Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Do as your mama says – eat a good breakfast. Go on. Start your day off right with butter, sugar and plenty of gooey icing. Now that’s my kind of breakfast. You can ride the sugar-high you’ll experience from these rolls right into lunch time.

I’ve been stalking Ree on thepioneerwoman.com for quite some time now. I’ve been eyeing her recipe for cinnamon rolls, but have always been leery of recipes calling for yeast. There’s something about it that’s unappetizing. It kind of grosses me out like the living bacteria in yogurt. Ew. But I decided I needed to suck it up because the end product looked so darn good. So I bit the bullet and then a cinnamon roll. And then another…

Recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.com:

*Note: Ree’s original recipe makes about 7 pans of cinnamon rolls, so I halved the recipe and still ended up with four pans!

Ree’s Cinnamon Roll Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 package active dry yeast
4 cups (plus 1/2 cup extra, separated) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
1/2 tablespoon (heaping) salt
1 cup butter, melted
1 cups sugar
Generous sprinkling of cinnamon

In a large pot on the stove-top, scald (bring almost to the boiling point) the milk, oil and sugar. Before it starts to boil, turn off the heat and let the liquid mixture cool for about a half hour. You want it to be luke-warm and not hot.

After about 30 minutes, add the packet of yeast and allow it to get all warm and cozy for about a minute. Then add in the four cups of flour, mix until fully incorporated, and then cover the pot with a clean kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise for at least an hour.

After an hour, add the ½ cup of reserved flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well. You can either use the dough now or cover it and keep it in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.

When you are ready to make the rolls, generously flour a very large work surface. Roll out the dough to approximately 30 inches by 15 inches. This may take a while since the dough likes to spring back a little. But once you do have it rolled-out, pour the melted butter all over the dough and use your fingers to spread it out. That’s why God gave you fingers. If for nothing else, for this recipe. Next, over the butter, sprinkle the cup of sugar and the cinnamon.

Starting at the 30” edge, roll the dough tightly toward the other 30” edge. When you are done, you’ll have a 30” log. Pinch the seam together to seal the log. It’s fine if the ends are uneven and the gooey goodness squishes out. It’ll still taste good!

Spray your baking dishes (I used four 7” tin baking pans) with cooking spray. Slice the log into 1” rolls and place them in the pans. You’ll be able to fit about 5 or 6 rolls per pan. Be careful not to overcrowd them. Next, cover the pans with dish towels and allow the rolls to rise for at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Bake the rolls for about 13 minutes until they are a light brown. Remove the pans from the oven and cover with icing while the rolls are still warm.

Ree makes a maple cinnamon roll icing, but I’m partial to cream cheese icing on my cinnamon rolls. So…

Cream Cheese Icing Ingredients:

16 ounces (2 packages) of cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar
6 teaspoons of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Using an electric mixer, beat all five ingredients together until creamy. This will be plenty of icing for 4 pans of cinnamon rolls. While the rolls are still warm, spread on the cream cheese icing.

Serve immediately or store the cinnamon rolls in the refrigerator. If storing in the refrigerator, they are delicious after popping them (individually and NOT in a tin pan) in the microwave for about 30 seconds each.