Five-spice sweet rolls from Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland (page 29) by Shauna Sever

Ingredients

ground cinnamon
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Chinese five-spice powder
This classic Chinese five spice mix unites the five flavors: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory. Based on the traditional philosophy of balancing yin and yang, Chinese five spice complements fatty meats like pork belly, goose, and duck. (The Spice House) Buy Now
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Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

KCKB on May 04, 2025

My daughter made these: a few of them popped out of their spirals, but they turned out tasty nonetheless!
alsigmon on October 01, 2021

I'm glad for the note about the water discrepancy. I went close to the larger amount, about 110 grams, and the dough definitely felt soft and not stiff at all. I looked at other yeasted recipes in the her book. She uses 1/4c as 57grams water in multiple other recipes, which has me wondering if this is a error.
Lepa on January 23, 2021

I didn't notice the discrepancy in the water measure and used the cup measure. I needed to add 2tbsp of extra flour to get the dough to the right consistency. These were delicious but a bit sweet for us. I used 1/2 the icing but next time I'd use even less - the thinnest schmear- and let people add extra if they wanted to. The buns-and the icing- were delicious.
stef on May 24, 2020

I used the larger amount of water 113g and the dough came out nice and soft and easy to work with. Rolled it 18x12 and cut the rolls in 1 1/2" pieces. No 5 spice so used pumpkin spice. Will make dough and use with other fillings. Too much icing would make half next time.
anya_sf on April 14, 2020

I also noted the discrepancy in the water measure vs weight and used the measure (smaller amount), which worked fine. It looks like there's some leeway.
Zosia on April 13, 2020

Really delicious. The bun was tender and the sweet spice filling was tasty and just a little bit different. There's a discrepancy between the volume and weight measurements given for the water; I used the weight (the larger amount). The dough was soft and slightly tacky but not difficult to work with.
anya_sf on April 05, 2020

I made 1/2 recipe in an 8"x8" pan, refrigerating the unbaked rolls overnight. The rolls needed extra time to rise in the morning; they still hadn't risen much after 1.5 hours, but at least started to look puffy, so I went ahead and baked them and they expanded nicely in the oven. As Shauna recommends, half the icing (in my case 1/4) was plenty. The rolls were nice and soft, sweet but not cloying, just what I'd want in a sweet roll. The five-spice was subtle; the main flavor was cinnamon.