Pioneer Girl has a recipe for amazing homemade cinnamon rolls.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/Please note - I HALVED the recipe because it makes SEVEN tins of rolls and that is too much for my purposes. I also substituted brown sugar instead of all white sugar for the inside filling. My adaptation and "halving" of the recipe is below.
Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Frosting – half recipe
Prep Time: 2 Hours Cook Time: 30 Minutes Difficulty: Easy
Servings – makes 3 pie tins of rolls, about 7 rolls per pan.
Ingredients – Rolls Ingredients – maple frosting
■2 cups (or ½ quart) Whole Milk ■1/2 bag Powdered Sugar
■1/2 cup Vegetable Oil ■1 teaspoon Maple Flavoring
■1/2 cup Sugar ■1/4 cup Milk
■1 package Active Dry Yeast ■2 Tbsp Melted Butter
■4 cups (Plus 1/2 Cup, Separated) All-purpose Flour ■1/8-1/4 cups Brewed Coffee
■1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder ■pinch of Salt
■1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda (less than ½ tsp)
■1/2 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
■1/2 – 1 cup Melted Butter
■1/4 cup white sugar
■ ½ cup brown sugar
■Generous Sprinkling of Cinnamon
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 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour. (Mine needed about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to rise.)
After rising for at least an hour, add 1/2 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). Or, of course, you can just go ahead and make the rolls.
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. Rectangle should increase in both width and length as you roll it out. (Try to get it about 7-10 inches wide, and very long.
Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup white 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. Some of the butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture may ooze out toward the end, but that’s no big deal. 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. This half recipe makes approximately three pans of rolls.
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.
While the rolls are in the oven, make the deliciously sinful maple frosting.
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. Be sure to get frosting around the perimeter of the pan, too, so the icing will coat the outside of the rolls. The frosting will settle in and become one with the cinnamon rolls.
