Avoid Fussy Cinnamon Rolls With A Simple Dental Floss Trick

While they're downright delicious, cinnamon rolls are not as easy to bake as you might think. These beloved pastries require skill and experience, from kneading the dough effectively to adding the proper amount of brown sugar and cinnamon so the flavor is well-balanced. And one of the trickiest parts of making cinnamon rolls is shaping them into the sweet, sticky spirals that we know and love.

Once you've flattened out your dough, added your spiced sugar, and rolled it all up into a log shape, it's time to cut the tightly-rolled dough into pieces to form that classic cinnamon roll look. Cutting your cinnamon rolls into even pieces sounds pretty straightforward, right? Wrong! The fresh dough can stick to your knife and undo all that careful work you've put in, snagging chunks of dough and potentially even destroying the shape of the breakfast delicacy, leaving you with a cinnamon dessert that's more of a pile than a roll. Just thinking about it is overwhelming. But it turns out, there's one handy tool that'll give you crisp, even cinnamon rolls without creating a sticky, frustrating mess: dental floss.

When you use dental floss to cut the individual cinnamon rolls instead of a knife, you'll get clean, even lines that won't mess with the quality of your spiral. (Plus, you won't need to wipe down your knife after every slice to prevent a sticky mess.) All you have to do is place the floss underneath the cinnamon sugar-filled tube and carefully twist it across the top as if you're starting to make a knot. Then, pull both ends of the floss so it tightens and cuts through the dough until you have a clean, individual cinnamon roll. 

Continue this method until you've got a batch of neat, uniform cinnamon rolls that are ready for baking. One word of caution: Avoid using mint-flavored floss, because the only thing worse than an out-of-shape cinnamon roll is a minty-tasting one. Oh, and don't forget to use that floss for its intended purpose after you eat!