance. We’ve made every effort to closely reproduce their results and clone that great cinnamon roll flavor! Judging from the many letters we’ve received from readers around the world who have used our recipe and achieved great results, we’ve evidently succeeded!

This recipe has been sized so that the dough may be prepared using a large capacity (2 pound) bread machine.

Dough

Amount Measure Ingredient and Preparation Method
1/4 Cup Water (2 oz)
1 Cup Whole Milk (8 oz)
1/2 Cup Butter, unsalted sweet cream, melted (0.25 lb, i.e. 1 stick)
1 1/4 Ea Egg, Large Grade AA, well beaten or 1 extra large egg
1 Tsp Vanilla Flavor (preferably alcohol free)
1/2 Tsp Salt (0.0075 lb)
1/2 Cup Sugar, preferably Superfine Granulated (0.224 lb)
4 1/2 Cup Unbleached White Bread Flour (1 1/4 lb)
1 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten (0.021 lb)
1/4 Oz SAF Perfect Rise® Gourmet Yeast (1 envelope, 7 g)(Kroger or HEB)

Remove a large egg from the refrigerator and permit it to reach room temperature. Gently melt the butter. Add the water and whole milk. The resulting liquid mixture should be permitted to cool so that it is between 75°F and 85°F before proceeding further. Then add the remaining ingredients, in the order listed above, to the bread machine and prepare using the dough setting. (Follow your bread machine instructions for dough preparation.)

To help you achieve the very best results, see also our additional notes on ingredients and preparation.

Filling

Amount Measure Ingredient and Preparation Method
1 Cup Light Brown Sugar, firmly packed (0.4255 lb)
5 Tbsp Cinnamon, Korintje Grade AA (0.0745 lb)
½ Cup Margarine (0.25 lb, i.e. 1 stick)

Remove the margarine from the refrigerator once you’ve started the dough cycle and allow it to reach room temperature. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon.

After the dough cycle has completed, roll and stretch the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 15″ by 24″ rectangle.

Mark off 1″ along the 24″ edge of the dough, closest to you. You will not spread any margarine or sugar-cinnamon mixture on this edge so that you can seal the roll. Spread the softened margarine over the dough with a rubber spatula and then evenly distribute the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Be careful to leave your 1″ edge clean. As a final step, use your rolling pin to lightly roll the sugar and cinnamon mixture.
 
Starting at the far edge of the dough, roll it up tightly. Begin at the far edge and roll up the dough toward the 1″ clean edge. The clean 1″ edge is used to seal the finished roll.

Trim the left and right ends of the roll. The result will be a 24″ roll. Trim off the left and right ends of the roll so that you have a flush end at each end of the roll. Then mark the roll every 1 1/2 inches. Cut the roll into 1 1/2″ long portions. This may be done with a knife, as they do at the store. However we’ve found it easier to use dental floss. (We use cinnamon flavored dental floss just for dramatic effect!) Cut the roll by placing the thread under the roll at your mark, crisscross over and pull it to cut. You should get 15 rolls.

Line your baking pans with parchment paper. Place 5 rolls into 8″ square baking pans 1″ apart (one roll in each corner and one in the center). Cover with a lint free cloth and let rise in a warm, draft free place until almost double, approximately 1 hour. After rising, rolls should be touching each other and the sides of the pan. This is important for best results. This gives the resulting rolls the soft, moist outer edge that most people prefer.

After rising, bake in a convection oven at 310°F for 15 minutes. If you are using a conventional oven, bake at 335°F for 20 minutes. The resulting rolls should be only lightly browned. We bake only one 8 inch square pan of rolls at a time to obtain uniform results.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Amount Measure Ingredient and Preparation Method
4 Oz Cream Cheese (0.25 lb)
1/2 Cup Margarine (0.25 lb, i.e. 1 stick)
1 3/4 Cup 10x Powdered Sugar (or Sugar Fondant) (1/2 lb)
1 Tsp Vanilla Flavor (preferably Alcohol Free)
1/8 Tsp Lemon Flavor (preferably Alcohol Free)

There are several steps involved in the preparation of the frosting, but it is not difficult, and you’ll be surprised at the wonderful results you achieve. For the fluffiest frosting, use vanilla and lemon flavors that do not contain alcohol. A total of 50 minutes is required to prepare the frosting from start to finish. We normally prepare the frosting while the rolls are rising.

