Dessert of the Week: Cinnamon Rolls

Since Monday was President's Day and I would be home all day, I decided an excellent breakfast was in order! I have been researching cinnamon rolls for a few weeks, and I have no idea why. But finally, one of my favorite blogs, Lauren's Latest, developed her own Cinnabon copycat recipe!

(Delicious picture from Lauren's Latest)

I began the morning at 6am making the dough. Then I let it raise for two hours (in the oven with a hot bowl of water because our apartment is sooo cold) while I pretended to go back to sleep, but really did homework. Then I rolled out the dough and spread the delicious brown sugar mixture over the whole thing, getting my hands all ooey-gooey! Her instructions say to spread the dough to a 20x30 rectangle. Do you know how big that is? HUGE. It was as big as my entire kitchen counter! I didn't quite make it that big, but I did get to about 20x26 or so. Pretty good, eh? 

This dough was AMAZING to work with. I don't have a stand mixer, but my hand mixer with its included dough hooks sure worked hard to get this dough perfect. Seriously, I can't get over how amazing this dough was. It was stretchy and smooth and it rolled out perfectly. It didn't stick to my counter or anything!

I let the rolls rise again for a few hours- not quite as long as they needed. But we were hungry! They baked up just right in 17 minutes in the oven, and they actually spread out more in the oven as well. The original recipe said it would only make 15, but I got 20 out of the recipe, and fit it all in a cookie sheet pan. I did put parchment down- and it worked great!

The frosting was to die for. She recommends spreading half of it right onto the hot rolls straight out of the oven. It melts into everything and makes it so gooey. Then the rest of the frosting is spread onto slightly cooler rolls, to stay on top. I loved this frosting! It was cream cheese- which I usually find too strong. BUT I think she found my secret ingredient for me. Lemon juice! Just a bit of lemon juice cuts through the sweetness of the cream cheese and makes it light.

These were amazing. Not too bready, not too dry, not too frostingy (wait, is that even possible?)

Overall, PERFECT. I will make these again- probably let them raise overnight though. The only downside was they did take 5 hours from start to finish- so these are for sure a rare treat, not a usual thing!