Cinnamon Rolls

Lately I've been having some of the local mamas over weekly and it's been wonderful. Wonderful to hang with them and for Ollie to hang with his friends (/learn to share) and also wonderful that I GET TO BAKE and they can eat it so I don't eat all of it! YAY!

Having local mama friends is wonderful. Great to chat with during the day in our group texting thread, great to have over and have some adult conversation and great to get us out of the house for group play dates!

If you are a mama, I encourage you to try and meet friends around your neighborhood! It's especially nice as a stay-at-home mom to have neighborhood friends!

This week, I made cinnamon rolls for the mama's. I delivered a few to a couple mamas who were stuck at home with sick babes. :( It's been a rough week over here for all the babies and mamas getting sick. Oliver and I have avoided it pretty well this far. Fingers cross that that continues!

I use Food Network's "Almost Famous Cinnamon Rolls" recipe and it never disappoints and it's really easy. Ok, that's a lie, it disappointed once but that was my fault, not the recipes. My yeast/milk combo didn't foam up and I used it anyway - I ended up with cinnamon rocks. Make sure your yeast gets foamy!

This recipe also calls for cutting the dough into 6 portions - those would be HUGE so I do double that and end up with 12 cinnamon rolls. 12 cinnamon rolls that aren't the size of your face.

Look at that big beautiful blob of dough ready to be rolled out. MMM. It was even more big and pillowy before I took it out of the bowl.

These pictures are kind of not awesome because I took them at night and the lighting in our kitchen is awful.

After rolling out the dough you slather it with lots of butter then sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over it.  (I decrease the original cinnamon amount and do 1 TB + 1 heaping TB.) That spot on the far left is butter & sugar-less b/c it's going to be the "tape" that holds the roll together. You wet it just slightly so it'll stick to your rolled up dough.

To get 12 cinnamon rolls - Cut the rolled up log of dough in half, then cut each half in half. Now cut each segment into thirds. Wa-la, 12 cinnamon rolls. 12 regular-sized cinnamon rolls. If you want ginormous ones, go for the 6. :)

Place them in a greased 9x13" baking dish, cover it with saran wrap and let them rise for 45 minutes. After they've risen you can bake them or pop them in the fridge to bake in the morning.

In the morning, I pull the pan out of the fridge and put it on the stove while the oven is warming up. Typically I bake these at 325 for about 40 minutes. That's a little over what the recipe states but they weren't quite golden enough for me. This morning I pulled off a little piece at the bottom of a cinnamon roll to make sure they were done because I wasn't positive. Do that if you aren't sure. No one wants undercooked dough. Bleck.

Then drown them in the icing & enjoy with friends! YUM!

Go make yourself some cinnamon rolls! They are delicious and easy peasy. Well, easy peasy if you have a mixer, just easy if you have to do the kneading by hand. ;)

Click here for my printable with my adaptations!