I don’t remember when, but it was a trip to Dubai, way back in 2005, when I ate my first Cinnamon roll. It was at a mall, in a place called Cinnabon. It was love at first bite. So much so, that I carried many back in my hand luggage.

Warm, peppery, woody and spicy notes, dough that has a rough-hewn texture and cream cheese frosting that’s swirling around the crevices of the bun.  

Here was the dilemma. How do I refashion this? It was a bombshell shooting calories in every direction. To give this devil of a bun, a healthy glow, I had no choice but to massacre the recipe. The base was essentially just plain all-purpose flour. With great flourish I went on to add cottage cheese and buttermilk to substitute part of the flour. The other twist was to add a pinch of green cardamom flavour.

We all nail that one recipe right and it’s so right that there’s no looking back. Here’s mine.