Cinnamon Rolls:Ree & Leigh{Anne}

Note:  If you have entered the giveaway for the beautiful vintage inspired necklace for Mother’s Day pop on over and enter right away!!

The other day I was reading through all the comments from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook giveaway.  I wanted to see which of PW’s recipes were the most popular.  I think the winner had to be Crash Hot Potatoes with Marlboro Man Sandwich a close second. But the other recipe that was mentioned over and over again was the cinnamon rolls.  I had not made them yet so I decided last weekend when Cali was home for her brief stop over before leaving for London was the perfect opportunity.

You see, the weekend before I was in the dog house.  The first weekend of April is always General Conference for us.  A weekend when we get to stay home in our jammies, watch our church leaders on television provide amazing counsel and guidance and eat cinnamon rolls.

The only problem was I forgot to make the cinnamon rolls.  Sunday morning, when we sat down on the couch, snuggled up in a quilt and I handed Tessa a plate of yummy, freshly made orange pancakes with orange syrup she demanded to know where the cinnamon rolls were.  “You ALWAYS make cinnamon rolls for General Conference!”  I do?  I guess I did – I forgot this year.  Blame it on turning 50.

I promised her I would make them when Cali was home the next weekend and told her she would enjoy them even more because she could share them with her sister!

I decided to give PW’s cinnamon roll recipe a try.  I love a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before hand and refrigerating it over night.  I love cinnamon rolls but I don’t love getting up at 4 a.m. to make sure they are fresh and warm for breakfast.

With PW’s version you can sleep in until about an hour and a half or so before you want to eat them.  You need to allow time to roll them out, add the filling and cut them and then let them rise for 30 minutes or so and then bake them.  One tip I use to help them rise faster is to preheat my oven to 150 and then turn it off and put the rolls in.

My favorite part of the recipe was the maple frosting.  I love anything with maple flavoring in it.  PW also used coffee in her frosting but since we don’t drink coffee at our house and I don’t even like the flavor of coffee I left it out.  The maple flavoring addition is divine.  I think I went a little overboard on the frosting but it is so good!

The recipe makes a very large batch.  I cut the recipe in half and still had enough rolls to fill about 3 pans.  After rolling them out, cutting them and placing them in a pan I covered two pans with foil and put them in the freezer.

The cinnamon rolls were light, gooey and delicious!  I will definitely be making them again.  We served them with fresh strawberries dipped in vanilla bean yogurt and brown sugar – yum!!!

It was a perfect welcome home treat for Cali and a perfect bon voyage treat too!!

I even think Tessa has forgiven me for my memory lapse – believe me it won’t happen again!!

Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Frosting

Pioneer Women

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
Plenty Of Melted Butter
2 cups 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 (I left out)
⅛ teaspoons Salt

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 1/2 to 1 cup 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.  I use a piece of thread to cut through the dough.

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.