Cinnamon Roll Heaven

So...with all the cooking I had to do for Easter, I felt as though I should make something a bit out-of-the-ordinary for breakfast.  After all.  It was Easter morning.

So I thought I'd make something I'd heard many, many wonderful things about.  Something for which I already had the ingredients in my pantry (big plus, seeing as how Easter wasn't cheap).  Something that I just had a feeling would make me roll my eyes in delight and thank God I was alive.

I was gonna make cinnamon rolls.

But not just any cinnamon rolls.  Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls, which I have heard nothing but tremendous things about.  And since I already had tremendous good luck with one of her recipes in the past, I figured what the heck!

So the night before, I started the dough.  Of course I halved the recipe because, let's face it, I had no business making 7 pans of rolls.  So here's what I did:

I scalded two cups of milk (heated to just short of boiling), then once it cooled to around 110 degrees (lukewarm - any hotter and you'll kill the yeast!) I added 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup of sugar and a packet of yeast and allowed it to "bloom" for several minutes.

To this I added 4 cups of flour and mixed it all together.  Once it was mixed I left it, covered, in a warm spot for one hour in order for it to rise.  Incidentally, my warm spot is in the oven with the light switched on.  I've been told that it's the ideal place, and it is working well for me.

After that hour, I added another 1/2 cup of flour, around 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder (or a heaping 1/2 teaspoon), a scant 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and around 3/4 tablespoon of salt.  Then mix that all together and if you wish, cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight.  That's what I did.  Of course you can make them right away, but the dough can easily sit and wait.

The next day, after rolling the dough out in a rectangle on a lightly floured surface...

I brushed 1 cup of melted butter all over the dough...(PW calls for 1 1/2 to 2 cups.  I just couldn't even bring myself to do it.  Plus I didn't have enough.)

Then I sprinkled 1 cup of sugar all over the butter, doughy goodness.

And then, as you can see, I very generously devoted a great deal of cinnamon to the effort.  After all, these are cinnamon rolls.  In case you forgot what we were making.

This lovely, lovely mess then got rolled up into a log which I made sure to seal once I got to the end.

Then I sliced the log into rolls and placed them in well-buttered cake pans.  Now, with the full recipe PW says this should make around 7 pans of rolls.  I got all of two pans with half the recipe.  Maybe I sliced them more thickly.  Which was just my choice because I love nice, thick cinnamon rolls.

These pans got covered and were left to rise for 30 minutes, then into a 400 degree oven they went for 18 minutes.  Actually I think it was closer to 20.  They got a liiiiittle too brown on top.  Hey, I was super busy.

While the rolls were baking I made a sugary glaze for them! This glaze used: 1/2 bag of powdered sugar, a splash of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Then, just for fun, I added a tablespoon of melted butter.  Just because I could and I'm dangerous like that.

Plus, I don't know...I felt as though the glaze needed some sort of richness.  I didn't like PW's recipe when I read it, because I'm not a huge fan of maple flavoring outside of syrup.  Now that I think about it, I might make more of a frosting next time, using cream cheese.

Now wouldn't THAT be something??

Anyway, rolls came out of oven and glaze met rolls.

And then rolls met mouth.  And then mouth sang with appreciation and downright worship of me, for making them...and of course of PW for sharing the recipe in the first place.

I was pretty wise and foresaw how dangerous these rolls could be for me and my desire to no longer be a "fatty fatty boom boom" (in the words of my beloved friend Gretchen...she wasn't talking about ME, though), so I very bravely gave a pan of them to my family before they left on Easter.  Rob immediately got this look I can only imagine he'd get if I tried to give away, like, our child or something.  But it was for the best for both of us.

My dad is NOT a sweets person.  But he had one when he got home and loved them! Hey, it's one thing to have my sweet-toothed husband love them - but my dad? THAT'S the true test for me.

So lemme tell ya.  Make these.  They're so good, and really very easy to make.

And AMAZING!

Enjoy!