When I first got married I would treat my new husband with the tube of cinnamon rolls that you get in the supermarket.  I remember fearfully trying to pop the can open, handling it as if it were an unexploded land mine that might remove a limb or at the very least shoot a projectile into my eye.  I still shiver in fear passing them at the market.  Flash forward a few years and we are at home with a toddler and I am pregnant with our second and I realize one can is no longer enough as my toddler gobbles up bun after bun (pregnant me might have had a few as well).  A couple more years we have two little ones and I am pregnant again and I realize that we either need to buy stock in Pillsbury or I need to learn how to make these things from scratch.  I found many recipes that were mostly the same with a few small differences and began to experiment on my own.

I started here and over the years have made a couple small changes to really make the recipe my own (Her blog is awesome and full of really fun ideas for baking!).  My family loves these and I hope yours will as well! Best part is one batch feeds all six of us, for now anyway, we will see if that holds true when they are all hungry teenagers.

Before I begin I pull out my butter and eggs getting them to room temperature.  I go relax (haha) and wait about a half hour.  Then I begin by proofing my yeast (cooking lingo for make it bubble).  I microwave my milk for one minute and fifteen seconds stirring halfway.  My goal is getting the milk warm, around 110°.  This temp will make the yeast happy and bubbly.  I also mix in just a little sugar.

While my yeast is working. I cream together my butter and sugar and add some eggs. Again, nothing is cold, sometimes I ignore this in recipes, but not for this one because the yeast hates the cold.

While I creamed the eggs and butter look what happened to the yeast.

 That gets added into the mixer, and then the flour and a little salt gets added in.  I mix this for maybe a minute, just to get it mostly combined.  You can definitely do this all by hand with a wooden spoon!

I scoop this out onto a well floured surface.

Then I cover all of that with some more flour and just start kneading my dough.  Adding flour until its not sticky any more.  Just punch and fold and punch and fold until you have a smooth dough.  

I pop this into a bowl and let it rise for about an hour or until its doubled in size. Then I roll out my dough and spread butter all over it.  I microwave my butter for fifteen seconds just to make sure its really soft and spreads easily all over the dough.  

Your counter is going to get very messy during this whole process, but its worth it I promise! Now time for sugar.  I am using dark brown sugar with this, I prefer the flavor of dark brown over light brown sugar.

Trust me the messy counter is totally worth it!  Now we start rolling up.

And look, I must have gotten over zealous with my rolling and made a spot too thin and it ripped.

But no worries, just keep rolling, it will be fine.  Also, see how my sugar is right up to the edge of the dough?  You don’t want to do that, leave a quarter of an inch without any sugar.  If your kids help you spread the sugar and go right to the edge don’t worry, just keep going it will all be ok.

Now we just cut them up.  I’ve read that you can use dental floss to cut slices, but since I have mint dental floss I will use a knife.

Pop your rolls onto a parchment lined pan.

After an hour we are ready to get into the oven.

I throw these into the oven and bake for about twenty minutes.  While they are baking I start mixing together some cream cheese and butter.

Then I sift my powdered sugar.  You want to sift it, otherwise you will get little lumps in your frosting.

Now, you can wake up at five am and get this all done the morning of, or you can do it all the night before.  I bake and everything the night before.  The only thing I don’t do is frost the rolls.  I put all of the frosting into a tupperware container and pop that in the fridge until morning.  If I am making these for a crowd then I bake them again the following morning for about ten minutes. Otherwise ten seconds in the microwave for an individual roll is perfect.  I frost them when they are rewarmed.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients – Rolls

• 3 tsp Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Cup of Milk
• ½ Cup Plus 1 Tbsp Sugar
• ½ Cup Butter (Room Temperature)
• 2 Large Eggs (Room Temperature)
• 3 Cups All Purpose Flour Plus Extra for Kneading
• 1 Cup Bread Flour
• 1 tsp Salt

Ingredients – Filling

• 1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• ¼ Cup Cinnamon
• ½ Cup Butter

Ingredients Frosting

• 4 Oz Cream Cheese
• 10 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar (Sifted)
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Instructions:

Heat milk until warm and add 1 Tbsp Sugar and Yeast.  Let sit.  Cream together Butter and remaining Sugar.  Add Eggs mixing until incorporated.  Add Yeast/Milk mixture mix to combine.  Add Flours and salt and mix to just combine.  Pour out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour until no longer sticky.  Knead for two minutes or until smooth.  Form into a ball and put into a bowl to rise.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for one hour.

Mix together Brown Sugar and Cinnamon.  Roll out risen dough into a rectangle of about 15×20 inches.  If butter isn’t at room temperature, warm in microwave for 10 to 15 seconds.  Spread butter over rolled out dough. Evenly sprinkle Sugar Cinnamon over butter.  Roll up dough and cut into 1 – 2 inch rolls.  Put into parchment lined pan and cover with kitchen towel.  Let rise for another hour.

Cream together Butter and Cream Cheese and add powdered sugar and vanilla.  Beat with paddle for at least five minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until rolls are a light golden brown. Frost and eat or cool and cover buns and refrigerate icing.  Reheat at 350° for 10 minutes and then frost.