Generally, we use 10x powdered sugar. However, sugar fondant yields a smoother frosting. Please refer to our notes. Remove the cream cheese and margarine from the refrigerator and place it into the mixing bowl. Leave it for about half an hour so that it will not be too cold.

Use the flat beater (or paddle) to blend the cream cheese and margarine for 6 minutes. Use a speed of 65 RPM, or the “slow mixing” speed on your machine. We use setting #2 on our KitchenAid Mixer.
Switch to the stainless steel whip and whip the cream cheese and margarine mixture for 10 minutes. Use a speed of 150 RPM, or the “medium fast whipping” speed on your machine. We use setting #6 on our KitchenAid mixer.

Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix for 1 minute using the stainless steel whip at 65 RPM. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of powdered sugar and mix for an additional minute.

Lastly, add the vanilla flavor and lemon flavor and whip for 1 minute using the stainless steel whip at 150 RPM.
Here’s an easy to follow table for the preparation of the frosting:

Add cream cheese and margarine to mixing bowl and let stand for 30 minutes.
Mix using paddle At 65 RPM for 6 minutes
Use stainless steel whip At 150 RPM for 10 minutes
Add 1 cup powdered sugar.
Use stainless steel whip At 65 RPM for 1 minute
Add ¾ cup powdered sugar.
Use stainless steel whip At 65 RPM for 1 minute
Add vanilla and lemon flavors.
Use stainless steel whip At 150 RPM for 1 minute

Transfer the finished frosting to a convenient covered container and refrigerate it. Once the rolls are finished baking, frost them while they’re still very warm and serve them immediately. Yum, yum!

Notes, Tips, Hints, and Suggestions

These notes are intended to assist you in achieving the same great results that we get at home when preparing our cinnamon roll recipe. Although experienced bakers may find these tips superfluous, they will help those of us who are more novice bread bakers more exactly duplicate that great taste!

Dough:

The stores use only the finest ingredients. You’ll want to do the same to duplicate the wonderful taste of their world famous rolls. Begin by selecting a top grade of bread flour. We frequently use King Arthur Flour. They offer several products and we prefer their Unbleached Special Bread Flour. This product is available in Dallas at Whole Foods Market. Another top grade bread flour we’ve had very good success with is Gold Medal Better For Bread™ specialty flour.

When selecting a flour to use, look for these points:

Select bread flour. Do not use cake flour, general purpose flour, or self-rising flour.
The amount of Protein in a 1/4 cup (30g) serving should be 4g.
The flour should include Malted Barley Flour (Diastatic Malt).
Select a flour that has not been bleached or Bromated®.
A high-gluten, hard red spring wheat flour is best.

We do not include 1/2 tsp malted barley flour in our recipe as some others do, because this is included in the bread flour itself. Check the list of ingredients shown on the nutritional label of the flour you choose to use.
 
Adding 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten helps improve the overall quality of the dough. The vital wheat gluten helps the dough rise better. The resulting dough will be more elastic and easier to roll out. You can prepare the dough without the addition of the vital wheat gluten, especially if you follow our recommendations as you select your flour. We use it whenever we have it on hand, in an effort to achieve the best possible results.

