The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Dan thinks that a good cinnamon roll could distinguish our b&b.  Could make us stand out from the rest.  Could be the thing that everyone raves about to their friends and family when they get home.  Having tasted these, I think he could be right.

I admit that at first, the task of making cinnamon rolls seemed a little daunting.  But since Dan kept persisting, I looked online for a cinnamon roll recipe that came highly recommended.  All over the food blog world, I kept hearing mention of the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls.  The number of times people referred to them was uncanny. I decided it was our recipe.  Luck would have it, Dan's mom gave him the Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas, so I didn't even have to follow the recipe online and risk getting my computer covered in flour. 

I feel like I need to warn you that these rolls are divine.  I don't think I have ever used that word before to describe anything, but it's the only word that comes to mind when I think about the absurd deliciousness that is these rolls. I have a feeling that "divine" might be a word in the Pioneer Woman's daily vocabulary.  I can see now that I have been totally missing out. 

Just in case you want to make them for yourself, and I highly recommend that you do, here's how you do it (recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond):

Combine 1 quart of whole milk, 1 cup of vegetable oil and 1 cup of sugar in a medium sauce pan.  Heat on medium, don't allow to boil.  Mine actually boiled, whoooops.  Of course, the minute I went away to do something else, I came back to find it boiling. But I'm here to let you know that a brief boil didn't ruin the dough at all. Phew.   

Then, you're supposed to let the mixture cool to lukewarm.  This was the most/only frustrating part of the recipe for me. It seemed to take forever.  A watched pot never boils, nor does it cool, evidently.  Next time around, I would immediately switch the milk to a bigger, cool pot or bowl.  That way more heat could escape, the new container wouldn't be hot, and it would be big enough to contain all of the flour you're about to mix in.

Once lukewarm, you add 2 packages of active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons) to the surface of the mixture and let it sit for 1 minute.   Then you add a whopping 8 cups of flour and stir until combined. You cover the dough with a towel and let it sit for an hour.  After that hour, it will look like this:

Next, you add another cup of flour, a heaping teaspoon of baking powder, a scant teaspoon of baking soda, and a tablespoon of salt.   Mix it all well. 

You need 2 cups of melted butter.  I never said this recipe was healthy; it's mouth watering-ly delicious. 

Roll out half of the dough into a large 30x10 inch rectangle.  We measured to see if we were on track.  Luckily, we have more measuring tapes than we know what to do with:

The Good House bakes and Dan is clever:

Once you have the dough rolled out into a large rectangle, you pour a cup of the melted butter on top.  Then you top that with 1/8 of a cup of ground cinnamon and 1 cup of sugar.  It looks like this:

Now, the Pioneer Woman says something in her cookbook that I love, "if a little butter and sugar is good, more is better."  What a smart woman. I could not agree more.  However, I did actually feel like you could go a bit scant on the cup of melted butter and use the remainder to grease the pans for the buns.  We also felt that you could do a little less sugar.  Instead of having big clumps like that, do just enough to have an even coating over the dough.  Yesterday, Dan said one of the rolls he had was a bit crunchy because of too much sugar. 

Then, you roll the dough from the far end towards you, so it turns into one really long roll.  Pioneer Woman says it's okay if some of the filling oozes out.  You pinch the ends together, and it looks like this:

That's a long roll! Then you cut it into 1 1/2 inch slices.  You should get about 20-25 rolls out of each log.

Then, repeat with this process with the other half of the dough.  We had a much easier time rolling it and making it the proper shape the second time around. 

Then, put the rolls into baking pans, making sure not to over crowd them, as the rolls will continue to rise.  Don't forget to butter the pans--possibly with the left overs from the drizzling stage.

I thought these might be too far apart, but you'll see in the final photos, that it was just right. Once you have all of the rolls in pans, cover them again and let them sit for 20 more minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Bake them for 13 to 17 minutes, or until golden brown.  Ours took a bit longer than that, maybe 20 minutes. I guess it depends on how doughy you want them.  I did learn something.  Remember that wonderful preheat feature I told you about? Well, it doesn't work.  When the oven said it was done preheating, the oven thermometer only read 300 degrees.  This probably contributed to our longer cooking time. 

While they're baking, make the maple icing that goes on top.  Combine 2 lbs powdered sugar, 1/2 cup whole milk, 6 tablespoons of melted butter, 1/4 cup of strongly brewed coffee (I just used the leftovers from that morning's brew...it worked), a dash of salt, and 1 tablespoon of maple flavoring or maple extract. 

I was a little nervous that I would hate this icing, since I am not the hugest maple syrup fan, but I actually like it a lot! The coffee helps cut out some of the overly sweet flavor that I think often comes with maple.   Dan was saying that next time, we could make regular icing for the rolls, but I think that this is a bit unique and makes these rolls even more of a stand-out dish.

Don't forget to peek on the rolls as they bake away in the oven!  Take them out when they're golden brown and delicious and your kitchen smells incredible.  (I actually walked outside for a minute, just so I could come back in and smell the aromas anew.  It was totally worth it.)

Look at how many it makes! Luckily, you can freeze them, once frosted.  Just tightly wrap the container in tinfoil.  When you want to eat them later, Pioneer Woman says to take them out of the freezer and warm them in a 250 degree oven for 15 minutes.  

Pioneer Woman also says that she delivers these to all of her friends.  That is very kind and generous of her, but I'm not sure I could do the same.  I am so glad that I have trays of these in my freezer, that I can heat them up in 15 minutes and enjoy the gooey, sweet doughy-ness all over again.