Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are one of my vices. I have many. All food related.

I saw Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls on her site and decided I should give them a whirl. After looking at the recipe and nearly keeling over, I decided to halve the recipe. That crazy woman wanted me to put 9 cups of flour into this?? And she claims it would feed 8 people. Um. No.

So I halved it. Thinking it was going to make 4 cinnamon rolls.

It made 4 cinnamon rolls the size of my hand, not curled into a fist, wide open...jazz hands.

Later in the week my husband and I were at Barnes and Noble and I peeked in her book. Yeah, in her book she uses the same recipe and says it will make 24. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

I thought these were decent. I loved the icing on the top. My main complaint was that the cinnamon and sugar on the inside sort of disappeared into the dough after baking. You didn't get that traditional swirl of a cinnamon roll where you can unravel it and devour the middle.

Still, I would make these again knowing that I could halve the recipe and make 12 cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon Rolls
Source: Pioneer Woman
Yield: 24 servings

1 quart Whole Milk
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast
8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
Plenty Of Melted Butter
2 cups Sugar
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

MAPLE FROSTING:
1 bag Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
½ cups Milk
¼ cups Melted Butter
¼ cups Brewed Coffee
⅛ teaspoons Salt

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.