When preparing the dough, remove all of the ingredients from the refrigerator and permit them to sit out on the counter for about an hour so that they reach room temperature. Warm the butter gently to melt it, being very careful not to let it boil! Permit the butter, milk, and water mixture to reach a temperature between 75°F and 85°F before you continue. This is important to permit the yeast to properly activate and grow. Above 85°F the yeast will be too active. Be especially careful not to proceed if your liquid mixture is too hot. At temperatures above 120°F the yeast may be killed and your dough may not rise at all.

Generally, in most parts of the United States, we use plain tap water in the dough. However, because this recipe is prepared worldwide, we feel compelled to warn you that some local tap water may not be suitable. The use of “still” (non-carbonated) spring water may give you much better results. For example, in some areas of South Texas the water contains a significant amount of dissolved sulfur that will impart an off taste to the dough. In Dallas during the month of August there is so much algae in the lake water (the source of our tap water) that the municipal tap water tastes poor! For this reason, we’ll frequently use Ozarka® Natural Spring Water to achieve consistently great results!

We use SAF Perfect Rise® Gourmet Yeast, and we recommend that you do the same. This product is purchased as a pair of envelopes, each containing a 1/4 oz. portion. Respect the expiration date that is printed on the envelope. Yeast is a live product. Store it in a cool location. We have also had good results using Fleischmann’s RapidRise Yeast®.

Instead of using an envelope (1/4 oz) of yeast, you may substitute 1 tablespoon of bread machine yeast. We’ve used Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast with equal success. We store our bottle of bread machine yeast in the refrigerator to maintain its freshness. If you do too, remove 1 tablespoon from the jar and permit it to reach room temperature before using it in the bread machine.
 
Be sure that your yeast is fresh! Respect the expiration date that is printed on the container. Yeast is a living organism, so do not leave it in your car parked in the hot Texas sun while you run other errands, or let it freeze! Always select yeast that is intended for bread machines and includes ascorbic acid.

We use superfine granulated quick dissolving sugar in the dough. After adding the butter, milk, water, and beaten egg to the bread machine container, we add the sugar and salt. The use of superfine granulated sugar is intended to improve dissolving and mixing. If you do not have superfine quick dissolving sugar, regular granulated sugar will also work satisfactorily.

We use Frontier Natural Flavor brand vanilla and lemon flavorings. This is a premium quality product. We purchase both our vanilla and lemon flavors from Whole Foods Market in Dallas. We’ve also had very good results using Adams Best Natural and Artificial Vanilla Flavor in the dough. Adams extract contains alcohol, though, and because of this we prefer not to use it in the frosting since limits our ability to achieve a fluffy result.

Why does our recipe call for 1 1/4 large eggs? Someone once told us to use 20 large eggs to prepare 32 lbs of dough! This ratio equates to 1 1/4 large eggs in 2 lb of dough. Instead, you may substitute 1 additional tablespoon of milk in place of 1/4 egg. Or use 1 extra large egg, instead of 1 1/4 large eggs. I list 1 1/4 large eggs only in an effort to be as authentic and as accurate as possible!

We are very careful as we measure out the water and milk. To achieve the most accurate results, we use The Perfect Beaker. First, we add 1/4 cup of water and then continue by adding the whole milk to bring the level of the liquid to 1 1/4 cups. If we are not using 1 1/4 large eggs (or one extra large egg) we add an additional tablespoon of milk. We pour this into the bread machine container and then add the melted butter and the well beaten egg. Liquid ingredients first!

We use unsalted sweet cream butter in the dough. However, if your butter is not unsalted, go ahead and use it but reduce the amount of salt that you add to the dough by 1/4 teaspoon. If you do not have both butter and margarine on hand, you can substitute margarine for butter in the dough. If you substitute butter for margarine in the filling and frosting, you will get almost the same results, but the finished product won’t be as deliciously gooey. This is simply a scientific fact that results from the fact that margarine has a lower melting point. We recommend that you use margarine in both the filling and frosting, and real butter or margarine in the dough.

