Cinnamon Rolls

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I began searching for good cinnamon roll recipes yesterday afternoon and found a slew of them, including smitten kitchen's blog post when she not only shared her recipe for cinnamon buns but also shared with the world that she herself had a 'bun in the oven'- how cute. Don't worry mom... I'm not about to make any kind of announcement like that. And besides, she didn't go on and on about how good they were (maybe she was slightly more excited about her baby than the cinnamon rolls), and I wanted the ultimate cinnamon roll recipe.

The recipe I chose is from The Pioneer Woman on her cooking blog (www.thepioneerwoman.com). She claimed that they are the best cinnamon rolls in the world and I thought that was a pretty high recommendation, so I took her word for it and made these bad boys today. The cinnamon roll itself is pretty classic, however the icing is slightly flavored with maple and coffee which puts these puppies over the top... in a wonderful way. These are very, very, very good. I will search no more for a go-to cinnamon roll recipe. Also, this recipe is halved, and it still made about 30 cinnamon rolls. Yowza.

CINNAMON ROLL INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 package (.25 oz) Active Dry Yeast
- 4 cups of all-purpose flour (plus 1/2 cup extra)
- 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
- 1 1/2 (heaping) teaspoons salt
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- plenty of cinnamon

In a large saucepan heat the milk, oil, and sugar until just before boiling. Remove from heat and let cool to luke warm/warm- about 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the milk mixture and let sit for a minute or two. Add 4 cups of flower and stir together until incorporated. Cover and let rise 1+ hour.

Add the other 1/2 cup flour, along with the baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir to combine. At this point, I covered the bowl and put it in the fridge overnight, however, you can skip this and move straight to making the rolls.

Take the dough and using a rolling pin roll into a large rectangle (mine was roughly 28"x12"). Slowly pour the melted butter on top, trying to keep as much as you can on the dough and not on the counter. Sprinkle the sugar on top and then sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon. Begin rolling the dough towards you, trying to keep the roll as tight as you can. Once fully rolled, pinch the edge closed in order to seal in the buttery-sugary-cinnamony ooze. Cut about 1-2 inches off the ends (the not pretty part) and discard, then cut the remaining dough into 3/4"-1" slices and place in a buttered pan (I used two 9x13 pans, 12 rolls in each, and then put the remaining 7 rolls in a pie pan, totaling 31 cinnamon rolls). Let rise about 20-30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned.

While the rolls are baking you can make the icing...

ICING INGREDIENTS
- 12 ounces powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavoring
- 1/3 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 tablespoons brewed coffee
- 2 pinches of salt

Add all ingredients together in a bowl and whisk until all sugar is disolved. Taste and add any more of the above ingredients until desired consistency/flavor (ex: if its too thin, add more sugar, if its too thick, add a dash more milk/coffee). Pour on top of the cinnamon rolls once they have been taken out of the oven. Eat while warm.... YUM.