Classic Cinnamon Rolls

Classic. Cinnamon-y. Frosted to perfection.

These cinnamon rolls don't get any better. I've made cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, raspberry rolls, etc. and always liked them. But, never really LOVED them the way I love these. I finally came up with a great recipe that includes aspects of all the others... creating the PERFECT cinnamon rolls! Mmmm...

Recipe:

Dough:

1 cup milk

4 T. shortening

3 1/2 cups sifted flour

2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg at room temperature

Place milk and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until shortening is mostly melted. Stir and set in the refrigerator to cool it down. 

Mix 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt together in a large mixing bowl. When milk/shortening mixture has cooled down to about 105ºF (still really warm but not hot enough to kill the yeast) add it to the flour mixture. Add egg. Stir until well combined (about 1 minute) and scrape sides periodically.

Switch to the dough hook on your mixer. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and mix. The dough should be soft but still a little sticky. Run mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Allow dough to rest while you prepare cinnamon filling.

Filling:

1/2 cup softened, unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine cinnamon and sugar. Mix with softened butter.

Roll dough out into a large rectangle shape of about 12in. x 14in. Spread cinnamon sugar filling on top of rectangle. Roll long side all the way up. Use a piece of dental floss to mark the roll into 12 even pieces. Then slide the dental floss under the roll, bring both ends together on top of roll, cross ends and pull until the floss cuts all the way through the roll. 

Place each piece in a greased 9x13 glass pan. Cover with clean kitchen towel and place on top of your preheating oven. Allow rolls to rise for about 30 minutes or until they have risen enough to fill up the whole pan. 

Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown on tops. 

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine ingredients to make a frosting. Add a little milk if necessary to make the frosting thin enough to spread over warm rolls. Cool in the refrigerator while rolls are baking. When rolls are done baking spread frosting on top.