Welcome to October

What a month it's already been. Here, have some cinnamon rolls.

Well, I can tell that this is going to be a busy month. And I have good news for those of you who have been wanting a paperback of Royal Holiday to match your other books: it comes out in a beautiful purple paperback in less than two weeks, on Tuesday, October 13th! Here are a bunch of links to order the paperback from your retailer of choice, but if you want a signed copy, you can order it here from my local bookstore, East Bay Booksellers! Just put in the order comments field as you’re checking out that you’d like a signed copy and how you’d like me to sign it (just a signature, who to address it to, etc.) and I’ll sign them all and the magicians at the bookstore will send them out to you!

Speaking of bookstores, this post from an indie bookstore has been going around Instagram a bunch over the past day or so, and it has lots of helpful information about holiday shopping this year and how and when to do it. This is not to guilt anyone into spending money they don’t have right now, just fyi! This year is difficult for so many people, so please do what you can and don’t do anything you can’t! But I’m usually a pretty last minute holiday shopper and this info was really helpful for me so I can try to buy early — especially books — to make it easier on small businesses. One of the things that post talks about is printing issues, and oh boy has that been a problem for bookstores and publishers and authors this year! For those of you who often buy cookbooks for holiday gifts, it’s especially been an issue for cookbooks, because the color printing and pictures make them more complicated to print and make reprints take so much longer. So if there are books you absolutely want to buy for someone (or yourself!) this holiday season, it’s worth buying them early to make sure you get a copy before 2021.

Things are still pretty apocalyptic here in Northern California, with the air quality at Unhealthy levels today, and mandatory evacuation orders and lots of destruction from fires up in Napa and Sonoma Counties. One way to help fire victims who can’t get help in many other places is to give to Undocufund. I know people from outside the area think of Napa and Sonoma counties as playgrounds for the wealthy, but a lot of undocumented immigrants live and work there, and they don’t have the assistance or resources to get through this that many others do. I’m grateful for places like Undocufund for helping out.

Now that the weather is cooling down for some of you (not me, but it seems to be fall on Instagram, at least), I realized I’m overdue to give you all a cinnamon roll recipe. I got very into making cinnamon rolls in the spring and my mom and I taste tested all of the recipes I tried, and we agreed that this was the best one. And you know, it’s a pandemic, you do not need a special occasion to make these, just make them and eat them and be happy.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

(recipe from Serious Eats: it says it’s one bowl but that’s only because it has you clean out a bowl in between steps, use however many bowls you want!)

Filling:
8 tablespoons (113 g or 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
6 ounces light brown sugar (3/4 cup packed, 170 g)
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Dough:
16 ounces all purpose flour (3 1/2 cups, 450 g)
3 1/2 ounces sugar (1/2 cup, 100 g)
2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast (the recipe calls for instant but I used active dry and it was fine!)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces butter (8 tablespoons; 115 g)
4 ounces milk
8 ounces plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt (about 1 cup; 225 g)
4 ounces toasted pecan or walnut halves, roughly chopped (1 cup; 115g) (optional)

Frosting:
4 ounces plain, full-fat cream cheese (8 tablespoons, 115 g) softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 ounces powdered sugar (about 1 1/4 cups; 141 g)

For the filling: Mix together all of the filling ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a bowl with a hand mixer — this is that whole one bowl thing, it’s okay to use two bowls) on low speed until everything is incorporated, then mix at medium speed and beat until it’s creamy, pale, and soft. Scoop into a zip top bag or pastry bag and leave at room temperature (unless you’re doing this part in advance, if so, put in the fridge and then take out and bring to room temp before you need to use the filling).

For the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and baking soda until it’s all combined. Melt the butter in a medium pan over low heat, then stir in the milk and yogurt, warming to about 80 degrees F. (This is why the one bowl thing is a lie — yes you only need one bowl, but you need a pot on the stove!!!) Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir — the dough will be pretty dry. Then knead with the dough hook on low for about 20 minutes, until you can stretch the dough without tearing (you could make this by hand too, it’s just a really long kneading time, but maybe you have some rage you need to get out on dough, I get it, knead away!)

Cover the bowl with plastic (I like to use those cheap plastic shower caps for this!) and let the dough rise until it’s puffy and doubled; about 90 minutes, but pay more attention to the dough than the time. (I’ve found it’s very useful to let dough rise in a big measuring cup — I have an 8 cup one I use for this purpose, though I want to get a rising bucket at some point — because then you can see when the dough has doubled, it takes some of the guesswork out of this, I find it really hard to judge that in a big bowl).

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, dust with flour, and roll the dough into a 13 inch square. Snip a corner from the bag of cinnamon filling, and squeeze it all over the dough, then spread the filling into an even layer. Sprinkle the nuts on top, if using (I didn’t), and roll as evenly as you can to form a log. Roll it so it’s seam side down.

Okay so recipes for cinnamon rolls always want you to cut the logs with thread or unflavored dental floss (I can never find this), and I’m always too lazy and just do it with a knife and then the rolls look squashed, so I tried the thread thing this time and I found it trickier than the directions suggest but it did work to make unsquashed looking rolls. You slide a long length of the thread/floss/etc under the log in the middle, and then cross the ends over the top and pull to divide the log in half, and then do it this same way to cut each half into six 1 inch slices. If you struggle with making them even this way, I did too, but I got the hang of it eventually! Once the rolls are all cut, arrange in either a parchment lined 9 by 13 inch baking pan, or two parchment lined 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. (I did round cake pans, because I gave one pan of rolls to my cousin, which reminds me that she still has my cake pan).

Cover the rolls with foil, and refrigerate overnight, or up to 48 hours. When you’re ready to bake, take the rolls out of the fridge before you turn the oven on, then turn the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake them, still covered with the foil, for 45 minutes. Take off the foil, and bake for another 15 minutes, until they’re lightly browned. Make the frosting while the rolls are in the oven (see below) and then snip a corner from the bag of frosting, squeeze over the cinnamon rolls, and spread into an even layer. Eat immediately.

For the frosting: (Note: she has you make this first, I found it most convenient to do it last, when the rolls were in the oven, do it however you’d like). Combine the cream cheese and vanilla with half the powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a bowl with a hand mixer). Mix on low at first to incorporate the sugar, and then add the rest of the sugar a little at a time as you mix. Transfer to a zip closed plastic bag or pastry bag until needed. You can make this in advance and put in the fridge, just let soften at room temp or put in the microwave for a few seconds to soften before using.

Have a good weekend, all. Stay safe! Wear a mask!

Jasmine