Poetry Thursday #2 & The Evil Twin of Cinnabon

Poetry Thursday #2:

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein 

My friend LAZsie had a craving for chocolate last week and challenged me to a baking "project" (subtext: can we have some free food, please?) with chocolate as one of the ingredients. Not that I minded, it's no secret that I already had a number of good, chocolate-laden recipes in my trusty cookbook, but I really wanted to try something new. New to me, anyway.

Luckily for her (yes you, madame!), I'd been meaning to attempt baking cinnamon rolls for a while, and I thought this was a good opportunity to finally do it. Of course, along with the cinnamon filling, I'd planned to add a generous amount of chocolate. Although not too generous that the cinnamon gets washed away by the chocolatey-ness. No, I still want them to get along really well and be a gorgeous-tasting couple. An  attention-grabbing couple too on the weekly red carpet world of Yeastspotting (to which I'm submitting this post! LOL).

All that brown sugar, cinnamon and chocolate. I could just faint!

It didn't take me long to surf and locate the best-looking cinnamon rolls on the internet. From the drippingly delicious pictures to the number of people who have tried this recipe, I decided Memoria's (of Mangio Da Sola) cinnamon rolls have got to be IT. And I chose wisely, for she makes truly beautiful things out of her kitchen and I also sense, out of her heart.

I wasn't disappointed with the results, and neither were my (I remind them again) very lucky friends. The dough was to die for and I would definitely add more chocolate in the filling when I bake these again. Biting into one these evil Cinnabon clones, I was immediately taken to that place where the sidewalk ends. *smiles*

Below is Memoria's recipe. Have fun!

Evil Twin of Cinnabon: Chocolate-Cinnamon Rolls

Makes: 12 rolls

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 teaspoon dry, instant yeast

1 cup warm milk

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup margarine (or butter), melted and cooled

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

4 1/2 cups bread flour

Chocolate-Cinnamon Filling

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

100g good quality chocolate, shaved

(NB - I used this Cadbury's Marble chocolate)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (250g) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt
Extra chocolate shavings, for sprinkling

Method:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball for about 5 minutes. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

2. After the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle and after that prepare the cinnamon-brown sugar-chocolate filling.

4. Chocolate-Cinnamon Filling: Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly roll the mixture into the dough. Shave the chocolate on top of this layer.

5. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. (You can leave these overnight in the fridge at this point. Take them out of the fridge 60 minutes before you bake them). Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200C/400F.

6. Bake rolls in a preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then add icing sugar gradually, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Red Durian Quick Rolls

 Red durian

Red Durian Quick Roll

As you can probably figure out by now, my favourite colour is red. That includes my food too, because it seems that I'm strangely drawn to the red (naturally red, of course) coloured foods. Examples are strawberries, raspberries, red capsicum, red dragon fruit and now since it's in season in Brunei, red durians!

Durians are really an acquired taste for people who are not brought up eating this sweet, pungent-smelling fruit. But then hey, I eat smellies like blue cheese without any problem and I wasn't exactly brought up on that! I guess the key here is to keep an open mind and don't just believe everything you hear or read until you try it (food-wise, I'm talking about here).

Sharp spikes of the durian skin

The sumptuous red durian

Which brings us back to the subject of the spiky durians, which I love. All types - white, orange, red ones - there are so many varieties. The red durians are prevalent in Borneo and they have a very rich, sweet taste that I can't adequately describe here. If only my tongue could write, I would let it have a go at telling you how this fruit tastes like. Lol!

We had several in the house and ah yes, the strong aroma penetrated throughout the whole house. I decided that perhaps the durian flesh would be good as a filling in some rolls so here it is, I came up with my Red Durian Quick Rolls recipe. If you can get your hands on some durian flesh (any colour), do give this a go....and if you love durian, it's just dreamy. To my friend KJR, this post is dedicated to you, a soon-to-be durian convert. *grins* 

  

Red durian flesh, dark chocolate shavings and a sprinkling of brown sugar as the fillings.

Rolls before they entered the oven

Glazed durian rolls. Yuhhmeee!!!

Red Durian Quick Rolls

Ingredients for quick bread:

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

Filling:

1 cup durian flesh

100g chocolate shavings

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Sliced almonds, for sprinkling

Glaze:

1 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C, and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add milk and knead briefly until it becomes a rollable dough. Add a bit more milk if it's too dry.

3. Roll dough out into a rectangle shape, and spread durian flesh on top. Sprinkle chocolate filling and brown sugar evenly over the durian layer.

4. Working with the long edge, roll the dough into a log and cut into slices about 1-inch wide. Place these onto the lined  baking tray, sprinkle some sliced almonds over the top and bake for 20-25 minutes.

5. Prepare glaze by mixing together icing sugar, cooled melted butter, then add milk gradually to thin out the glaze. Let the cooked durian rolls cool for 5 minutes before spooning glaze over them.

Go on, keep an open mind and try making these. They are scrumptious with some hot tea or coffee!