Posted on 08/17/2014 12:51:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Amy Collins knew a good thing when she tasted one. Her grandmother, Rochelle — known as “RoRo” to the grandkids — baked dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls in her Garland kitchen, which she sold at church and school fundraisers. The cinnamon rolls had also become a Christmastime tradition in their family.
“I wanted to find a way to always have her cinnamon rolls around for Christmas for my kids and my grandkids,” says Collins, 29, who lives in East Dallas. To do that, she enlisted her husband, Lauren, to help her start a business using her grandmother’s recipes — which they naturally called RoRo’s Baking Company.
Collins, a former nurse at Baylor, says “they dove right in,” learning everything they could about food production. They worked on a business plan for six months and started selling their rolls in April 2011 at Celebration Market and other local farmers markets. By August of that year, they were in Central Market.
There are three year-round products: crescent-shaped Dinn-A-Rolls, Cinn-A-Rolls, and pigs in a blanket. They also make two seasonal items: Hatch chile cheese rolls, available for the Hatch Chile Festival coming up at Central Market, and a cranberry and walnut cinnamon roll for the holidays.
Central Market carries the whole assortment; Whole Foods carries the Dinn-A-Rolls and Cinn-A-Rolls. You can also buy through Artizone and on RoRo’s website. The rolls come nine to pan; the Cinn-A-Rolls sell for about $10, and the Dinn-A-Rolls about $7. The pigs in a blanket are sold on Artizone for $8.95.
Everything is made by hand in small batches, in a commercial kitchen in Lakewood. RoRo still helps, but the baking is done primarily by a team of five, who churn out the rolls fully baked, then frozen, so all that customers have to do is heat.
“It’s a super labor-intensive product,” Collins says. “We make a yeast-based dough, and it has to rise two times in the process. It is a full seven- to eight-hour day to make the batches.”
Her favorite is the incomparable Cinn-A-Roll, which has a special glaze finish instead of a customary thick icing. It is glazed immediately after baking so the glaze sinks right down into the roll, making it super light and fluffy.
“They are soft, gooey and melt in your mouth — the flavor is just really delicious in combination with the glaze we put on them,” Collins says. “They aren’t huge; you can have one or two. But I think our recipe is really unique, and a lot of people tell us it doesn’t really taste like other cinnamon rolls.”
Collins admits that starting the business from scratch with little experience was not easy. But having a product people loved made the process easier. “It tastes delicious, and it’s not a hard sell,” she says. “It really helps to have a product that connects to people.”
RoRo’s more than doubled sales last year, and Collins expects to do the same this year. “Every year we are seeing more and more growth,” she says.
As for the current gluten-free craze, Collins says they don’t make a GF product because the rolls are “a treat.”
“I’m not promoting it to be something you eat every day of the week, but there are things that people want to eat on special days to celebrate. Like a holiday — you can treat yourself on those days.”
The holidays are “insane,” she says, and every year they get better at handling the demand. People snatch up the dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls for big gatherings during Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas — probably to create their own family traditions.
At least they don’t live in Nevada where reid would send in his storm troupers to try to steal their house, business, savings, unless they give him a cut,75%, of their profits.
WA
one has to go a mall to have those....haven’t been to a mall in years.
Is the Maltby Café still open in Woodinville? OMG I left the Northwest 8 years ago and that was my best spot to eat. I tell people about it down here in GA. and they think I’m making it all up. The breakfast there is to die for and the servings are large. The only place that has a cinnamon roll as good is in Taketna Alaska. That’s another story they don’t believe as the mayor is a cat.
Step away from the kitchen, berdie...and keep your hands in the air...away from the ingredients.
One of the things I absolutely hate about aging (other than loss of eyesight) is being able to eat such delicacies with no lasting repercussions.
Second vote for Maltby here.
There’s a great Cinnamon roll shop in Abiquiu.
Whimper
I think it’s a mortal sin not to stop in West.
LOL.....here-—have a Kleenex.
Butterfinger Pie / world’s simplest and quickest pie.
Mix 6-2 1/8 oz Butterfinger candy bars, crushed, 8 oz pkg Philly cream
cheese, 12 oz tub Cool Whip. Spoon into graham cracker crust. Chill.
Once you taste this, just factor in that you will have to physically restrain yourself from purchasing Butterfinger bars.
Sulaks, over in Clifton, has better. But they are off the beaten path.
She sold her kitchen at church and school fundraisers? How many times can you do that and get away with it?
I used to bake dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls, but now I'm thin.
It's becoming a lost art. Food preparation in general is. With both spouses working, families just don't have the time to do much more than throw something together. You'd be surprised at how many couples don't own a basic Kitchen-Aid Artisan mixer, once a staple of every kitchen.
I love to bake and cook. So does my wife. Fortunately, she's a stay-at-home mom (something that's quite doable if certain lifestyle changes are made). She cooks throughout the week and I do it on the weekends. We save a lot of money with her staying at home, probably more than we'd have if she went to work.
I always make this when it’s my turn to host Bunco. The gals love it and it’s so simple.
http://www.copykat.com/2009/02/06/cinnabons-for-the-bread-machine/
I make these a couple of times a year. Pretty simple since the machine does most of the work.
I don’t get it, what you make at home is healthier and lots cheaper as well. Considering what it costs to eat out now for anything decent anyway—I look at menus online and about fall out of my chair. Even with a pocketful of aces no way am I gonna pay $12 for a cheeseburger or such, it goes against my grain. Not to mention, cooking is actually fun!
Homina homina...
Dammit, we need an edit function. One other thing, as you remarked, people are too busy constantly farting around. I don’t know why people seem to think if they’re not running about like a chicken with its head cut off, they’re missing something. Don’t get it, and don’t wanna, I purged that out of my system years ago.
Ok, Ralph.
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