If you review other Cinnabon clone recipes on the web, you’ll discover that many of them include instant vanilla pudding in the dough. That isn’t a bad idea. Instant vanilla pudding consists mostly of superfine granulated sugar, food starch, vanilla flavor, and a little salt.  We do not like the effect of the starch and other chemicals that are included in the pudding mix. Instead, we prefer to add the needed sugar and vanilla flavoring directly, rather than relying on instant vanilla pudding.

As a general rule, add the ingredients to your bread machine in the order I’ve listed them. That having been said, follow the instructions given for your specific bread machine.

Open the machine and check the dough during the first 5 to 10 minutes of the first kneading cycle. You should do this even if your manual says not to. Flour acts as a sponge, absorbing moisture on humid summer days and becoming dehydrated during dry winter weather. You’ll have to adjust for fluctuating humidity, barometric pressure, and your altitude by adding small amounts of flour or liquid to the dough.

To adjust the dough in your bread machine during the first knead cycle, wait until the ingredients have been mixed for 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough looks very wet and is coating the bottom and sides of the pan and not forming a ball, sprinkle in flour, a tablespoon at a time while the machine is kneading, until you have a smooth, supple ball of dough. If the mixture is dry and corrugated looking or the dough doesn’t hold together, sprinkle in additional liquid, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is smooth and pliable and forms a cohesive ball. Give the machine and dough about 3 to 5 minutes to integrate the flour or water that you’ve added. If after several minutes you find a wet messy glob or a dry thumping sound is coming from the machine, press STOP, add a small amount of flour or liquid and press START. Stick around and make additional adjustments, if necessary, until the dough looks right.
 
Please note that cinnamon prevents the yeast from properly rising the bread. This is why cinnamon is never mixed directly into the dough. To avoid contamination, do not work with the cinnamon until after the bread dough is in the machine!

Other tips bread dough tips? We’ve always found the information at the King Arthur Flour Company website to be very helpful. They have several excellent pages on Baking Tips. Their page on Bread Machine Basics is particularly good.

The best and most accurate book we’ve found for baking and dough preparation using a bread machine is Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time by Lora Brody and Millie Apter. We’ve probably made close to half of all the recipes in that book and yes, they do come out right!

If you do not have a bread machine, you may still prepare the dough the old fashioned way: kneading it by hand! Be sure, when you do this, to use an appropriate yeast in your dough. Proceed as you would for any 2 pound dough recipe that you prepare. The exact technique for hand-kneading are beyond what we can present here.

Filling:
The best cinnamon makes the best cinnamon roll. There are several varieties to choose from. Some of the Cinnabon retail stores sell bottles of Makara cinnamon, the “official” cinnamon used in the preparation of their product. If you can purchase some from the store, we’d recommend it!
You’ll not find Makara cinnamon sold elsewhere. We’ve already search the internet high and low! Evidently, “Makara” is simply a marketing name for the actual cinnamon powder that is used by the retail stores and franchises. We’ve tried several types of cinnamon and after much experimentation we’ve concluded that the best product to use is Korintje Cinnamon, Grade AA. We purchase this in Dallas at Whole Foods Market.

Korintje Cinnamon comes from Mt. Korintje in Sumatra, Indonesia. If it doesn’t say Korintje, it is most likely an inferior type. Korintje cinnamon is a type of cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia). Chinese cinnamon or Vietnamese cinnamon are also cassia cinnamons, but perhaps not considered the very best.
 
Cassia cinnamon is sometimes referred to as “bastard” cinnamon. Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Ceylon cinnamon) is considered to be the true cinnamon. A simple search using any internet search engine will provide you with more detailed information about cinnamon and its varieties than you’ll ever really want to know! However, if you’re going to be an expert in cinnamon rolls, you’ll have to be able to rattle off at least some of this information!

Cassia cinnamon is the cinnamon that is generally sold throughout the United States. And from what we’ve been able to determine, Korintje (Cassia) cinnamon is simply the best type to use in cinnamon rolls.

