{recipe} Cinnamon Rolls

Weekly Test Recipes: week 33!

I have been searching for the best cinnamon roll recipe for a few months now.  I previously tried Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, and thought they were just okay (a bit dry for my taste).  I've read many people on various blogs raving about Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, so I decided to try her recipe next.  CAUTION: her recipe, as posted below, makes A LOT of rolls....I made a 1/4 recipe and ended up with 16 smallish rolls.  Next time I'm going to make a 1/2 recipe and hopefully get bigger rolls.

CINNAMON ROLLS (Pioneer Woman)

DOUGH:
1 quart whole milk (I used 1%)
1 c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar
2 packages active dry yeast (approx. 5 tsp.)
8 c. (plus 1 c. extra, separated) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 scant tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. salt

FILLING:
4 Tbsp. melted butter
2 c. sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
gound cinnamon

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 yeast. Let sit for a minute, then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir until combined. Cover and let rise for at least an hour. After rising, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together.

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 melted butter over the dough.  Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. 

I suggest using probably twice as much cinnamon as you think you need.  Personal preferance though.  I like a strong cinnamon flavor.

Roll the dough in a neat line toward you, keeping tight.  Pinch the seam to seal it.  Cut the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and lay them in greased 9x13 pan.

This makes me happy.

Let rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375* degrees until light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

fresh outta the oven

FROSTING: (see PW's recipe for her maple frosting...I made regular old powdered sugar frosting a la the kind you make for frosting sugar cookies, simply because I couldn't find the maple flavoring required for the PW recipe.)

1 c. powdered sugar (to start; I always end up adding a bit more as I mix)
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1/4 c. milk
splash of vanilla

Mix all together, adding more powdered sugar if too runny and more milk if too dry.  Pour and spread over still-warm cinnamon rolls.  This recipe makes enough to cover the small batch I made.  It's a pretty forgiving recipe, so these proportions are guesstimated.  Fiddle around and taste-test until you find a combination you like.

Rating: EXCELLENT, especially if using brown sugar instead of granulated sugar in the filling

I brought these to work and completely forgot to take a picture before they were devoured - just one lonely little guy left!  He didn't last long ;)