“Sin” Rolls
© Joan Nienhuis
Joan Nienhuis graciously shared bits of her mother’s life as a young wife on Whidbey Island and I used a few details when creating my fictional Johanna. (Fun fact - my Johanna was named for my husband’s grandmother before I knew that was Joan’s mom’s name, too.) Johanna’s “Sin Rolls” were famous in their day. And now, they are famous in this day, too. Read, drool, and whip up a batch!
Joan Nienhuis’s Heirloom
(Joan here…) There are many aspects of my Dutch ancestry I greatly value. At the top is my Reformed faith. Close up there are my mother's cinnamon rolls. Food was a major way my mother showed love to her family, providing lavish Sunday dinners for decades. But her signature creation was her cinnamon rolls. I have many fond memories of my family gathering on Saturday mornings at her house for coffee, cinnamon rolls, and lively discussion. Her rolls were always the first to be grabbed up at church or extended family potlucks, everyone wanting one of Johanna's treasured treats.
Johanna Hilberdink Nienhuis, age 20, about 1931. © Joan Nienhuis
I remember the first time I had a commercially made cinnamon roll at a coffee shop. I was shocked at the dry cardboard texture of the dough and the vain attempt to cover the inadequacy with sugary frosting. I had only known my mother's moist rolls, turned upside down with caramelized brown sugar and butter dripping down the sides. I decided to get her recipe but when I asked for it, she chuckled. She had made hundreds of batches by then and created them from memory. If there had ever been a recipe, it was long gone. I convinced her to let me stand by her at the next baking session. I struggled to take adequate notes on her method. How could I interpret on paper adding enough flour until it “felt right”?
Why cinnamon rolls? Perhaps it goes back hundreds of years. I have a Dutch brother-in-law who was raised in Indonesia. While his father was a translator with the Netherlands Bible Society, the Dutch presence in southern Asia was a remnant of the Dutch East India Company and the spice trade of the 1600s. The Dutch had a monopoly on the cinnamon trade for a hundred years. Is it any wonder that snickerdoodles and cinnamon rolls are Dutch favorites?
Cinnamon rolls are more than tasty treats to me. They are symbolic of my mother's giving nature, freely offering her rolls to relatives and guests as a sign of her loving heart. Family lore says she even brought rolls to soldiers from Fort Casey who were doing practice maneuvers in a field near our house during WWII.
My mom went to glory twenty-five years ago but her legacy of showing love through her rolls lives on.
© Joan Nienhuis
Johanna Nienhuis’s CINN ROLLS
Ingredients
½ c. warm water
2 packages of yeast
3 sticks butter
2 to 2 ½ c. hot water
¾ c. sugar
2 tsp salt
2 or 3 eggs
2 c. flour plus 5 additional cups
cinnamon
½ c (or more) brown sugar, plus additional for melting in pan
Instructions
Mix warm water and 2 pkg of yeast. Set aside. Set at least 1 stick butter in a small pan over low heat to melt. Get two 9X12 baking pans (or one 12X18 baking pan) and place on a very low burner. Put at least ½ stick of butter in each to melt.
In a very large mixing bowl combine 2- 2 ½ c. hot water, 1 stick butter, ¾ cup sugar, 2 teaspoon salt, 2 or 3 eggs, 2 c. flour.
Stir well. Add yeast mixture.
Add flour, stirring by hand, until not too stiff, about 5 or 6 cups in all.
Place dough on a large and well floured surface and roll into a rectangle about ½ inch thick or less. This will not be a “dry” dough and you may have to flour the top of the dough and the rolling pin a few times. (These cinnamon rolls are moist, not dry as you often see in commercial bakeries. The secret is a moist dough. Keep plenty of flour handy to be able to roll out the dough.)
© Joan Nienhuis
Pour the melted butter over the rolled out dough, spreading to cover evenly. Sprinkle lots of brown sugar over the dough and butter. Sprinkle lots of cinnamon over the butter and sugar mixture. Be liberal for a good taste.
Carefully roll up the dough, starting at the long edge. Again, this will be a moist dough so you may need to dust your hands with flour several times. I have been known to use a pancake turner to pry up the moist dough that has stuck to the surface. When the dough is almost rolled up, take the far edge and slightly pull it over the roll, pinching it a bit to secure it.
© Joan Nienhuis
Once the dough is rolled up, retrieve the pan(s) with the melted butter. Sprinkle a liberal amount of brown sugar in the pan as well. (Yes, these are sweet rolls.)
With a sharp knife, frequently dusted with flour, cut the rolled dough into segments of about one to 1 1/4 inch in length. (A sharp knife and a quick hand.) Place the segments, cut side down in the pan so they are touching. The rolled dough segments will be dripping with melted butter and sugar so you might have to be quick here. (This may take a bit of practice to see how many rolls you will make, depending on how wide you cut the segments and how large your baking pan is and how closely you pack them together in the pan.)
© Joan Nienhuis
Lightly cover and let rise until the dough is starting to go over the edge of the pan.
© Joan Nienhuis
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.
Serve warm. Have butter available. Eat by hand, unrolling the baked roll, and adding a bit of butter for each bite. Do not put frosting on the rolls, ever.
Variations:
If you want, you can place chopped walnuts or pecans in the pan with the butter and brown sugar before adding the cut dough segments. You can also sprinkle raisins on the rolled-out dough. My mother generally made the rolls plain, allowing us to savor the sweet bread experience without the distracting flavors of nuts or raisins.