I have discovered the secret to perfect homemade cinnamon rolls, purely by accident.

[LeftyMom]

I started making them, and realized that I was low on regular flour, I only had enough for half the recipe but had already got started. Being to lazy to drop everything and run to the store I put high gluten flour in for the other half, since I had some on hand. The cinnamon rolls came out amazingly good as a result, the insides are fluffy and fully baked but the outsides aren't dry or overdone at all.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Bread flour?

[LeftyMom]

4. Iirc, bread flour is just a high gluten variety of wheat

while this stuff is actually flour with additional gluten added after the fact. I got it at the asian market, it's the stuff used to make little buns and such. I don't know that the gluten content is the same.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I was gonna say, I got some bread flour and I didn't find it to be all that amazingly

different. Certainly didn't start churning out miracle cinnamon buns. :P

[Gormy Cuss]

9. I think that high gluten flour is made by washing the starch out of regular flour

and it increases the protein as a percentage of weight. Higher protein (gluten) makes baked goods less dense and a bit chewier.

IMHO, it's a miracle enhancement for rye breads.

[hippywife]

2. That would make some very

pricey cinnamon rolls. Did you not have any wheat flour? I bake all of my stuff with at least 1/3 of the recipe with wheat flour.

[LeftyMom]

6. Nah, the stuff is a dollar for a 17 oz bag at the asian grocer.

I have some stoneground whole wheat flour, but it would have made for really dense cinnamon rolls. If I had whole wheat pastry flour that would have been okay.

[hippywife]

8. Then it's not what I was thinking of.

I was thinking of the small packages of vital wheat gluten. I use regular whole wheat and as long as it is a smaller percentage of the unbleached white, it's not all that dense, really.

[LeftyMom]

10. Yeah, this stuff is white flour with some vital wheat gluten blended in.

That stuff is expensive. I'm thinking about ordering myself a 50# bag and storing it, considering how much I use. I would have already, but I have no idea where on earth I'd store all that in my dinky little kitchen.

[hippywife]

11. I hope you have freezer space

if you're planning on storing that much for very long.

[flvegan]

3. So the gluten flour got into your stash?

:shrug:

This is the DU member formerly known as I'm Gonna Narc on LeftyMom.

[LeftyMom]

7. I bought it thinking it was vital wheat gluten

and that I was going to be enjoying some very cheap seitan. But no.

I'm glad I found another use for it. I need to go back to that store and get more chocolate hazelnut spread, I should pick more of this stuff up too.