Today is my husband’s birthday and wanting to do something special for him, I made homemade cinnamon rolls. This was my first time making cinnamon rolls and I learned a lot of lessons on ways to try things the next time. I know through time, I will be able to make these faster (more efficiently) & improve their overall final presentation. I was nervous that they weren’t going to be very good (I had problems with the frosting, more on that later), but they proved to very delicioso! My husband actually said they are the tastiest sweet rolls he’s ever had, and I actually agree with him. Miss Cakes (17 month old) liked these rolls so much, that she actually licked her plate for the first time. This was my first time working directly with yeast and I was unfamiliar with how long it takes bread to rise. I’ll give some of the tips that might make it easier & that I’ll try on the next batch at the end of this post. On to the recipe:

Ingredients for Dough:

1 T. dry yeast

1 C. warm milk

1/3 C. sugar

1/2 C. soft butter

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

4 C. flour

Directions for making the dough:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Knead into a ball or put in a bread machine on the dough setting.
4. Let rise until double in size.
5. Roll dough to about 1/4-inch thick.
6. Spread with filling (see below).

Ingredients for Filling:

1/4 C. soft butter

1 C. brown sugar

3 T. cinnamon

Directions for the Filling:

1. Spread butter evenly on dough.
2. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon evenly over buttered dough.
3. Roll up dough.
4. Slice roll into 1-inch slices.
5. Place on a greased pan.
6. Let rise until double in size.
7. Bake 10 minutes at 400°F.

Ingredients for Icing:

1/2 C. soft butter

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Directions for Frosting:

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Beat until fluffy.
3. Spread lots of icing on the rolls immediately after removing them from oven (when the rolls are the hottest).

This recipe will make 16-18 rolls (mine made 16 good sized rolls and 3 mini ones for the girls, which were really the ends I cut off after rolling the dough). I actually got this recipe from a book I’m reading and it compares the cost of these homemade rolls to the ones you can buy at the mall; per roll: the mall ones will cost about $3.99, while this recipe will cost only 45¢.

Things I’m going to try next time:

• Twice in the recipe it calls for letting the dough to double in size. I heated the milk on the stove top and it became too hot, so it killed the yeast when I mixed it in. Therefore, my dough didn’t double in size. Next time, I’ll heat the milk in the microwave for a very short period, just to warm it to a little above room temp. {Even though the dough didn’t rise to double in size, the rolls were still delicious}
• When I rolled out the dough, I rolled it out on our oven (flat surface). The dough stuck to the surface of the oven and made it difficult to roll up. Next time, I will be rolling out the dough on our kitchen table (larger surface area) & add flour to the surface before rolling out the dough, to prevent sticking. Also, I rolled out the dough thinner than 1/4-inch thick & that also made it more difficult to roll up.
• I recommend using a pan that has sides to help contain the frosting. I had placed the butter in the microwave to help “soften” it for the frosting, but it ended up mostly melted. So instead of my frosting being fluffy, it was runny. Therefore, when I poured the frosting on the rolls (which were on a pan without sides), some of the frosting spilled off the edges of the pan. Also, my frosting had little white lumps in it that didn’t dissolve completely, no matter how much I beat the frosting. I’m not sure if this had something to do with melting the butter and the wrong consistency of the frosting, or if it was the cream cheese, powdered sugar or whipping cream. This may take some testing on my part in order to figure out.

If any of you come across some tips for making these easier/better, please let me know so we call all learn! Enjoy your cinnamon rolls!