You did put it in a big enough bowl, right??

The above photo is my dough Rising, covered in an oven that did have the "proof" setting. I'm teaching one of my Dad's friends how to use her oven... I love tutorials on baking!

Isn't she lovely? Mrs. Janet has a beautiful new home in Greers Ferry, Arkansas. I am a guest in her kitchen, and she gave me permission to use these photos.

So while you're waiting on the dough to rise... you can melt lots of butter.. don't be stingy either.
Use REAL UNSALTED BUTTER
Salted butter burns. Ain't no body got time for that! And for that matter, don't use margarine either. Honey, if you're gonna eat a cinnamon roll, enjoy it from the inside out and use real butter. Not oil colored and flavored to resemble butter. There should only be one ingredient on your butter box... "cream" being that one main ingredient. Everyone can pronounce "cream", right? Get to melting!

Cover the bottoms of your pans with a thin layer of butter. You can use any kind of pan you desire. If you wanna keep them all for yourself, cookie sheets will hoard them all onto two large ones. For sharing, the round give-away tins are perfect.
We had a crowd waiting for these rolls, so hoarding was acceptable.

After you've melted all the butter in the neighborhood, and you've lightly buttered your baking pans... you can wash dishes, fold laundry, or sing the alphabet really slow. Wait, forget the laundry... I don't want to ruin the baking experience by throwing in my least favorite chore.

Once Your dough has risen for almost an hour and it's doubled in size, we will ...

Punch down the dough. Punch it! Take out the center with your fist!!
Okay well, don't break your bowl.

After you've relieved the tension and the dough is deflated....

Mix together:
1 cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder, 1 scant teaspoon baking soda, and 1 Tablespoon of salt.

Add it to the dough.. and knead.

(Mixers, just turn it on and sip some sweet tea while us draft horses pull the wagon).

Simply push down, pull it to ya, push down, turn it over, repeat. Just squish it all together over and over for about 5 minutes.
You'll want to time it if you're doing it by hand because 5 minutes is an eternity When you are kneading dough by hand.

If the dough is still too sticky, sprinkling flour a little at a time does the trick. The dough should end up nice and touchable without being sticky.

At this point, you can freeze or refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days... or move forward with the recipe.

Divide the dough in half. Just eyeball it unless you wanna be fancy and use a scale.

Roll the dough into a long rectangle. We are doing both halves in the photo, but you can do one half at a time. hint: refrigerate the other half while you work

Now we can use that melted butter... cover the dough with melted butter. Do. Not. Be. Shy!

Enough to cover, but not run off the sides.

Now cover that butter with organic Saigon Cinnamon.
(Don't ask questions, you're in too deep now).

Now cover that Organic Saigon Cinnamon with sugar....

Now Back to BUTTER....
Pour more melted butter over the top so you can make an ooey gooey texture... this can't be dry, so butter your buns baby!!

Begin to roll from the far edge towards you to make your Cinnamon Roll Log.

Roll her up like breakfast is countin' on it!!

Slice into 1 inch rolls... a knife will suffice... but the trick here is to use dental floss. Slide it under, cross it over and pull until its cut all the way through. I apologize for no photo of the floss method.... I was trying to teach, take photos, and keep it all straight so she could make them herself when I wasn't around... maybe I can add that later.

Place them on the baking sheet with enough space to rise... they should not touch.

Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days...

OR

You may cover and freeze the cinnamon rolls on the cookie sheet. Once frozen, place into freezer bags.

To cook either frozen or refrigerated:
Bring to room temp, bake at 325° for 15-20 min (oven temps vary, so watch for a light golden brown to start on edges).

Here's a shot during the baking process:

While the rolls are baking at 325 for 15-20 minutes,

Make your icing.

I make a different icing than the Pioneer Woman, simply because I do not care for maple flavored icing. If you do, I'm sure her recipe is amazing and you should google it. (Or get her cook book!)

I use:
1 bag of powdered sugar
1 stick butter (room temp, or remainder of the neighborhoods melted butter)
1 cup of whole milk. (CAUTION: you use more or less as needed to make it as thick or thin as you like)
2 tsp high quality vanilla extract.

If you know a Mexican vanilla smuggler, can we be friends?

You can also swing your icing in different ways by adding your own favorite flavoring. Be bold, try something different. Orange and lemon are both good!

Life Hack:
Stick a baggie in a mason jar and pour the icing into it. Clip off the corner and squeeze onto the rolls, while they're fresh out of the oven.

There was a request for raisins on top, so we threw a few down...

You can easily add items like raisins, cooked-diced Apples, etc. right before you roll up the log.

There was a snatchin ....

And a grabbin....

mmmmMMmmmmMMMmmm

Happy Rollin in the Dough!!!

Questions? Have any pointers? I love helpful hints!!

Until the next bake shop...

Jeejee

P.S. please do not over bake your cinnamon rolls. Just watch for a slight light tan to form on the outer sides.