How to make Post-Exams Cinnamon Rolls?

  Exams are over, I have plenty of free time, what better way to use that free time than to show off my expertise in the art of baking. I woke up diligently at 8am, and began my baking at around 9am. I was feeling unstoppable.

  First things first, you got to have your ingredients.

Figure 30.1: The ingredients! 

Banana for mid baking snack.

  The recipe says it takes around 90 minutes total to finish. Obviously, as a pro myself, 90 minutes is too quick as it took me 3 hours to complete my masterpiece. So, if you want to be a master like me, make sure you have lots of time that day.

1.   Melt 50g of butter. Then mix the yeast, 8dl of flour, 3dl of milk and 50ml of sugar together. Stir it in a bowl or something with your hands. You could use some stirrer stick like an amateur, hohoho
2. After that, let it rest for 30 minutes. Gotta let the dough rise or something like that. 
3. While the dough is resting, let's make the filling. Melt another 50g of butter, then mix some sugar and 2 tea spoons of cinnamon. Stir it and voila.
4. Once the dough is rested, just whack it up on some counter and start flattening it into a rectangle. 
5. Then slice it like, uh, the side in which you get most strips? So like, the longer side would be top and bottom while the shorter side be left and right?
6. Once sliced, apply fillings onto it.
7. Roll them up and bake em it a preheated oven of 250C for like 8 minutes?
8. Oh yeah, don't forget to eggwash those babies before putting them in.

Figure 30.2: Something's off

  Uh.... uhuh... hmm... Well, the dough was strange. It wasn't very bready, it felt more like a cookie dough than bread dough.I felt like one of three possibilities happened:

• I killed the yeast by putting them in the hot butter too early
• Gluten free flour has a different technique to it
• I was not a master of the bake after all

  I still had some leftover dough, so I changed it up and made some cinnamon filled cookies instead.

Figure 30.3: I had LOTS of filling left, so I just put a lot and let it overflow

  Voila! This is a traditional post-exam cinnamon rolls cookies! Share it and what not!

__________________________

  I had a potluck to attend that evening. The reason why I made it GF was because I know there was a person who's gluten sensitive. Some other lady was vegetarian but it's fine, there's no meat here.

  I had a friend pick me up and then we all went to Middle Cove beach for the picnic! It was the "end of the semester annual potluck" of the Aikido club. The cool thing about this potluck is that, there were lots of adults. I have attended many potlucks since coming here, and I can tell you, the adults have a more refined technique. When I attend student potlucks, you could tell from everyone's dishes that we were all trying to be cost efficient (me included). Heck, this cinnamon rolls was pretty cost efficient too, only thing I have to buy is special GF flour, yeast, and unsalted butter. 

 

Figure 30.4: Time to dine!

  The members brought their families. The spouses and the kids and what not. Didn't really have an opportunity to talk with the kids, they generally ran around the beach having fun by themselves. I just realised I was once like them, my parents would bring me to some gathering, and then I'll go hangout with their friend's kids while leaving the adults alone and stuff. 

  We had our meals first, I purposely left my rolls to be the last to be served cause I said it was "dessert". Kinda is, you don't want to eat the sweet stuff together with the potato fish stew. That being said, boy oh boy were their cooking super nice. I need to ask them for the recipes the next time I see them in class. There was this potato fish stew thing, and there was this amazing rice dish. It had rice, vinegar, seaweed, carrots, and lotus roots I believe? That was delicious.The vegetarian lady (sensei's wife) made this potato dish with sundried tomatoes and chives. Greek boy made souvlaki, etc. We dined good man.

  So, when it's time to serve, the first person I offered my rolls to is whoever was sitting the closest. When it reached the gluten sensitive man (let's call him Sensei ER), I assured him it's gluten free and he took a piece. His girlfriend saw him munching into it and she immediately went like: "OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OKAY?" To which, he had to reassure his partner "yes, Jerry said it's gluten free, I trust him", to which she said "oh, it's just that I rarely see you eat pastries". It was pretty cool. They all liked it, the kids definitely loved it. One of sensei's son was just squatting above my plastic container, putting piece after piece into his mouth. 

  All in all, pretty fun evening. Came home to a bunch of people in the living room, napping and stuff. They then all went and cook together (there were 3 guests). Since I've already eaten, I basically only came in and have a bite or two, then I chilled with them throughout the night, went to sleep and stuff. It's one of the nicer days I guess, but now the week's gone, and the post-exam good mood has dissipated and it's back to reality. Whoop whoop.

Figure 30.5: Sensei complaining about his experience in Singapore