The cinnamon roll could not have existed without their iconic icing. The icing is a sweet cream cheese mixture that balances its sour flavor with the cinnamon sugar spice. However, beginner bakers find it intimidating because their icing may become thin or fluffy.
Cinnamon roll icing is not like cake frosting or a donut glaze. It’s a combination of both for its thick and runny creamy texture that can harden while the cinnamon roll is cooling. How does a baker make the perfect cinnamon roll icing? Here are three tips that you can follow.
1. Using Confectioner Sugar
In some recipes for cinnamon rolls, you may find that the baker is not using confectioner sugar. Confectioner sugar, or powder, is cornstarch blended and sifted with granulated sugar. It helps create a thick, runny icing to coat the cinnamon roll and other iced pastries.
A mistake bakers make is using granulated sugar for icing. The icing becomes a creamy syrup and your cinnamon rolls will absorb it. To save your icing, make a cornstarch slurry and beat the icing as you pour it in. You will know your icing is thickened by creating icing streaks on the mixture with a whisk or spoon.
If you haven’t made your icing yet for cinnamon rolls, you make it at home. You will need to blend one cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch. Every 30 seconds, scrape the sugar from the sides until you see a white mist swirling in the blender. Finally, pour your powder mixture into a strainer over and bowl and sift.
2. Cream Instead of Milk and Butter
Milk and melted butter are the traditional ingredients that give cinnamon roll icing its mild sour and savory flavor. The milk helps sweeten the cinnamon sugar while the butter tones down the sharpness of the cream cheese.
You can achieve the same flavor by replacing them with cream. The cream has both flavor profiles of milk and butter. In its liquid state, it’s slightly thicker than milk. When you churn or beat cream into a solid, it becomes butter because the fat content is mixing aggressively with calcium.
It’s great for making cinnamon roll icing. When mixed with confectioner sugar and cream cheese, the icing has a stable consistency while staying runny, thanks to the cream cheese’s fat.
3. Add Salt To The Icing
Most baking recipes you find online or from older cookbooks will tell you to not add salt. While sugar can sweeten desserts, it can grow faint during the cooking process.
Salt is used as a flavor enhancer which brings out the best of an ingredient. The myth of it ruining desserts is not a complete lie though. It’s based on how much salt that person will add to give food flavor. For all desserts, you will only need a pinch of salt or 1/16 of a teaspoon.
So what does it do aside from enhancing the sweetness in the icing? Salt can absorb moisture from food during a cooking process because of sodium, which is why it’s used for dry aging and curing meat. The salt removes some of it from the milk and melted butter to prevent the cream cheese from liquefying.
Use These Tips For Frosting
If you don’t want to use these icing tips for cinnamon rolls, you can use them when making cake frosting. The only difference is you will need to make the frosting stiff with additional confectioner sugar and a longer mixing time. And don’t be afraid to experiment with different flavor extracts.
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