Cinnamon Rolls

For mother's day I decided to whip up some cinnamon rolls, my mom and I used to stop by Cinnabon whenever we'd go shopping so I thought it was an appropriate mother's day dessert.  I saw this yummy dessert on Bakerella, where else, and couldn't wait to make them.  I decided to make a third of  Pioneer Woman's original Cinnamon Roll recipe, which yields approximately 12 cinnamon rolls.   You'll need appropriately 3 hours before you can chow down.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Active Dry Yeast
• 2.6 cups (Plus 1/3 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
• 1/3 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/3 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 1/3 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
• Plenty Of Melted Butter
• .6 cups Sugar
• Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon
• Ground Nutmeg

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Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pot.  Heat until right before boiling, at this point you'll want to turn off the heat and let the mixture cool, this takes about 20 minutes.  

Make sure the mixture is lukewarm and not hot, add the Active Dry yeast.  

Let this sit for a minute and then add the flour, stir together, cover it and let the dough rise for at least an hour, or in my case head out for sushi and some sake. 

After the mixture has been left alone for an hour, add the extra 1/3 cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir together, let this rise for at least an hour.  I came back from dinner to mix this together and let it sit overnight, also acceptable. 

Once your dough is done rising it'll look something like this.

Make sure you heavily flour your work surface, the last thing you want is for your dough to not roll and be stuck to your counter top.  Preheat your oven to 375.  Take your dough and roll it out into a thin, rectangle, mine looked like this, somewhat resembling a rectangle.

Melt or nuke 1/3-1/2 cup of butter in the microwave, drizzle over the dough.  Add the sugar, cinnamon (plenty of this, the last thing you want if for your cinnamon rolls to not be cinnamony enough) and a little nutmeg (I like cinnamon and nutmeg, the original recipe doesn't add any nutmeg).

Time to start rolling, starting in the middle begin rolling the dough towards you, try to keep the roll as tight as possible.  

My roll wasn't as tight on one end and some of the sugar fell out when I cut it :(  

Pinch the seams together to seal it.  Cut the rolls into 2-3 inch pieces and place in a buttered baking dish, you'll want to let the dough rise for about 20-30 minutes.  Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes.

How yummy do these look, and they haven't even baked yet !

Ta Da..

So good, its a party in your mouth!

I think I am now qualified to pursue a career at Cinnabon.  These were so yummy and sweet they really didn't need the frosting, which was a good thing, considering mine didn't turn out quite right.   You can check out the recipe for the maple frosting Pioneer Woman used.  I think next time I'll try making some Cinnabon inspired frosting.   Enjoy!