Cinnamon Rolls

A few years ago, my sister-in-law Rachel introduced my family to homemade cinnamon rolls at a Walmer Christmas Gathering.  Specifically, she introduced us to The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls.  They are AH-mazing!  Since then, I have periodically made these cinnamon rolls.  My boys all love them.  The recipe is delicious but it makes 7 pans worth of rolls.  Consequently, I only make this recipe when I have space in my kitchen to freeze 6 pans of them or can give several pans away to friends.  I still love this recipe and its great when you do want to have lots to share or freeze.  But I also find it to be a little time consuming and messy (rolling out the rolls takes LOTS of space and usually ends up with flour all over my kitchen).  Here is the recipe if you do want to try it:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

This past February, my husband surprised me (for no particular reason) with this lovely, fancy-schmancy mixer.

I love it!  We never registered for a stand mixer when we got married 9+years ago.  I have spent the last years making things with a hand-held mixer or sometimes actually stirring it with a spoon.  I have friends who were flat out stunned by this revelation and were slightly aghast.

Getting this mixer has encouraged me to finally venture into the world of baking with yeast.  Since I got the mixer, I have mastered pretzel rolls, french bread, cinnamon bread, breadsticks and pizza dough.  It also has made doubling my chocolate chip cookie recipe easier.  And it really came in handy this summer when I had 3 birthday cakes (and all that frosting) to make in a two day time period.  I can't wait to put this mixer to use this winter for holiday baking!

Today I had the idea to make some cinnamon rolls around 2:45 pm, but I didn't want to be done finishing them at midnight.  Then I remembered that my wonderful friend Jaime had shared a great website with me (www.ourbestbites.com) and that they had an everyday (aka "fast") cinnamon roll recipe.  So I tried it.  They weren't kidding.  It is way faster.  I started making them at 3:15 and they were out of the oven by 4:40 and that included me allowing them to 'rise' an extra 20 minutes because I got busy doing homework with the twins.

Here is the finished product.

Now that I now how to make a quick, one pan version of this, I will never be tempted by Cinnabon again.   This recipe makes just 12 rolls, but they are big rolls, so you really don't want more than this because then you will start gaining all sorts of weight.  I thought the rolls were really good.  I followed the directions precisely including the part about cutting the dough rolls with dental floss (super easy way to cut dough without smashing it).  Here is the recipe if you're interested: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/06/everyday-cinnamon-rolls/

The boys loved them.  They had one before soccer practice and one after.  Good thing they are so active and have naturally high metabolisms!  And lest you think I only serve them sugar, they did have vegetables and fresh fruit with it.