Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

I did it.

I finally did it!. And boy, I can't believe I lived this long without it. 

Yep, that's right.

I whipped up an ENORMOUS batch of Ree (aka The Pioneer Woman's) world famous (literally) cinnamon rolls.

I had the perfect opportunity. 

Fifteen teenagers were over for the night. 

Twenty four hours of Star Wars. 

My husband was in charge of corralling the troupes lined up in our tripped out basement--

complete with surround sound and projector screen.  

I monitored upstairs activities. 

Which, for the most part, included 8 crazy middle school girls screaming and squealing about every other thing. 

It's great!

I love my job.

And I love making people happy. 

And cinnamon rolls (well, food in general) are a great way to make people happy love you forever.

This recipe has been on my "to do" list for quite some time.

But I wasn't sure when I'd need a ton of rolls.

This was the perfect opportunity. 

I even have a tray of unbaked rolls in the fridge.

And took a pan over to the neighbors to celebrate their baby's arrival. 

And shared a couple with the pastor and the secretary.

And all of us ate at least two. 

Wow.

But talk about simple. 

These were totally easy to throw together and the ingredients are all of the on-hand variety.

My one caution: don't use a wooden spoon that holds emotional connections for you.

My spoon broke in HALF as I was stirring in the final cup of flour. 

Wow. I didn't know that was possible.

My second caution: (oops. I guess I lied about the one caution)

Don't...I repeat DO NOT make these unless you have people to eat them all. 

You might die of fluffy cinnamon roll sugar overload. 

Though it would be a sweet sweet death.

Makes 48 cinnamon rolls. 

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients

1 quart (4 cups) whole milk (I only had skim. They were still amazing.)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast

8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder

1 teaspoon (scant) baking soda

1 Tbsp (heaping) salt

Plenty Of Melted Butter

2 cups Sugar

Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

_____

MAPLE FROSTING:

1 (2 lb) bag powdered sugar

2 teaspoons maple flavoring (I just squirted in some syrup b/c I had no flavoring. But I would recommend the flavoring.)

½ cups milk

¼ cups melted butter

¼ cups brewed coffee

⅛ teaspoons salt

Directions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan or 9x13" pans. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. (Tip: cut the roll of dough in half. Then in quarters. Then in eighths. And so on. This maintains equal roll sizing.)

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Cover with tea towels and let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes (for a 9x13) or 8-10 minutes for one 7inch pie plate.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

Enjoy warm. Or rewarmed. Or cold. It's all good.