Cinnamon Rolls

This morning/afternoon I made THE MOST DELICIOUS CINNAMON ROLLS! EVER!  I wanted to make something yummy and homemade for Jake, since it's a long weekend, and I thought "hey, I haven't made cinnamon rolls in forever!"  So, I went onto Pioneer Woman's blog and got her cinnamon roll recipe! Here is a link to the original recipe:

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Since her recipe was humongous and made 7 or 8 pans of cinnamon rolls (nuts!) I split the recipe in half.  Here is the recipe, halved:

The Dough:
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 package Active Dry Yeast
4 cups flour, 1/2 cup later
1/2 (heaping) teaspoon baking powder
1/2 (scant) teaspoon baking soda
1/2 (heaping) teaspoon salt

The Filling:
1 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
Lots of ground cinnamon

The Icing:
1/2 bag powdered sugar
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
1/4 cup whole milk
1/8 cup melted butter
1/8 brewed coffee
pinch of salt

For the dough, you take the milk, oil, and sugar and scald it (get it to just before the boiling point).  Then, let it cool down until it is no longer hot, just warm (maybe 20-30 min).  Add the yeast, let sit for a minute. Then add the 4 cups of flour.  Mix, cover, and let sit and rise for at least an hour!  After the dough has risen, add 1/2 cup more flour, along with the baking soda, powder, and salt.  Mix, and dump out onto a floured surface.  At this point, you're supposed to roll it out into a thin rectangle.  (I have no rolling pin, so I used floured hands to smoosh it out.  I'm going to invest in a rolling pin for next time).

Assembling the rolls: After the dough has been rolled out into a thin, smooth rectangle (see Pioneer Woman's picture) pour the melted butter all over the surface of the dough.  Spread it out, then sprinkle the sugar on top of that!  Then, shake the ground cinnamon all over the surface.  Take the end furthest from you, and start rolling!  In the end, you'll have a very long log of roll.  Pinch the ends, and the edge where you last rolled.  Spread around a small amount of melted butter in the bottom of your pans (I got disposable 8.5 inch pans from the grocery, and they worked perfectly). Then start cutting your rolls! They should be 3/4 to 1 inch thick. I put 7 rolls per pan, 1 in the center, 6 spread around it like a flower.  After that, I let the rolls rise for about 30 minutes.  They cook at 375 for 15 minutes, and they're PERFECT.

The icing: Mix all the ingredients together.  I didn't use exact measurements for the powdered sugar, I just kept adding until I liked the texture and the color.  Pour the icing over the rolls after they come out of the oven, and VOILA! Cinnamon rolls!  While they were delicious, I think that next time I'll use a little bit of vanilla instead of maple (or maybe orange? that might be tasty).  The maple just isn't my style.  Also, I'll use less coffee.

pre-baking! I did 4 pans

1 of the pans, out of the oven and frosted

another of the pans, out of the oven

empty pan!  Don't worry, Jake and I did not eat 7 rolls...we had 2 other helpers!

I sent 1 pan home with our friends to put in the freezer and defrost at their leisure, and I saved the other two pans (also in the freezer).  One we will probably eat tomorrow morning for breakfast, the other I plan on sending into Jake's classroom this week.

*After making the dough, you can refrigerate it overnight.  This makes it much easier to roll out, and makes for prettier rolls. I am impatient, and did not wait. And that's okay.

All in all, 5 stars!!!