Cinnamon Rolls

Next weekend at Mike's family get together, it is a Thanksgiving brunch.  I have been looking for a reason to try Pioneer Woman's recipe for cinnamon rolls...

The sisters taking turns and working well together went out the window on this project.  Kellie wanted to do it all without Katie even in the room...it was a load of fun... But the good news, even the bickering of the sisters couldn't mess up the wonderfulness of these...

It looks like someone wiped their hands while helping me...

                                                 

Ummmm, butter....

It makes a ton

They were everything I thought they would be.

I sent a pan to our sweet neighbors to see what they thought... he just texted me letting me know that if I forgot to take the rest of them with us to let him know, he would come get them and something about he may have eaten the whole pan I sent over.

The final product...They taste as good as they look!

This is the pan the neighbor may or maynot have eaten all of...

Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

1 quart Whole Milk
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar

2 packages Active Dry Yeast
8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt

2 cups (to 4 Cups) Melted Butter (I used two cups)
2 cups Sugar (I used a comb. of brown sugar and white sugar)
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

_____

MAPLE FROSTING:
1 bag Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
½ cups Milk
¼ cups Melted Butter
¼ cups Brewed Coffee
⅛ teaspoons Salt
(I omitted the coffee and butter and still turned out great.)
Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1 ½ to 2 cups melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

I have two big pans in the freezer to bake the morning of the brunch, a pan to bake to take to work in the morning, and 3 small pans in the freezer...
Here is what I learned... these take a while with all the differnt steps.  They are worth it.  Maple extract stains.  My granit is great for rolling things out on but is too good at hiding spots, you can't tell if you have it all cleaned up...Did I mention these are worth the trouble!