Recipe: Cinnamon Rolls

Well, my friends, what better time to post a recipe for cinnamon rolls than at the beginning of the year when I'm not eating sugar?

Yeah.

A few days ago, I was looking over my instagram profile...
(Wait, am I the only one that does this?  Does this make me vain?  Yikes!)
Here's the thing, I look over my instagram profile to remind me of all the lovely things that have happened lately, because that's exactly what I post - lovely little things in my life.

Anyway, as I was looking back over it, I found that picture of the cinnamon rolls I made for my family after Christmas.  A friend had commented on it wanting the recipe, and I had responded to her that it would be on my blog soon.

I have a set of "process" pictures (which I've generally felt are required material in a recipe post) for this recipe that I decided I would post with it on my blog.
Well, turns out those are on the old computer, which I'm just not dealing with right now for many reasons.

I was sorely tempted to wait to post this recipe until I found some way to get those pictures, but I'm just going to bite the bullet and post it, then add pictures later...

Now that I've started out with an incredibly long preface, let me add to it still more.  These cinnamon rolls hold a special place in my heart.
Well, let's face it, all cinnamon rolls hold a special place in my heart.
But these?  They mean summers at camp, they mean afternoon snacks with Lisa and Kara, they mean Sunday morning breakfast with Jennie before church, and so many other things.

Presenting Cinnamon Rolls, Tejas Syle:

Ingredients

• 3 c. Biscuit mix
• 1 c. Milk
• 1/2 c. Butter, melted
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon & 1/2 c. granulated sugar, or packed brown sugar, mixed together

Steps

1.  Using a spoon, stir biscuit mix together with milk just until a ball begins to form. 

2.  Spoon dough onto a floured board.

3.  Kneed about 5-6 times, using extra dry mix as needed to prevent sticking to board or hands.

4.  Using a rolling pin, roll dough out to form a rectangle approximately 10” x  8”. (If you're anything like me, you'll pull out a ruler and measure it, thereby making your genius chef of a Dad crack up...)

5.  Brush with melted butter.  You may not need to use all of the butter, but do be generous with it.  (Not being a butter eater* myself, I always underestimate the amount I should use, and my cinnamon sugar falls out of the roll as I'm transferring it to bake - no bueno.)

6.  Sprinkle with sugar cinnamon mixture.

7.  Roll lengthwise…make roll snug.  Make it VERY snug.  You'll think you have it snug enough, but it needs to be even snugger, I promise.

8.  Cut roll into 1” wide slices then place slices on a greased cookie sheet.  Two things need to be mentioned here:

The best way to cut any sort of roll like this is with floss.  If you don't know how to do that, youtube it.  It will change your life, I promise.

Personally, I always make these cinnamon rolls on a pizza stone without greasing it, but you can use a cookie sheet if you really want to, I guess.

9.  Bake at 350 degrees until moderately brown lightly golden (I like gooey cinnamon rolls).  Time depends entirely on your oven and your taste.  I'd say set your timer for a little less than the time on the biscuit mix box, then monitor the oven.  I don't remember exactly how long they took last time I made them, but it was longer than I estimated.  If you want less gooey, "moderately brown" cinnamon rolls, just make sure to keep an eye on the bottoms as well as the tops.  It's easy to get them a little too crispy on accident.

While the rolls are in the oven, mix up your icing:

Ingredients

• 2 c. Powdered Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Melted Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 2-3 Tbsp Milk, or enough to make icing "spreading" consistency

Steps

1.  Mix powdered sugar and melted butter with electric mixer.

2.  Add vanilla (I think next time I make them, you know, sometime next year, I'll only use half a tsp of vanilla - it can be a little over-powering.)

3.  Add milk slowly, beating until smooth.  Make sure you don't make your icing too "spreadable" - remember it will melt when poured over your hot cinnamon rolls.

Drizzle your icing over the rolls while they are still warm from the oven.

These are equally delicious leftover - I don't even heat them up.

I like them best just plain, but if you want a special treat, you can try one of the following:

Variations

These can be added to the roll after the cinnamon sugar mixture.

• Chocolate chips
• Pecans or walnuts
• Raisins
• Diced fresh fruit such as apples, peaches, bananas
• Pie fillings such as apple or cherry

For Orange Cinnamon Rolls, substitute orange juice for milk in making the dough and the icing.  Also, use brown sugar with the cinnamon instead of granulated sugar.

*As I was writing this, I felt instictively that it was a reference to some bad b-movie, or alternative reality book.  Anyone know what that might be?  I just have this weird picture in my head of some creepy Marsh-wiggle type creatures who make and eat butter all the time, and maybe evenutally turn out to be evil...

Anybody else?  Or is this just a symptom of an over-active imagination?

**Update: I remembered where it's from! It's from a Hallmark movie called The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns that I used to watch when I was younger. I cannot, for the life of me, remember whether the butter eaters were evil or not, though.