Cinnamon Rolls

I went to a paint your own pottery store on Thursday.  I anticipated spending less than a couple of hours painting.

I found an ornate Inca pattern online.  I overestimated my abilities and interest.

After painting for three and a half hours, I rushed to finish to meet a friend for dinner.

I thought I would paint the back of the plate a solid color, but I didn't have enough time.   After spending hours and money on this plate, I'm sure it is going to look like an eight year old painted it.

The crazy things we do for entertainment.  I made these cinnamon rolls with my sister in-law during the Christmas holidays.  We ate these rolls Christmas morning.  

The recipe came from allrecipes.  We added  raisins and walnuts to the center.  We also made more icing then the recipe directed.

The ingredients for the cinnamon roll are 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons butter, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast, 1/4 cup white sugar, and 1 egg.  The center of the rolls have a little more than 1/4 cup softened butter, around 3 teaspoons cinnamon, walnuts, and raisins.  

The icing used around 3 tablespoons butter, 2 cups confectioners sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and three tablespoons milk.  My sister in-law didn't measure the quantities out for the icing.  She used her best judgement and made the icing her desired consistency.

We heated the milk, water, and butter until it was warm.

We added yeast to the warm milk mixture.  We let the yeast bloom for a few minutes.

We added the egg, sugar, and salt.

We added the flour.  We added enough flour until the dough came off the sides of the bowl when it was being kneaded with the bread hook.  We added the last cup of flour slowly so we didn't add too much flour.  We let the machine knead the dough for seven to eight minutes.

We put the bread aside in a warm spot to rise.  It nearly doubled in size.  This took around an hour.

We rolled the dough out into a big rectangle.

We spread it with lots and lots of softened butter.

We sprinkled it with cinnamon.

We sprinkled it with brown sugar.  In the oven the brown sugar becomes caramelized.  

We added walnuts and raisins.  We left some of the dough plain for my niece and nephews.

We rolled the dough up and then pinched the edge of the dough into the roll.

We used unflavored dental floss to cut the log into segments.  My mother uses this trick when she makes cinnamon rolls.  It keeps the rolls from being squished flat.

We placed these into a greased pan.  At this point we put them in the fridge to rise and bake them the next morning, but that's not necessary.

The next morning we took the dough out of the fridge and let them double in size.  If you make it the same day it will probably only take 30 minutes.  Ours took longer because it was cold.

While the cinnamon rolls baked for 20 to 25 minutes at 375 degrees we made the frosting.  We combined the butter and confectioners sugar.  

We added the vanilla and milk.

We stirred and adjusted the sugar and milk until we made perfectly smooth and thick buttercream.

We let the rolls cool for ten minutes before adding globs of icing onto each roll.

The rolls were still warm and some of the icing melts into the rolls.

We spread the globs of icing on the roll so each bite was smothered in frosting.  

These are amazing when they're still warm.  They are warm and fragrant.

The dough makes a soft, tender, and pillowy bread.

The brown sugar becomes caramelized and smooth in the oven.  The raisins and nuts provide texture and flavor.

The icing becomes a little crunchy after it dries.  It was decadent and homey at the same time.  Cinnamon rolls are one of my greatest weakness.  This a wonderful recipe.  Make it!