Notice that our recipe calls for significantly more cinnamon than other clone recipes that you may find on the web. We’ve worked hard to determine the appropriate ratio of brown sugar and cinnamon and have concluded that 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (0.425 lbs) mixed with 5 tablespoons (0.075 lbs) of Korintje cinnamon gives a result that most closely matches the flavor you’d get at the mall stores.

You may use a fork to mix the brown sugar and cinnamon. However, we’ve found that a pastry blender (also known as a pastry cutter) works best. Using this tool not only permits you to mix the brown sugar and cinnamon without creating a cloud of cinnamon powder, but breaks up most lumps in the brown sugar. Although that’s not what this tool is intended for, it works great!

We recommend that you visit a Cinnabon retail store to watch how they spread the dough and apply the filling. They typically start with 4 lb dough balls, which is twice as much dough as our recipe produces. They roll it out to a 30″ by 24″ rectangle. When using the two pound dough ball that our recipe produces, roll it out to a 15″ by 24″ rectangle, or as close to this size as you can. This isn’t particularly easy and takes some patience and practice!
 
We don’t have a marble table on which to roll out the dough. For several years, we sprinkled flour on our Formica® table and rolled and stretched the dough into a 15 by 24 inch rectangle. Recently, we’ve discovered the Roll’Pat Counter Pastry Mat made by World Cuisine, France. This mat is easy to roll up and store and its 25 3/8″ by 17 1/2″ size makes it a very convenient surface on which to roll out the dough. We purchased ours from Crate & Barrel. Since it is not necessary to sprinkle flour on this surface, the dough is less dry and more consistent.

When you visit the store, watch how they leave a 1″ edge along the wide dimension of the dough “clean”. (No proprietary or trade secrets here, they prepare the rolls in plain view!) No margarine or sugar-cinnamon mixture is applied along this edge so that the roll can be sealed. You should do the same.

We have been successful using either Blue Bonnet or Land O Lakes margarine in the filling and frosting. After rolling out the dough to 15″ by 24″ rectangle, spread the room-temperature margarine on the dough, being careful to avoid the last 1″ edge.

You may ask why margarine is used in the filling and frosting. Margarine has a lower melting point and this gives the moist gooey results that the store achieves. That is why the store uses only margarine and not butter in the filling and frosting. (We use real butter in the dough, however, because it generally gives the best flavor.)

After rolling the dough and sealing the edge, “caterpillar” the roll to achieve a uniform diameter. Manipulate the dough roll so that thicker portions are slightly stretched and thinner sections are compressed. You can watch them do this at the store. As they do this, they gently lift, roll, and place the dough much like the movement of a caterpillar.

At our home, we find that everyone enjoys the smaller cinnamon roll that is achieved by cutting 1 1/2 inch portions. Note: You cannot make the larger cinnamon rolls by simply cutting the dough roll into 2 1/2 sections. You must roll up 24″ of dough and then cut 2 1/2 inch portions!

The rolls are baked in a convection oven at a lower temperature than you may otherwise expect. A temperature of 310°F avoids a hard crust, producing the soft product that everyone enjoys. If you do not have a convection oven, use a slightly higher temperature. We recommend 335°F for 20 minutes in a conventional oven. Your oven temperature may vary, so a couple of minutes, more or less, may be necessary. When properly baked, the rolls should be lightly browned and soft. If a hard crust forms, the temperature is too high, or you’ve left the rolls in the oven too long.

We use 8-inch square aluminum pans to bake our rolls. These yield a better result than the stoneware products we’ve also tried. Line the pans with parchment paper for the easiest cleanup. We cut 10 inch square pieces of parchment, then cut a 1 inch slit into each corner (diagonally) toward the center. These cuts make it easier to press the parchment paper into the pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
In the frosting, it is best to use flavorings that do not contain alcohol. The alcohol in most vanilla extracts and in many natural lemon flavorings will prevent the cream cheese and margarine from whipping to the light and fluffy composition that you are striving for.
 
