Cinnamon rolls at Christmas? Perfect!

Dee Dee Kennedy, the Iowa State Fair champion baker, gave us RicheBurgers a dozen that are beyond delicious. And she's inspired me to get all of Iowa rolling again.

DES MOINES, Iowa – What a way to start the Christmas weekend!

An email arrived the other day from Dee Dee Kennedy, who lives near my wife Mary Riche and me on the west side of Des Moines. 

“I hope you are all ready for the Christmas celebrations at your home!” she wrote. “I would be so happy to deliver frosted cinnamon rolls -- if you’re not on a holiday sugar buzz already.”

Dee Dee is not just a good baker in the neighborhood.  She was the grand champion last summer of the “Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2023” at the Iowa State Fair.  She took home the $1,000 top prize.

Chuck Offenburger taking one of the three boxes of four cinnamon rolls each from Dee Dee and Bob Kennedy. (Photo by Mary Riche)

So we were delighted Saturday morning to take delivery of a dozen of Dee Dee’s legendary rolls when she and her husband Bob Kennedy dropped by with them.  They’ve been neighbors with Mary Riche for 30 years.  And I have a connection with them, too.  How?

For those who do not know, I am the Czar of Cinnamon Rolls for the state of Iowa. Back in the 1980s, I used my Des Moines Register columns to feature the “Roll Poll.”  Three or four times per year, I’d issue a new Top Ten ranking of the rolls.  The rule was the rolls had to be homemade in a café, coffeehouse, grocery, school cafeteria or other public place, where you could also get a cup of coffee and then have a place to sit and really enjoy a roll.

Later, the State Fair booked me to judge their annual cinnamon roll contest.

At last summer’s fair, I was to lead a team of judges in the new “Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge” organized by my pal Jamie Buelt, a business executive in the Des Moines area who is also a great fan of baking.  Alas, I was exposed to COVID then and had to miss the cinnamon roll contest that Dee Dee Kennedy’s rolls won.

But I can now report that they are beyond delicious! 

A champion roll on my plate.

They average four inches square, and up to 3 inches high.  Look at their backside and you see what her rolls are known for – a tight winding of the long 2-inch strips of dough she used to make them.  The cinnamon content and frosting on top are, well, perfect!

You can read a column of mine from last summer in which Dee Dee goes into more detail about how she makes her rolls.  You can find that column by clicking here.

The backside of a Dee Dee Kennedy cinnamon roll.

The Kennedys not only delivered great rolls Saturday morning, they delivered good news, too.

Dee Dee, at State Fair time, was battling a recurrence of muscle cancer.  She left right after the fair closed for surgical removal of a tumor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  You can imagine how thrilled the Kennedys were later when it was determined that tumor was benign.

“We know there’ll be other tumors – that’s what happens with this kind of cancer,” she told us Saturday. “But we’d been so worried about that tumor last summer, that it was a real relief when we found out it wasn’t cancerous.  I think my doctor had an even bigger smile than I did.”

Life is good now.

A good close look at Dee Dee’s rolls.

The Kennedys told us how a group of neighbors serenaded them with Christmas carols one night last week.  “We invited them in for a treat afterward,” Bob Kennedy said. 

Cinnamon rolls?

“A couple of them did mention something about that,” Dee Dee said.  “Unfortunately, I didn’t have any made then.  I’m afraid I disappointed some of them.”

The fine gift the Kennedys gave us RicheBurgers on Saturday has inspired me.

I’m now appealing to readers across Iowa to contact me with your recommendations for the best cinnamon rolls being served now at cafes, coffeehouses, groceries, cafeterias and other public places in Iowa.  I’m going to start traveling to check them out.  And I’ll be back to you in late January with a new “Roll Poll.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Buelt says she’s now putting together the rules and deadlines for the “Great Cinnamon Roll Challenge of 2024” for the Iowa State Fair.  And here’s some news – total prize money has grown to $4,500, so far!

Challenging work — but somebody’s got to do it!

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.

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A NOTE TO MY READERS: I write my “Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger” columns here as a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, which is led by Julie Gammack, of Des Moines. In less than two years, our group has grown to 48 professional journalists. We are spread across Iowa and write on a wide variety of topics, but all share a deep interest in life in this state. You can become free subscribers on Substack and read us without cost, but if you enjoy our work, I encourage you to become a paid subscriber at whatever level you’re comfortable.

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Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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