My Dad is one of seven siblings, needless to say our family holidays on his side of the family are huge…..I have over 20 first cousins. When I think of holidays at my grandparents house these three things come to mind – beef and homemade noodles, homemade dinner rolls and homemade cinnamon rolls….pans and pans of delicious cinnamon rolls. Before I had a family of my own, I never thought about why we always had cinnamon rolls for dessert, then I had my own family and realized how much work cooking for a crowd was. Apparently, my Grandma is a wise woman, could you imagine the amount of pies 7 children, their spouses and kids would eat? It would be crazy to bake that many pies!! Instead, she made pans and pans of cinnamon rolls and no body cared because they were so delicious!
This cinnamon roll recipe is a fairly simple one to make, simple as in less than 1 hour from start to finish with much of that time not being hands on. It makes two large jelly roll pans full of rolls but can easily be doubled for really large crowds. Occasionally, I freeze a pan or two to pull out at a later time.
- 3½ cups warm water
- ½ cup oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 6 Tbs active dry yeast
- 1 Tbs salt
- 3 eggs
- 10½ cups flour
- For cinnamon sugar mixture
- ½ cup melted butter, divided
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tbs cinnamon
- Frosting
- ½ cup butter, softened
- dash of salt
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 6 + Tbs milk
- In a large stand mixer mix water, oil, ¾ cup of sugar and yeast together.
- Let sit for approximately 10 minutes for yeast to proof
- Mix in salt, eggs and flour and mix on medium speed for 10 minutes until evenly moist, let sit for 10 minutes.
- Mix together cinnamon and sugar and divide in half
- Spread oil on a clean and dry work space (make sure entire work space is oiled)
- Sprinkle flour over dough mixture and remove from bowl and divide in half
- Press out half (press - no rolling pin) into a rectangle 9x13" or larger
- Spread ¼ cup melted butter and sprinkle with ½ cinnamon sugar mixture
- Roll together tightly and divide/cut into 12 rolls.
- Place parchment paper on jelly roll pan and spray with oil (or if freezing I just spray a large aluminum pan with cooking spray)
- Repeat with other half of dough
- Preheat oven to 400 degree
- Allow to rise to desired size (I like them large so approx. 20 minutes...but also depends on temperature and humidity of rising location)
- Bake for 12-14 minutes at 400 degrees (should look golden brown)
- Remove from oven and allow to cool
- Frosting:
- Place powdered sugar, vanilla, butter and salt into bowl. Slowly mix in the milk until desired consistency. The 6 Tbs is just a middle ground, often times a minimum. I tend to add more milk to get a thinner frosting, but be sure to add just a little at a time so the frosting does not get to runny.
- Spread frosting onto both trays of cinnamon rolls and enjoy!
To freeze:
Cover well and freeze. Thaw overnight in fridge before serving. Heat as desired
These also pair well with this Maple Frosting Recipe!
I love this recipe! It’s wonderful these can be made in one hour! I just made these this morning, and I added coffee and maple syrup to the frosting. Instead of 6 T of milk, I did about 3 T milk, 3 T cooled coffee, and then instead of 2 t. of vanilla, I used 1 t. vanilla and 1 t. maple syrup. They make for a fabulous smelling home, too 🙂
I made these for the first time yesterday, and they were SO GOOD!! I cut the recipe in half and it was the perfect amount of dough for a 9 x 13 (12 big rolls). We gobbled them up!