Dreaming of a Bakery: Cinnamon Rolls!

A week ago my husband, mother, sister and I returned from an Alaskan cruise and oh, boy was it fantastic! We had perfect weather. The sights were beautiful and we saw countless humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, and eagles. We got close up and personal to glaciers. It was an unforgettable trip! I took almost 2,000 pictures- here's my favorite group shot.

Family photo at the Davidson Glacier

If any of you have ever cruised, you know that while cruising you are overeating (and drinking). Every thing we ate was fantastic...from lobster tails to chateaubriand, ice cream cones to Baked Alaska, cinnamon rolls to stuffed french toast....the list goes on and on and on (and on...).

Pat's favorite thing about breakfast on a Carnival cruise is their cinnamon rolls. We are talking probably three cinnamon rolls each morning. So I decided I would make some homemade cinnamon rolls this week. I typically make the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls because they require zero effort and are pretty tasty! I've made some homemade cinnamon rolls but decided to try out a new recipe from Pioneer Woman. I used her recipe for the rolls themselves, but decided to use a different icing. I used a recipe from All recipes for The Perfect Cinnamon Roll . I mixed up the icing because The Pioneer Woman's icing had real maple syrup and coffee-two of Pat's least favorite things.

I halved the cinnamon roll recipe. Some of her measurements were general, so I will tell you exactly what I did.

Ingredients:

*2 C. of milk ( I only had skim milk so I mixed in about 1 Tbsp of heavy cream)

*1/2 C. sugar

*1/2 C. vegetable oil

*1 package of dry, active yeast

*4 1/2 C. of flour

*3/4 tsp. of baking powder

*1/2 tsp. of baking soda

*1/2 Tbsp of salt

*2/3 C. of melted butter

*1 C. of sugar

*enough cinnamon to coat the dough

Heat the first three ingredients over medium high heat. Allow to cool for about 40 minutes. Please let it cool otherwise the yeast won't activate. Then sprinkle in the yeast and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Next transfer this liquid mixture to your Kitchenaid bowl. On a low speed, mix in 4 cups of flour. Then cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise for about an hour. Next add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Once everything is well combined, add the next 1/2 C. of flour. Cover and place in the fridge until you are ready to use it. I did this the afternoon before.

In the morning or when you are ready to use the dough, split the dough in half. Roll it out thin and rectangularly (I know that's not a real word, but you know what I mean!). Pour and spread 1/2 of the melted butter onto each of the rolled dough. Evenly sprinkled 1/2 C. of sugar on each half. Then cover it with cinnamon. Roll in rectangle then cut into thin slices. I probably cut each roll about 1/3 of an inch. This recipe yields about 50 cinnamon rolls.