This is part two of my Junior vs. Adult Bake Off comparison. Last time, I made the Pizza Star Bread from JBO Season 6’s bread week. It was delicious, and very very easy to make. This time, I made the Cinnamon Snowflake Bread from this 2024’s Holiday Bake Off episode. Immediately, it was more complex for a number of reasons. The most apparent being: yeast! But also, because this bread has four layers instead of three, and has eight points in the shaping instead of six! They just had to make everything harder for the adults. Typical!
Since I wanted to make things more interesting, I added in fiori di Sicilia extract, which is an citrus-y, vanilla-y, “wonderfully mysterious,” extract used in Panettone and other holiday bakes like Easter bread. You can use it in a lot of things – cake, brioche, or… even as perfume apparently? I asked for some for Christmas, because groceries are expensive, but I still want fancy new ingredients to experiment with!
This was my first time using it – I figured it would be great in a bread, and accompanied by cinnamon sugar!
And the extract was great – it added a very professional tasting element to the dough. It slightly overpowered the cinnamon, but I concluded that that wasn’t the extract’s fault – it was the cinnamon’s fault! This recipe did not have nearly enough for my American sensibilities. I want cinnamon rolls to be oozing cinnamon filling. Oozing. This just had a tablespoon of cinnamon and a bit of sugar, on a bit of melted butter. If I make this again, I’m going to change the filling to just be cinnamon roll filling. And use a lot more of it! I want this to be a star-shaped, shareable cinnamon roll!
Regardless of this… it was still a delicious treat to make on a Sunday morning after waking up to a fresh dusting of snow!
All in all, my conclusion with this little test was not at all surprising. The adult version of bakeoff required more finesse, from start to finish. There was definitely a very fresh, yeasty quality to this one that the pizza bread didn’t have. But dare I say… you could swap out the doughs for either and a lot of people probably wouldn’t be able to tell? The results for both were good, it was just a matter of how much time you had to spend on them. The Adult recipe gets credit for showing off baking skill, but the Junior recipe gets credit for simplifying!
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From Preppy Kitchen
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 1 cup warm whole milk
- 1 0.25-ounce packet instant yeast
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1/2 tsp fiori di Sicilia (optional)
- 3¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Filling:
- ½ cup granulated sugar 100g
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
For the Topping:
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- Confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
For the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm milk and yeast. Let stand until very foamy, about 10 minutes.
- Once foamy, add the melted butter, sugar, egg, and fiori di Sicilia (if using). On top of the wet ingredients, add the flour and salt. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until a dough starts to form. Increase speed to medium-low, and continue kneading until a sticky and elastic dough is formed, about 8 to 10 minutes. (the dough should start pulling away from the sides of the bowl, but may still stick to the bottom.) Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
For the Filling:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and cinnamon.
- Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Roll one ball into a thin roughly 12-inch circle. (If your dough is shrinking back on itself as you roll, let it rest for a few minutes and try rolling it on an unfloured surface.) Place on a sheet of parchment paper. Lightly brush with melted butter, leaving about ½-inch border, and sprinkle the butter with a third of the cinnamon sugar. Roll another dough ball into the same size circle and place on top of the sugar-coated round. (If the dough is wanting to shrink a little, lightly pinch the edge of the top dough round to the edge of the bottom dough round to help keep the shape.) Brush with butter and sprinkle with another third of cinnamon sugar. Repeat layers again. Roll the last dough ball and place on top. Trim the dough where needed to create a clean edge and a 10- to 11-inch circle.
- Place a 3-inch round cookie cutter or small bowl in the center of the dough. Using a pastry cutter or very sharp knife, cut the circle into quarters starting at the edge of the dough and stopping the edge of the bowl. Cut each quarter in half, and then each of those in half again. (You should end up with 16 little triangles connected at the center.)
- Grab two dough strips, one in each hand, and twist them 3 times away from each other. Lay them down, pinch the end together. Repeat all around the circle. You should have an 8-pointed star. Remove the cutter. Transfer the star with the parchment paper onto a rimmed baking sheet. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let rise until noticeably puffed, about 20 to 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F.
For the Topping:
- Beat the egg and water together until well combined. If the points of the star have separated while rising, pinch them together again. Brush the egg wash all over the puffed star.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown, covering with foil after 15 minutes if it’s browning too quickly. Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Lightly dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving warm