Yummy Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Ooey, gooey, yummy cinnamon rolls! They’re a favorite here in our house. Several years ago, I started teaching my kids to make them and before that having them help me. They love being in the kitchen and these are really easy to make – as the girl loves surprising me with them!

Sometimes we change things up (for the filling) or will do a half and half alternative if we’re running low on milk or sugar. We’ve even used packaged (boxed) bread mix, only if they call for water we will use milk or half water and half milk. Hey, you do what you have to do when you want cinnamon rolls!

Dough:

1 cup milk (lukewarm)
1/3 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs (room temp)
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 packet of Instant Yeast or Active Dry Yeast (1 packet = 2 1/4 teaspoons)

If you use a microwave to warm your milk, do so at 15 second intervals. If you use the stovetop – remember to warm it up not hot or boiling. I combine all of my ingredients together using a mixer. I start at low speed and bump up by one [I start with two cups of flour, yeast, salt, and half the sugar – mixing that well – then add in an egg, some of the butter (as I’ve cut it in pieces) and half of the milk; then two cups of flour, remaining butter, remaining sugar and the remaining milk and egg; then the rest of the flour or as I feel it needs depending on if the dough is sticky/wet or not] until it’s mixed thoroughly and I’m back on low speed with a soft dough ball.

I have another bowl that I have sprayed with cooking spray (usually butter) and I take the dough ball from the previous bowl and as I place it into the sprayed bowl, I make sure to coat the dough ball against all areas of the greased bowl. Then I take the bowl with the dough and place it in a warm area where I will either just top it with a kitchen towel over it or lightly place (do not seal down) saran wrap over it and again sometimes a kitchen towel over. (Note: I have in some instances just laid the dough ball out on the table that is usually already lightly dusted in flour and then placed the sprayed bowl I just removed it from over top of it – depending where I am at when making and if I have a warm area) I let the dough sit for one hour and during that time it has doubled in size. It’s beautiful to see and this was always fascinating to my kiddos!

Next we dump out the dough ball onto a floured surface and roll it around on the flour while pushing and deflating it or making it look like various shapes – we get a little silly … what can I say (do you know what that is she has made *lol* I shouldn’t say *wink*)! After flour is most likely all over us and of course the dough itself we start to knead and pat and push and just work it back and forth. I then take our rolling pin and lightly flour the pin itself. With the rolling pin we press down and roll the dough out; and depending, we may or may not get a perfect rectangle – especially if the kids are doing it themselves (most of the time last few years – but it’s still edible and the love put into it makes it that much better)! 

Filling:

Unsalted butter (room temp or spreadable so that it is soft and easy to spread) … some people prefer to use melted butter at this stage and that is fine too. I use a little melted butter for the pan (or Wilton’s Cake Release) and again after baking, before icing.
Sugar (I use regular granulated sugar) let’s say 3/4 cup ~ you can use brown sugar and I have. If I use brown sugar I would suggest 1 cup packed. You could even mix it half granulated and half brown sugar (I’ve done that as well)! YUM!
Cinnamon (around 3 Tablespoons)
*Feel free to add pecans or raisins etc if you’d like*

Spread the softened butter over the rolled out dough. I go as close to the edges as I can get. That’s just me. You can leave a short area around all four “sides” without butter, sugar and cinnamon. You decide. Next I take the sugar-cinnamon mixture and sprinkle all over the butter smothered dough. The kids have sprinkled the sugar first and then dusted out the cinnamon after; instead of mixing together. It’s a personal preference. When we do it that way, it’s usually because we’re using part brown sugar and part granulated sugar. Or because we (or they) forgot to mix it up *haha*

It’s time to roll the dough into a log! Start at one of the long areas and roll (this picture from several years ago – I can’t exactly say “side” but it all worked out in the end) away from you. We do our best to roll tightly until all the dough is rolled into a long log shape. Then we pinch both ends to seal. At last, we cut (sometimes the kids don’t want the pinched ends and they will cut them off – just a smidge) the slices from the log and depending on how large they made each one, we will have anywhere from 12 to 15 cinnamon rolls. I have either taken melted butter or Wilton’s Cake Release to coat the dish we’re going to bake in. You can use round or rectangular – a rectangular size will usually give you more “inside” cinnamon rolls if you like the super soft ones the best! Once again I will lightly cover (kitchen towel or saran wrap not sealed with or without a kitchen towel thrown over) the cinnamon rolls and let them sit for 15 to 30 minutes before baking. They will rise a little more.

While the dough is rising … again, I preheat the oven to 400 degrees. We bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes – just until they’re golden brown (and, please – remove the kitchen towel/saran wrap before baking). While they’re baking we make our glaze unless they’ve decided to use regular vanilla icing – out of a can *ahahaha* As soon as the cinnamon rolls are removed from the oven, we coat them with a little bit of melted butter (optional). I could eat them right then and there!

Time for the icing! My daughter loves vanilla. A lot of times she just uses vanilla icing for cakes. That way she can slather more as she needs it. Seriously *lol* We’re not big on cream cheese icings with our cinnamon rolls so we usually just do an easy glaze.

Icing (glaze):

2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/4 cup (= 4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter (softened)
1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (your taste preference)
5 Tablespoons hot water

Mix together powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla adding hot water one tablespoon at a time until reaching the consistency you want. Pour or spread immediately over warm cinnamon rolls – mixed with the melted butter already on – it seeps into all the areas of the delicious and yummy cinnamon rolls! Optional: sprinkle nuts or raisins here (whether you added them in the filling or not). Now eat and enjoy, trying to save some for later!

This was my daughter’s dough ball after it had risen and she’d started deflating it: