Why, oh Why?

[Shimmer]

I work part-time at a bakery, and the afternoon shift is always responsible for making cinnamon rolls. I have several questions.

It seems to depend on who makes them as to how good they are. I had a customer yesterday who told me he thought they weren't light enough. How can this be improved? Adding more milk? Less flour? More flour?

We don't knead by hand, we use a large mixer with a dough hook.

Also, yesterday I followed the recipe and did exactly the same steps I always did, but the dough was clinging to the hook and had a very elasticy texture, something wasn't right. I just don't know what it was. By the time the dough had risen and I made it into rolls it was looking okay, but it wouldn't roll out very thin either.

What did I do wrong? What should I have changed?

~~Shimmer~~

[thebighat]

flour varies in it's ability to absorb water. It is sold with a 15% variance in moisture. In other words, in a 50 lb bag of flour, one week it could have 7.5 lb of moisture in it, and another week it won't. If you scale the flour in a formula properly, and the dough doesn't seem right, too sticky or too tight, then you have to make an adjustment with either flour or water. I find this happens all the time. As far as the cinnamon rolls not being light enough, maybe they weren't proofed enough.

[momoreg]

That was what came to my mind too, but it could be any number of factors, like an ingredient, or mixing time, proofing time or temp., etc.

[m brown]

In addition to proofing and moisture, to lighten my doughs I have become a huge fan of malt syrup or powder in place by weight of half the sugar. The yeast seems to eat the stuff up!
A quick example of flour moisture retention, today I had to add an extra cup of water to my corn pizza dough and last week I needed an extra cup of flour! This week, no rain, last week, rain!

[Shimmer]

Well it appears I overreacted, because people have been raving about the cinnamon rolls today (we mix them up the night before). I think before I wasn't mixing them long ENOUGH (I was afraid of mixing too long) and this weird texture is actually what I want, it's airy and light and the dough rises very nicely. So today I tried to do it the same way, and I think they're even better. (I'm not patting myself on the back, but I'm trying for consistency and quality here!)

I will have to be a customer tomorrow, just to see.

Thankyou for the suggestions, though. I think I haven't had enough experience to know what I'm actually looking for. I thought I did, but obviously not.

Doing and learning,
~~Shimmer~~

[momoreg]

Aren't we all doing and learning... Fill us in on any other baking experiences.

[angrychef]

shimmer, I'm glad it worked out. You actually want that elastic texture when kneading the dough. My dough is also slightly sticky, so I let it ferment overnight in cooler and it is ready to be handled in AM. My dough has quite a bit of moisture, so they bake up into light and airy rolls. Use about 5% fresh yeast(or2.5% dry)if your dough is heavy in eggs and butter.

[m brown]

dough is ready if you pull out a hunk with your hand and streatch it between your two hands thin as strudel and you will see the structure of the dough. fibers and "veins" of gluten formed to hold in the gases can be seen and the dough will have give, the dough should feel like a baby's butt, smooth, warm and firm. ( i change a lot of diapers )