THE Cinnabon Recipe

I don't have a picture of these because they disappeared so quickly when we had them as part of Fast Sunday dinner that I didn't have a chance. But they really do taste as good as Cinnabons. We had this with some friends in California. They'd found the recipe online. So I've copied the recipe down as I found it [with my additions in brackets].

Ingredients:

Rolls:
One 3/4 oz. pkg. yeast
1 c. warm milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
1 t. salt
2 eggs
4 c. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 1/2 T. cinnamon
1/3 c. butter

Icing:
7 T. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/4 c. (2 oz) cream cheese
1/2 t. vanilla extract (or almond extract, which I prefer)

Directions:

Rolls:
1. Dissolve yeast in milk.
2. Mix sugar, butter, salt, eggs, flour. Mix well. [I mixed in just the sugar at first, and let the yeast start growing for a bit before mixing in the rest]
3. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead into a large ball. [I kneaded at least 10 minutes, adding flour when the dough got sticky, until the dough was a nice elastic consistency] Cover, let rise 1 hour. [I learned this awesome trick on a friend's blog for raising dough: start an empty dishwasher running (no soap!) and then stop it a few minutes into the cycle. It will be nice and warm and moist in there. Just stick your bowl of dough, covered with a cloth, into the bottom of the washer and close the door (but don't re-start the wash cycle!)]
4. Roll dough into a 21"x16" wide rectangle. With the butter softened, I just use my fingers to spread it generously over the dough. Load 'er up with the filling (see below).
5. Roll from long-side to short side [hot-dog style]. Pinch the ends.
6. Using a very sharp knife (I prefer a serated one) cut into 1-inch wide rolls, amking sixteen. If you want, fewer, bigger rolls, cut them wider. [I actually prefer the unflavored floss approach to cutting--slide a string of floss under the roll of dough and pull the ends of the string across each other at the top until you cut all the way through the dough.]
7. Grease (butter) your preferred baking pan (I like mine to be all squished up next to the other). I generally use an 11"x15" pan. Then place the rolls in pan and into oven. Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes. [For me, this is when I started preheating the oven (to 400 degrees) and I let the rolls rise 30 minutes outside the oven - in the dishwasher again.]
8. Bake until the rolls are slightly browned and not doughy. This will vary according to your oven Just don't overbake. [For me, it wasn't too much longer than 10 minutes.]
9. When done, take 'em out and cover them in the delicious icing.
10. Do I have to admonish you to "enjoy?" Surely not. Then go eat!

Filling:
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling and the icing. Clean-up a little and then go read a chapter or two in your book.
1. Soften butter, so that it is spreadable.
2. After dough has been rolled out to the gigantic rectangle, spread the softened butter all over.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over entire buttered rectangle. Use more if you like more.
4. Now sprinkle the cinnamon over the now sugary, buttery, doughy rectangle.

Icing:
Cream it all together with an electric mixer (or by hand if you just want to exhaust yourself for some reason). Spread on hot rolls.