Grandma's Cinnamon Rolls

Yummy note: Where to even start on this post. This recipe was my grandma's recipe. It is a completely made from scratch recipe that does some time to prepare. I will not kid you about that, but it is SO worth the time. It isn't a very hard recipe, it just takes some time to let the dough rise a few times before it is baked. It really reminds me of all the love and care that my grandma had put forth while making this recipe. Every Sunday after church, we went to her house where she seemed to always have her cinnamon rolls or coffee cakes sitting on the table for breakfast. Since my grandma's passing, the last few years, my mom and sister have occasionally made her rolls, but really I think no one has been able to make them like grandma did. So here's the original recipe of my grandma's cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
2 pkgs yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 egg
1/2 stick of melted margarine or butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp salt
4 tbsp oil
6 cups flour
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Directions:

On the stovetop, heat milk in a small saucepan until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat before it starts to boil or scald. Let it cool a bit, and skim the top of the milk removing that filmy-like layer. While the milk is cooling down, dissolve the 2 pkgs of yeast and 1 tsp of the sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water in a small bowl. This yeast mixture should become bubbly over a few minutes.

Next add 1 egg, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp salt, and the 4 tbsp oil to the cooled milk and mix well with a beater. Then add 2 cups flout to the mix and beat well. Then add yeast mixture into the flour mixture and mix in BY HAND. No need to use the beater for any more of the recipe. After stirring in the yeast mixture, add in 2 more cups of flour and mix. Last add the final 2 cups of flour and mix until incorporated well.

Now knead the dough in the bowl with well-greased hands until the dough becomes smooth and soft. I used a vegetable spray on my hands to keep them from getting too sticky. Also if the dough is too sticky, you might need to add a little more flour, a tablespoon maybe at a time, until the dough has become no longer sticky.

Next cover the dough in the bowl and let it rise about 15 minutes and then punch it down. Cover again and let it rise again until the dough doubles in size. Could take up to an hour or so depending on how warm it is in your kitchen.

Once dough is ready, cut it in half. Roll one half of the dough out on a floured surface. Next take the melted/softened butter and spread it over the dough. Then sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture on that. Roll the dough up like a jellyroll (rolling the long end edge up). Then cut into 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch slices and place into a greased 9x13 pan.

Each dough half makes roughly anywhere from a dozen to 15 rolls. Repeat process again for the other dough ball. For the one batch, I substituted brown sugar instead of the white sugar, which resulted in more of a caramel roll.

For that caramel batch, I also melted a 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp butter, and 1 tbsp light corn syrup together for a caramel goo that goes into the bottom of the 9x13 pan.

After you place the rolled dough pieces in your pan, let it raise again until maybe doubled in size. Then bake about 12-15 minutes until golden grown in a 350 degree oven.

To top the rolls, I made just a simple vanilla glaze frosting. Frosting ingredients included, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tbsp melted butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and about 2 tbsp milk. All depending on how thick you'd like the glaze, add more or less milk.