The Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge

[Blair Ryan] We're here at the Elwell Family Food Center where the sweet smell of cinnamon is filling the air. Let's go check out the Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge where taste and texture take center stage. 

Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2024. I'm Chuck Offenberger. 

[Jamie Buelt] Well it's very exciting and everybody always asks me, "Do you make cinnamon rolls?" and I'm like, "I do not." But I love cinnamon rolls and there used to be this iconic contest at the Iowa State Fair that was sponsored by Tones and that went away and there hadn't really been one for awhile and so I decided that it needed to come back. So last year it came back and then this year it's back with more than twice the money we had last year. 

[Blair] Well I was going to say, it's back with some force behind it because there are so many entries.

[Jamie] There are, there are. there's I was just told it's 80 or 90. 

[Blair] What goes into to a great cinnamon roll? Makes it not just good but great? 

[Jamie] It is about the dough. It's about the layers and how they're structured. The cinnamon, of course, you don't want a roll that doesn't have a lot of cinnamon in it. And just a good frosting. Not over-the-top frosting. A frosting that really is going to complement all that work you've done on the bread. And all that work you've done to put those wonderful delicious layers together.

[Judge 1] Mmmm, excellent dough flavor. Good filling to dough ratio. They've got a good browning but without drying out the dough. They did very well on that. Lovely aroma. Beautiful to look at. Caramel is hard to do because if the ratio isn't right with the cream and the sugar it can get almost hard in the pan. It's a trickier roll to make because the caramel can get too hard or it can make the roll too soft. To execute a caramel roll is very impressive. 

[Blair] Are you going to be judging and consuming all of the tasty treats today? 

[Jamie] I might a snuckin, as they say, as I walk through and then in the overall Chuck and I will go back and we'll taste all of the top rolls. So yes. 

[Chuck] First place in specialty rolls, Marianne Carlson from Jefferson. 

[Blair] How exciting. Tell us what you have won.

[Marianne Carlson] I entered the big cinnamon roll contest and I won 1st overall in the specialty cinnamon roll class. Then I got second overall in the whole contest with these rolls. And then I entered the frosted cinnamon roll contest and I got 4th overall with that. 

[Jamie] It's an art making a great cinnamon roll.