cookieee I used to not like a lot of Indian food, due to the raw cinnamon and clove flavor in a lot of dishes. Almost all garam masala tasted like it had pumpkin pie spice added to it! The earliest book I had was by supposedly the most popular Indian CB author back in the 90s; I don't even remember her name, only that I didn't like the garam masala, as well as other things I tried, due to the raw cinnamon flavor. I learned, years later, that toasting the spices, as well as mixing them with even more spices and ingredients, gave them a good flavor! And it really doesn't take that long. For the ones I use a lot of, like the sambar and rasam powders, I make the larger amounts of, but the garam masala I make the smaller batches of, as not as much of it is used. When I've made new recipes of it, I'll share it with some friends, who will always take some from me!
Two things help control that cinnamon flavor in these recipes, besides just reducing it, of course! One, is to use Sri Lankan cinnamon, which a couple of recipes suggest. The other, is to use cinnamon "chips", which toast up much faster than just broken up sticks, and are the ones I use most. Indian groceries carry broken up sticks, but the best ones I have found I get from spicesinc.com , which are much smaller, yet when I soft them in my tea strainer, no fine powder comes out. They toast much more evenly, due to the small size. Here's the source for that, and I often use it for seasoning tea, as well.
https://www.spicesinc.com/p-1041-cinnamon-chips.aspx
