Prepping Cinnamon Rolls the night before baking

[BadRabbit]

I have been making my mothers cinnamon rolls for the last few years but have never figured out a way to have them ready first thing in the morning (without getting up at the crack of dawn).

The recipe is a basic yeast dough with a significant amount of sugar in it. It's usually mixed up and then left to rise overnight in the fridge. I then roll out the dough and roll it up with the cinnamon and sugar. I cut it and then place them in the pan for a second rise and then bake (with cold dough the 2nd rise and bake process is often 1 1/2-2 hours).

My three options to eliminate some of the time in the morning are as follows:

1. Cut and place dough in pan the night before and place in fridge. Hopefully it will rise enough overnight and I can pop straight in the oven in the morning.

2. Follow usual steps night before and then par-bake at least until oven-spring is done.

3. Stop just shy of fully cooking the night before and just pop in to warm in the morning.

What's my best option?

[BadRabbit]

For clarity, my options above assume I will have already done the overnight rise in the fridge the night before.

[HungryC]

I just bake 'em all the way and freeze (no glaze). Defrost at room temp for an hour or so, then warm in the toaster oven & add glaze/icing.

[Lora]

I usually go with option number one. To ensure that the dough is warm and fully risen, I use a trick from Alton Brown: in the morning, before baking, put boiling water in a roasting pan in the oven and then put the rolls on a rack above the pan. Shut the oven, leaving it off. After 30 minutes pretty much any yeast dough has the chill off and is ready to bake. To streamline, I might put the rolls and boiling water in a cooler instead so that the oven could be preheating at the same time.

[KarenDW]

I've had success with shaping the dough and panning, then set into the fridge overnight for the 2nd rise. Remove from fridge for 20-30 min before baking (if you have that sort of time).

With the first rise, you can probably get away with making the dough an extra day or so ahead of time; just punch it down every day until you're ready to use.

just my experience, not professional advice

[HungryC]

So you guys have had luck with filled, shaped rolls resting in the fridge overnight? Every time I try this, the cinnamon-sugar mixture seeps out the bottom and makes a grand mess (think too-sticky for sticky buns). I've tried reducing the amount of sugar in the filling & adding a little butter to keep it "stuck" in place, but the results didn't vary much. It sort of liquified anyway. How do you keep the cin/sugar from running out of the rolls?

[IndyRob]

You could try cold fermenting the uncut roll in the fridge. Then use dental floss to slice without squishing the proofed dough too much. Tip the newly cut slices onto aluminum foil strips so that they can be slid out of the way and don't need to be handled.

[BadRabbit]

So you guys have had luck with filled, shaped rolls resting in the fridge overnight? Every time I try this, the cinnamon-sugar mixture seeps out the bottom and makes a grand mess (think too-sticky for sticky buns). I've tried reducing the amount of sugar in the filling & adding a little butter to keep it "stuck" in place, but the results didn't vary much. It sort of liquified anyway. How do you keep the cin/sugar from running out of the rolls?

I've never had this problem even when I forgot about rolls proofing and left them out for far too long at room temp.

I use a layer of butter on the rolled out dough before I add the cinnamon and sugar. I also use dark brown instead of white sugar which, because of the molasses content, probably tends to migrate less.

[abooja]

How about freezing the proofed rolls for future baking? I tried this with challah just last week, and was less than successful. I didn't want it to overproof, so after shaping, I let it proof at room temperature for 1/2 hour, then stuck it in the fridge. Might have been directly into the freezer, on a sheet pan, but I can't recall exactly. I then vacuum sealed it and froze it for a couple of weeks. After one hour at room temperature, I baked it. It didn't rise much and was quite dense. I suppose that's the fault of sticking it directly into the freezer after just a 1/2 hour rise, or is freezing unbaked dough not a good idea in general?

If I can get this straight, this will save me a lot of last-minute baking time in the future.

(Edited to add missing word.)

Edited April 22, 2010 by abooja (log)

[Lora]

How about freezing the proofed rolls for future baking? I tried this with challah just last week, and was less than successful.

I freeze unbaked dough all the time at various stages, and it works great once you get the hang of it. Shape, cover well, and freeze immediately. When you want to bake, take out the frozen dough and let it thaw and proof at room temp. For a full-size loaf, this can take 6-7 hours from dead frozen to oven-ready. (I'm betting your dough was still too cold when you baked it - thus no rise.) If I wasn't going to be able to keep an eye on it for as long as that, I'd move it to the fridge to thaw overnight, then room temp for a couple hours.

Use your normal proofing standards to judge when it's ready for the oven. The good thing about proofing after freezing instead of before is that lets you know that the chill is off the dough and the yeast is awake again.

[abooja]

That's a really good idea. It has the added benefit of using up less freezer space. Think I'll try that next time. Thanks!