What is the best Classic American cinnamon roll?+
Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle tops this guide. Owner William Leaman captained the 2005 Bread Bakers Guild Team USA to a World Cup of Baking win, and the roll shows it: tightly wound, made with Vietnamese cinnamon, served warm under a citrusy cream cheese icing. Hewn Bakery in Evanston is second, a stone-milled organic brioche bun from a Food & Wine Best Bakeries pick. Patrick's Café & Bakery in White Center, Heart Bakes in Port Melbourne, and An Xuyen Bakery in Portland round out the top five.
What makes a cinnamon roll Classic American?+
Four things: an enriched yeasted dough, usually brioche-style and richer than its Nordic cousin; a heavy brown sugar and cinnamon filling rather than a spice-forward one; cut spirals baked snug in a pan so they rise into each other and stay soft-sided; and a sweet finish on top. Cardamom is essentially absent, which is the fastest way to tell one from a Swedish kanelbulle. Our styles guide covers how the five main styles compare.
Do Classic American cinnamon rolls have to have cream cheese frosting?+
No, and this is the real dividing line within the style. Plenty of the best examples skip it. Ann Sather in Chicago, an institution since 1945, sends out oversized glazed rolls two to an order with no frosting at all. Frangelli's in South Philadelphia has been doing a no-frills version since 1947. Sweet Trolley in Toronto finishes with a shimmering syrupy glaze. Others reroute the idea: Asaro in Boston uses maple frosting instead, Baker Bleu in Sydney uses a tangy sour cream icing, Calle Bakery in Melbourne frosts before the bake so it melts in, and Ted's Bulletin in Washington DC serves the frosting on the side in a gravy boat. Cream cheese is the default expectation, not the definition.
Where did the American cinnamon roll come from, and is it only American?+
It descends from Schnecken, the German snail-shaped sweet bun that Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought to the United States in the 18th century and that survives today as the Philadelphia sticky bun. The frosted, oversized modern version is much newer: Cinnabon opened its first store in a mall in Federal Way, south of Seattle, in December 1985 and made that silhouette the global default. The style has long since left home. Of the 211 spots in this guide, 52 are outside the US, including 25 in Australia, where it is called a cinnamon scroll, and one in Tarragona, Spain, where Casa Quadrat builds it on protected-origin butter and Ceylon cinnamon under an American cream cheese frosting.
