New Jersey Bagels and Cinnamon Rolls: A Sweet Story by Melissa Weller

As I look around at all the amazing bagel shops in New Jersey, I have to say that I think they might just hold the crown for the best bagels. Now, don't tell anyone I said that because it's a secret between us! But when it comes to cinnamon rolls, we're on to something special here.

Hi, I'm Melissa Weller, and I'm the head baker at High Street on Hudson. Today, I'm excited to share with you my recipe for making delicious cinnamon rolls with a buttermilk glaze. It's going to be a fun day in the kitchen, and I hope you'll join me along the way.

To start, we're going to make our dough. We'll add milk and eggs to the mixing bowl - this is essentially a really wet brioche recipe. Then, we'll add whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, with about 30% whole wheat and about 60%, 65% all-purpose. I like to use whole wheat because it adds more flavor to the dough, and in this case, we're going to be adding cardamom for an extra boost of flavor.

Cardamom pairs really well with cinnamon, and I think that's what makes these cinnamon rolls so special. It adds a little bit of spicy note and warmth that complements the cinnamon perfectly. Now, let's add all of the dry ingredients on top of the milk and eggs - sticky buns, cinnamon rolls are all generally made with some type of brioche dough. Brioche dough is an enriched dough, which means it has added fat in it. In this case, we're using butter as our primary source of fat.

Now, let's get started on kneading the dough! We'll do this at low speed for 3 minutes to combine all of the ingredients together before we start kneading. This is just to bring everything together and develop the gluten in the dough a bit. Butter can hinder the gluten development, so it's best to add it once we've developed the dough a bit.