Flavors vary in strength. In our experience, you should use 1/8 teaspoon of Frontier Natural Lemon Flavoring since it has a stronger taste than other lemon flavorings. If you are using another artificial lemon flavoring (which should be alcohol free) you may need to use more. Start with 1/8 teaspoon. Depending upon the strength, you may need to use as much as 1/4 teaspoon to get the appropriate “hint” of lemon flavoring in your frosting.

You may wish to perform you own taste tests to confirm the amount of lemon flavor to use in the frosting. The Cinnabon store will be glad to sell you a small container of extra frosting that you can use in your own taste tests. It is fun to do if you are having friends over! In any event, there’s no need to “stress out” over the exact quantity of lemon flavoring! Use 1/16, 1/8 teaspoon, or even none at all, and you’ll get wonderful results!

Many professionals use fondant sugar when making cream icing. However, this fine grade of sugar is not readily available and it is several times more expensive than powdered sugar. That’s why our recipe calls for 10x powdered sugar. Fortunately, 10x will give you essentially the same results.

For special occasions you may prefer to use real fondant sugar. Fondant sugar is pure cane sugar that is pulverized to 1/100th the size of normal powdered sugar grains. It is especially formulated for the baking trade for icing and candies. Since the sugar does not dissolve in the cream cheese and margarine mixture, the finer fondant sugar produces a smoother icing than can be achieved with regular 10x powdered sugar. We purchase ours at any of the several specialty baking shops in Dallas. Look in the Yellow Pages under ‘Cake Decorating Instruction and Supplies’ for a store that may carry it in your town.

If you use fondant sugar instead of 10x powdered sugar, be sure to use 1/2 pound, rather than 1 3/4 cups. Go by weight, not volume! When using 10x powdered sugar, 1 3/4 cups equals 1/2 pound.

Preparing the frosting with a KitchenAid® K45SS Mixer is straightforward if you follow the directions that we’ve provided. We always use a digital kitchen timer as we time each step of the frosting’s preparation. Let the cream cheese and margarine sit in the mixing bowl for about a half an hour after you’ve removed them from the refrigerator. Use the flat beater to initially cream together the margarine and cream cheese, then switch to the wire whip for the remaining steps. Refrigerate the frosting after you finish preparing it. No KitchenAid mixer? I’m sure you can achieve very good results with only an electric hand mixer!

Metric Conversions:
Several of our readers in other countries have asked for a listing of the ingredients with quantities using metric units. Sorry, I’ve not yet had a chance to do all of the conversions. However, here are some conversion factors to help you get started.

Fluid Volume:
1 ounce (oz liquid) = 29.56 ml
1 cup (liquid) = 8 oz (liquid) = 236.5 ml
1 teaspoon (tsp or t) = 1/6 oz (liquid) = 4.927 ml
1 Tablespoon (Tbsp or T) = 3 teaspoons = 1/2 oz (liquid) = 14.78 ml

Solid Mass (Weight):
1 oz (mass) = 28.35 grams (g)
1 pound (lb) = 16 oz (mass) = 453.6 grams (g)

Oddly enough, a level teaspoon, a level tablespoon, and a level cup measure are used in America to portion out both solids and liquids. No one ever claimed that Imperial units made much sense! In cases where these measures are used for solids, I’ve also provided the equivalent weight, using a laboratory grade scale. This will help when one must convert to metric.

If you successfully convert the listing of ingredients to reasonable (and practical) metric equivalents, please send me an email with your results and I’ll publish them here, along with your name in lights! Thank you!

If you have any other comments, suggestions, or tips, please write this chef at Ron@GordonFamily.com. We’ll also do our best to answer any further questions that you may have. If you’ve prepared this recipe and have enjoyed the results, please leave us a comment in our online Guest Book. Thanks!