Cinnamon Rolls
November 26, 2008

This recipe is really a continuation of Grandma Wood's Yeast Rolls. So if you haven't read that one, you may want to look at it before starting here.

I made a double recipe of dough for Grandma's yeast rolls for Thanksgiving. When I'd made all the rolls we'd need for our holiday dinner and a few more, I still had a good bit of dough left. (That was secretly my plan. I'm on a diet and need an excuse to make these cinnamon rolls!)

The dough left needs no changes for making cinnamon rolls. The first step is to roll out the dough to about 1/8" to 1/4" thick on a floured surface.

In the Grandma's Yeast Roll recipe, we used a melted Crisco and butter mixture to cover the rolls before letting them raise. I used the remaining Crisco-butter mix, but also added a good bit more butter. Think maybe half and half on it.

Spread the Crisco-butter mixture over the rolled out dough's surface. (Do make sure the mix isn't too hot. I'm not sure, but if really hot, it might damage or kill the yeast in the dough!)

Then spread a layer of brown sugar over the entire dough surface.

Sprinkle ground cinnamon over the sugary surface. You may also want to add some kind of nuts at this point. I didn't here, although I have in the past.

Lightly grease a cake pan or whatever you want to raise and bake your rolls in. I use a Nordicware heavy aluminum 2.5"x9" cake pan that I got to make pineapple upsidedown cake in. I found mine at a local Wal-mart, but can't seem to find it on their site now. The closest I could come was the one shown in the Amazon ad at right.

Anyway, lightly grease the pan.

Then cut your dough into strips 1-1 1/2" wide. Which way you cut, if you've rolled out your dough as I have in a rectangle, will determine the circumference of your cinnamon rolls. Either way should work, though. I've done both big and small. This time I cut by the smaller dimension. Then roll the dough tightly and dip both ends in your Crisco-butter mix.

Space the rolls in your pan leaving sufficient room for them to raise.

Cover the pan with a dish towel and let raise. Here, my cinnamon rolls are sharing the warm space on my oven with some of Grandma's Yeast Rolls that are raising for Thanksgiving dinner. Let them raise about 2 hours or so.

Baking temperature for both the cinnamon rolls and Grandma's Yeast Rolls is 350^o F. I think I let this batch raise a bit too much the first time, so they didn't get quite double in size.

Pop the rolls into the oven for about 15 minutes. While letting the rolls bake, you might want to get some vanilla icing made or set out to warm. I just use a mixture of white powdered sugar, a bit of milk, and about a teaspoon (or less) of vanilla.

When the rolls are lightly browned on top, they should be done.

I like to dribble vanilla icing over the rolls while they're still hot. It melts and makes a nice glaze across them. The rolls are good, however, with or without the icing. The last batch I made with leftover dough got gobbled up with no icing added.

From the at Senior Gardening