Cinnamon Rolls & A Giveaway!

It’s amazing how quickly one can go through butter for holiday baking, so it’s essential for me to stock up when it goes on sale! Usually $2/lb. is my stock-up price, and when I stock up, I usually buy 10 lbs. at a time. I have to wonder what the cashier thinks of me when I purchase all that butter, and I’ve been asked if I own a bakery once. Nope…I just LOVE to bake!

This recipe for cinnamon rolls goes through some butter, y’all. At first, I thought there was no way all of that butter was going to go in the cinnamon rolls…no way. However….yup…I used over a pound of butter in a batch of cinnamon rolls. 4 sticks alone served as part of the filling! Now, this recipe isn’t just for 8 rolls…I got 48 rolls out of this recipe. It’s the perfect recipe for gift-giving, and it comes from someone who is always cooking for a crowd: The Pioneer Woman.

I’ve heard so many wonderful things about her cinnamon roll recipe, but since it’s such a large recipe, I felt like I needed an occasion to make these. Well, how about the holidays? When this recipe makes 6 pans worth, you could totally get away with gifting this to neighbors, family, friends….whoever you want! I took a tip from The Pioneer Woman, and baked them in cheap disposable baking pans. While they aren’t the prettiest, you can totally dress up the pan by dying the icing, adding sprinkles on top of the rolls & wrapping the pan in holiday cellophane paper! How awesome would it be to give something like this to a loved one?

These cinnamon rolls were divine. Just…divine. This is my first time making cinnamon rolls from scratch, and I firmly believe that the scent of butter/sugar/cinnamon/dough needs to be in a candle. Holy moly…it smelled like king cake in our house! The rolls themselves were a tender, fluffy texture, thanks to Red Star Platinum yeast. I first heard about Red Star Yeast when I attended a King Arthur Flour seminar a couple of years ago. We were given samples at the seminar, and when I baked with the yeast, I was so surprised at how well the dough rose! I ended up purchasing a full 1 lb. block of Red Star Yeast the next week. I’m definitely a fan of their yeast.

When I reached out to the folks at Red Star yeast about this post idea, I was offered to try their new Platinum yeast. The first thing I baked with this yeast were these cinnamon rolls. Wow…I thought their original yeast was something…I was shocked at how awesome this yeast was! My cinnamon rolls rose beautifully, and the end product was so light and perfectly fluffy. As someone who always crosses their fingers and toes when working with this yeast (hoping the dough actually rises), I was so happy to see these nearly professional results in the cinnamon rolls! We ended up sharing these rolls with coworkers, and everyone who tried them, loved them. Someone asked me the calories on these, and well, I simply said there was a whole pound of butter involved here. 😛

Cinnamon Rolls
Source: mildly adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

For the rolls:

• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 packages Red Star Platinum yeast
• 9 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 heaping tsp. baking powder
• 1 scant tsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. salt

For the filling:

• 2 cups (4 sticks) butter, melted
• 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
• 2 cups granulated sugar

For the icing:

• 2 pounds powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• food coloring and sprinkles, optional

Directions:

1.  To make the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil and granulated sugar in a large dutch oven (I used 5 qt.) over medium heat to scald the milk (just before a boil). Set aside and allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm (the mixture must be warm or you could kill the yeast!). Once the mixture has cooled, sprinkle the yeast on top and allow it to sit in the milk mixture for a minute. Add 8 of the cups of flour, and stir until the mixture is just combined. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel, and set the dutch oven in a relatively warm area for about an hour.
2. After the hour is over, remove the towel, and add the last cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and the salt. Stir everything well to combine the dough.
3. To assemble the cinnamon rolls, take out half of the dough and place it on a floured surface. Sprinkle flour on a rolling pin, and roll the dough into a large rectangle (30 by 10 inches approximately). The dough will be rolled very thin.
4. To make the filling, pour 1 cup of the melted butter over top of the rolled dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly over the dough, making sure to leave about an inch of the dough (the inch on the long side closest to you) free of butter. Sprinkle 1/8 cup of the ground cinnamon, as well as 1 cup of the granulated sugar on top of the buttered dough.
5. Beginning at the long side of the dough farthest from you, roll the rectangle of dough tightly towards you. You will want to use both hands, and take your time on this, making sure to keep the roll of dough tight as you go. When you reach the end of the dough, pinch the seam of the dough together, and flip the dough roll to where the seam is face down.
6. If your surface isn’t safe for cutting, carefully transfer your dough to a cutting board, and divide the dough into 24 even pieces. Spray your disposable pans with baking spray, and place the sliced dough in the pans (8 per pan). Repeat the same process with the other half of the dough, and place those in pans as well.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and cover all of the cinnamon roll pans with kitchen towels. Allow the dough to rise one last time on the counter for at least 20 minutes before baking. Once the dough has finished rising, remove the towel and bake the rolls for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Watch the rolls carefully to make sure that they don’t end up too brown from baking.
8. While the rolls are baking, make the icing. In a large bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, butter, vanilla extract and salt until the icing is very smooth. If you’d like, add food coloring (a little at a time) until desired color is achieved. The icing will be a thick, but still pourable consistency.
9. When the rolls are done baking, remove them from the oven and immediately drizzle icing over the top. Spread the icing with a spatula to make sure all edges of the rolls are covered in icing. If you’d like, add sprinkles on top immediately after adding the icing. Once the rolls have  cooled to a warm temperature, enjoy!

The generous folks at Red Star Yeast want to offer one lucky reader of The Nifty Foodie this awesome Red Star Yeast prize package, pictured below. They also sent me the same prize package, and it’s SO awesome! I have a feeling the winner is really gonna love this!

To enter to win this package, use the Rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by Red Star Yeast and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until December 4th at 12:00am (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

DISCLAIMER: I was sent samples of Red Star Platinum yeast, as well as a Red Star Platinum Yeast prize package at no cost to me, for writing this post. Red Star Yeast is also supplying the same prize pack (pictured) for the giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own.