Cinnamon Rolls

Introduction:

What a wonderful way to make the house smell like Grandma came to visit and made something in the oven.

Cinnamon Rolls

Prep time: almost 3 hours Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: 

Dough: 

1. ¼ ounce pkg yeast
2. ½ cup warm water
3. ½ cup scalded milk
4. 1/4 cup sugar
5. 1/3 cup butter or shortening
6. 1 teaspoon salt
7. 1 egg
8. 3 ½ to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

1. ½ cup melted butter plus more for pan
2. ¼ cup sugar plus more for pan
3. 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4. ¾ cup raisins, walnuts or pecans, optional

Glaze:

1. 4 Tablespoons butter
2. 2 cups powdered sugar
3. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4. 3 to 6 tablespoons hot water 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F after Step 4 is completed.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and egg.  Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth.  Add yeast mixture.  Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle.  Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes.  Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 ½ hours.
3. When doubled in size, punch down dough.  Roll out on a floured surface into a 15X9 inch rectangle.  Spread melted butter all over dough.  Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough.  Sprinkle with walnuts, pecans, or raisins if desired.  Beginning at the 15 inch side, rolled up dough and pinch edge together to seal.  Cut into 12 to 15 slices.
4. Coat the bottom of baking pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar.  Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled about 45 minutes.  Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.
5. Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Add hot water 1 Tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency.  Spread over slightly cooled rolls.

Conclusion:

Pecans work best with cinnamon rolls but if you don’t have pecans, walnuts will do in a pinch.  You can use half nuts and half raisins in measurement if you want both. The measurements would equal ¼ cup and 2 Tablespoons of raisins and ¼ cup and 2 Tablespoons of nuts.  Oooey Gooey goodness just steaming with cinnamon, nuts, and sweet glaze. 

We used a 13X9 Pyrex pan instead of a cookie sheet to bake our Cinnamon Rolls.  When you put the cinnamon rolls in the pan, place them very close together.  They turn out soft and sweet both in the middle and the outside edge.  Either way, pan or cookie sheet, works fine but we found the Pyrex pan to work better.  You can pick one up for a very reasonable price.  Just click on the picture