Cinnamon Rolls

Auntie Anne's or Cinnabun? Auntie Anne's or Cinnabun. OMG. Everytime I go to the mall I take at least 3 minutes to decide. Recently I have gone for Auntie Anne's because of salt cravings, but I do heart me some Cinnabun.

Well, these are no Cinnabun. No, Cinnabun does not have deliciously maple-coffee contrasted frosting. Wow. This frosting. The combo of maple and coffee...wow. I didn't know if I'd like the coffee in it so I first made it without the coffee, with extra milk instead, but it was a little sweet. So I added just a little coffee, and OMG. The heavens opened and sang their praises of Jaun Valdez. Wow. I had never thought of this combo but now I will try to work it into more food groups. I foresee maple cupcakes with coffee frosting in my future.I have recently started reading Pioneer Woman and Pioneer Woman Cooks. I adore this chica. She is hillarious. She is also a pretty darned good cook. I have a couple of recipes of hers that I wanna try because they look so darn good. My one complaint is the lack of formatting of recipes, but that is why I am formating the recipe before sending it out to you lovelies. I know, I am too good to you. Anyway, point was that I am giving credit where credit is due, which is over with the Pioneer Woman.As previously mentioned, the icing, or my modification there of since I wasn't able to do her exact frosting, is divine. I had some issues with baking the rolls, but I think I finally fixed it. As previously stated, my oven is messed up, so I blame this a lot on my oven and not the recipe. My 1st batch of rolls did NOT cook on the inside. They were dark outside and gooey (in the bad way) inside. Bad oven, bad. Next batch I started the rolls in a cold oven and set it to 350. The buns warmed up while the oven preheated, so the insides got warm before the outside burnt. I sadly did not record how long they took to cook.
A tip I found a little too late that would have been good to know: "the easiest way to cut cinnamon buns is to use DENTAL FLOSS!! If you cut a length of dental floss, and slide it under the end of the cinnamon bun roll (so the long ends come up on the narrow sides of the rolls), slide it back the 3/4 to 1″ and then bring the ends together, crossing them over and you will cut the dough." I also just realized it would likely be a good idea to refridgerate the dough before cutting or put in the freezer a few minutes so that it holds its shape better. Just a thought.

Oh, and these supposedly freeze well. With it making 6 pans worth, that's a good thing. I have 2 pans in the freezer in ziploc freezer bag. In a week or so I will probably pull one out, let it defrost over night, then bake as directed. Makes it so much easier!
Cinnamon Rolls
4 cups (1 qt) milk
1 cup oil
3 cups sugar, divided
2 packs (4 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
9 cups AP flour, divided
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 "scant" (less than a full) teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping tablespoon of salt
2-3 cups butter, melted
a lot of cinnamon (maybe 4 TBSP?)
Frosting
1 2lb bag of powdered sugar
4 TBSP maple or maple flavored syrup
½ cup milk
¼ cup melted butter
1/4 cup of brewed coffee (maybe more if you like coffee and you are ok with a less solid icing)
1/8 teaspoon (a generous pinch) salt

Mix milk, oil and 1 cup sugar in a BIG pan. "Scald" the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point.) Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. Do not rush this. Wait until you can hold your hand to the bottom of the pot and not feel like you have to pull it off, even after 5 or 10 sec. It really can't be hot or you will kill your yeast. Conversely, keep it kinda warm...like body temp.

When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in Yeast. Let this sit for a minute so the yeast gets all warm and moist and happy

Then add 8 cups of flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let sit for at least an hour.

Now add 1 more cup of flour, 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 splurge out of the pan, just punch it down. Or, of course, you can just go ahead and make the rolls.Sprinkle a large surface generously with flour (important so you can actually roll it. I recomend covering your surface with plastic wrap then the flour so you can easily roll and unstick, kind of like rolling sushi). Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle on the floured area. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Rectangle should increase in both width and length as you roll it out. I think mine was about 3' x 1.5', but next time I may make it smaller and thicker so it is eaier to roll and cut without ripping.

Now drizzle 1 1/2 to 2 cups melted butter over the dough. PW says "Don’t be shy; lay it on thick, baby. You know you want it" but I think this made it far too messy and recomend 1 - 1 1/2 cups (I did this on my 2nd batch and thought it was fine). Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter, followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamonNow, starting at the end opposite you (should be a long end), begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Some of the butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture may ooze out toward the end, but that’s no big deal (I took the ooze and spread it on top of the rolls, so it baked back in). Pinch the seam to the roll to seal it (easier said then done. try to keep it as neat as possible, but rising and baking covers most mess ups)Spread melted butter in six to seven round, foil cake or pie pans. Then begin cutting rolls approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thick (this is hard to do neatly. I appologize now) and laying them in the buttered pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. This recipe makes approximately seven pans of rolls (made 6 for me).

Let the rolls sit for 20 to 30 minutes to rise (mine took a little longer), then either:
bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.
OR put in unheated oven. Set oven to 350 and bake until golden brown. Keep an eye on it.While the rolls are in the oven, make the maple frosting. To a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar, maple syrup, milk, melted butter, coffee and salt. Mix (a wisk will do)

Generously drizzle frosting over warm rolls after you pull them out of the oven.