After our initial mixing, I'm going to turn up the mixer to high speed and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. This will help to develop the gluten fully and give our cinnamon rolls that nice chewiness. Different types of whole wheat flour absorb moisture differently, so it's possible that my flour might be absorbing a bit more liquid than others - but don't worry, it'll all come together in the end!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en-I think New Jersey probably hassome of the best bagels,though, right?Yeah. I would have to give itto New Jersey,maybe even over New York, butdon't tell anybody I said that.But this is cinnamon rolls,so we don't have to talkabout bagels.♪♪Hi. I'm Melissa Weller.I'm the head bakerat High Street on Hudson,and I'm making cinnamon rollswith buttermilk glaze today.We're going to startwith our dough.Add milk and eggsto the mixing bowl.This is essentiallya really wet brioche recipe.And then the floursare whole wheat flourand all-purpose flour.About 30% whole wheatand about 60%, 65% all-purpose,and I like to addthe whole wheatbecause it adds more flavorto the dough.So we've got cardamom that goesinto the doughfor flavor in the dough.I just like the combination ofcardamom with cinnamon together.It adds a little bitof a spicy note to itand a warmth to itthat complements the cinnamon.Add all of the dry ingredientson top of the milk and the eggs.Sticky buns, cinnamon rollsare all generally madewith some type of brioche dough.Brioche doughis an enriched dough,so what that meansis it has added fat in it.Butter, for example, is obvious.Oil can be another fat.Eggs have fat in them,so that's an enriched dough.So it's low speed for 3 minutes,and the purpose of low speedis just to combineall of the ingredients togetherbefore you startkneading the dough.And we haven't addedthe butter yetbecause we want to develop thegluten before we add the butter.Butter hinders the glutendevelopment in the dough.But you essentially just wantthe dough to come togetherbefore you start,like, turning it up.Okay, now I'm going to turnthe mixer up to highand knead the doughfor about 5 minutes.So different types ofwhole wheat flourabsorb moisture differently,so the flour thatI'm using right nowreally absorbed a lotof the liquid in the dough.That's fine.It's all going to be greatin the end.And I'm going to add the butter.It's perfect.It's nice and softand still cool.You don't want the butterto be too soft,and you don't want itto be rock hard.We're going to mix the butterinto the dough on low speed,and if it's rock hard,you're going to end upwith little butter lumpsin your doughthat are never going to go away.I usually like to keepthe buttermixing in the dough somewherebetween 5 and 10 minutes.If it takes longerthan 10 minutes, which is okay,it usually means the butterwasn't quite soft enough.Like, sometimes you wantto scrapedown the sidesof the bowl partway throughto make sure that it'sall homogeneous with the butter.This is looking pretty good,and I'm going to scrapeit down one more time.This is, like, about a littleover 5 minutes,and it's a little not mixedon the very bottomof the mixer bowl,so I'm going to justuse the spatulato sort of finishblending it in by hand.I went tothe French Culinary Institute,which is now theInternational Culinary Center.I went back in 2004.I started working in kitchens inthe late '90s in San Francisco.I was a chemical engineer,and then I just hated my job,and so I moved to --Well, I was in Pennsylvania,and one day I said,\"I'm moving to California,\"and so I got a jobin the front of the housein restaurants in San Francisco,and then it took mea few more yearsbefore I ended up moving backto the East Coast,and then I've beenin New York ever since.I'm just going tocover this with --You can use a kitchen towelor plastic wrap, either.It doesn't really matter.It's going to sit atroom temperature for 2 hours.While the dough is resting,we're going to make the filling.It's dark brown sugar,butter, cinnamon,and thenit's a pinch of sea saltbecause I love saltin everything.Just mix on low speed.The important part aboutthe fillingis not to add any airinto the fillingwhen you're mixing it,so just keep it on low speed.You could totally uselight brown sugar.You could change the spices.It doesn't have to be cinnamon.You could put more cardamom.You could do black pepper.You could add some orange zest,anything like thatto spice it up,but the key is the ratioof the sugar and the butter,keep that the same.What I like about brown sugaris that it has molasses in it.It's more melty and oozy.And you could potentiallysubstitute with white sugar.It wouldn't havethe same gooey effect.The other key about thisis keep it at room temperature.So you can make itahead of time,but don't let this get coldor else you're not going to beable to spread it on the dough.So the dough has beensitting out for 2 hours,and now we're going to pat itout on to our sheet tray.If I start touching itwith my fingers,it's going to stick to them,so I wet my fingerswith a little bit of waterand then that makes it reallynice and easy to pat out.This is sort of likea nice little preshapingso that when we roll it out,you end up with, like,a more even rectangle.So now this is going to goin the refrigerator.The dough has been chillingfor 2 hours,so we're going to take itout of the refrigeratorso that we can roll it out.When you have a wet doughlike this,once it's chilled,it's really firm,so you could pretty much take itoff of the sheet trayand peel the paper off.It doesn't stickto your fingers,and then you're going to puta little flour downon the bottomand then also on the top.We're going to roll it outto 12 inches this wayand 16 inches this way,and I like to sort ofmove it around oftenso it doesn't stickto the bottom.This is 12\" and this is 16\",so I'm going to spreadthe filling on it right now.Because it's cold out today,this is a little more firm.It's a little more trickyto spread,so we're just going to goa little slow on it.I'm going to stopand start to roll this up.I'm going to just gently roll itinto a log.There we go.Once you get it going,you canjust sort of push it along.Great. This our log.So now I'm going to just --I just pick it up,make sure you sort of, like,get underneath of it,and then move it onto the sheet pan,and I like to chill it downbefore I slice itbecause it makes the slicesa little bit more neat and even,so I'm going to put thisback in the refrigeratorfor a little bit.This was chilled down.Now we're going to cut itinto 2-inch slices,so you want eight pieces,so I'm just going to eyeballhalfway down the middle.♪♪I usually put the nice side up.The cinnamon rollsare going to prooffor an hour and a halfat room temperature,somewhere warmwith a little bit of a towel,or they can goin the refrigeratorand I can bake them the nextmorning, which is my preferencebecause thenI don't have to do any work.I just wake up the next morningand pop them in the oven.Okay, now the cinnamon rollsare ready to go into the oven.The oven is at 350 degrees,and they bakefor 45 to 50 minutesuntil they're niceand beautiful golden-brown.♪♪So we're going to letthese cool down,and while they're cooling down,we're going to preparethe buttermillk glaze.It's just confectioners' sugar,buttermilk, and salt.Salt is the magic ingredient.You want to whisk it together.If it's lumpy, you can passthe confectioners' sugarthrough, like, a sifter.Sometimes when it's lumpy,I try to whisk out the lumps.Sometimes I'll do this,like, let it restfor a couple of minutes,like, 2 or 3 minutesand then whisk again,and the lumps go away.Let that sit for a second,and then we'regoing to unmold --This cooled down quickly.Oh, that's nice.Okay, so now I'm going totake the glazeand spoon it overthe cinnamon rolls.♪♪♪♪Don't want to let any ofthe glaze go to waste.You have to use it all.So it's ready to eat, right?Oh. Oh, this is perfect.Oh, wow.There's, like, oozybuttermilk glaze down here.Okay, it's pretty awesome.It's really good.I like how the glazeand the fillingmake it sort of oozy.It's the center part withthe filling that's, like, oozy.It's, like, the moist part of itis the center part.It's the best part.For the recipe,click the link below.♪♪♪♪\n"