The BEST Cinammon Rolls EVER!

So, yesterday I promised to share my new absolute favorite awesome, wonderful, recipe.  BEFORE I share with you, I just want to give you a little warning.  You see, I have never taken drugs in my life.  I was not the experimenting type.  HOWEVER, apparently when you put these ingredients together, they form some kind of addictive substance because I could NOT quit eating them.  COULD.  NOT.  **I gained two pounds eating these, but they were totally worth it!  I apologize ahead of time if you make these and go from looking like this...

to looking like....well, me, at this moment.  Anyway, let's move on to the recipe, shall we? 

Okay.  I LOVE cinammon rolls.  They are just about my favorite thing to eat.  I love them even more than chocolate.  Wow, that's a lot of love!  Anyway, I've been searching for the perfect cinammon roll recipe FOREVER.  Friends, I think I have found it!!!  Have you been to Cinnabon?  I've only been one time, but I swear this recipe comes really close.  You ready??? Here we go.  I found this recipe at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, but I did change the original recipe up just a teeny tiny bit to fit my taste and I am soooo happy with how it turned out.

BEST CINAMMON ROLLS EVER!!!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 Tbls. ground cinnamon

(2) .25 oz. pks. active dry yeast (I use 2 TB instant yeast)

1 tsp. granulated sugar

1 cup 110 degree water (approximately)

1 cup warm milk

2/3 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup melted butter

2 tsp. salt

2 eggs – slightly beaten

Up to 8 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup melted butter OR margarine

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans – optional

3/4 cup raisins - optional

1/2 cup melted butter OR margarine

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside for later.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in warm water; set aside (if using instant yeast, you can skip this step)

In a large bowl, mix together milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup melted butter, salt, and eggs; add yeast mixture and 4 cups of flour to mixture; beat until smooth; stir in enough flour to form a slightly stiff dough.

Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 8 minutes.

When your dough is ready, it will be very elastic.

Place dough into a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Before rising (I didn't have any plastic wrap so I used a ziploc storage bag).

After rising.

Punch down dough and let rest for 5 minutes.

Roll dough out onto a floured surface into a 15″ X 20″ rectangle.

Brush 1/2 cup melted butter over dough.

Sprinkle cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar mixture evenly over dough; sprinkle nuts and/or raisins evenly over dough, if desired (I did not use nuts or raisins).

Tightly roll up the long side of dough and pinch edges together to seal; cut the roll into 12 – 15 slices using dental floss or thread (I used a knife and got 19 cinammon rolls in a 13 x 9 and an 8 x 8).

Coat the bottom of a 13″ X 9″ X 2″ baking pan with 1/2 cup melted butter; sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar evenly in the bottom of the pan ( I only brushed the bottom of the pan with a little melted butter to keep them from sticking.  If you choose to do the butter and sugar on the bottom, invert the rolls onto another surface so all the buttery sugary goodness will drip onto the rolls).

Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the prepared pan.

 Cover pan and allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or just eye ball them (I forgot to cover them, but they turned out fine).

Looking good, baby!

Bake rolls in a 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Oh my gracious!!!  Don't they look amazing?  BUT, we're not done yet.  Now for the icing.  Now, you can use whatever icing you prefer, but I love a good cream cheese icing. 

3 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, softened, room temperature
16 oz. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla 

I just whisked together my butter and cream cheese until smooth, added the powdered sugar and whisked together until all the lumps are out.  Stir in vanilla.  Now, taste the icing and see if it's as good as it looks.  It's good, right?  MMMM!  Okay, take your finger out of the icing and spread it on the rolls while they're still slightly warm.  So, I usually reserve about 1/2 cup of icing in case you want to warm the rolls up a little and some of the icing melts off a little and you need some reserve.  I'm weird like that.  It also comes in handy when your kids are fighting because "he or she got more icing on his/hers than I did".  UGH!

Here's the small 8 x 8 pan.  Okay, so it's the small  8 x 8 pan minus two cinammon rolls. 

I couldn't help myself.

Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that.  I would like to close this post with a prayer. 

Dear Lord, thank you for cinnamon rolls.  They rock!  Amen. 

 **  I did finally lose that two pounds, but my Hubby made me promise not to make these again until Teacher Appreciation Day next month.  He couldn't stop eating them either. 

Happy Wednesday!

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