Cinnamon Rolls

It's increasingly difficult for me to find time to bake nowadays. Projects are due, finals are ahead and so is Cupcake Camp 2010!! I am so excited, I've been thinking of what cupcake to make for a long time. I can't wait to finally assemble it this weekend! By the way, Ricardo is supposed to be there... THE Ricardo from television! I think it's the first time I'll be seeing a celebrity chef in real life!

Ok enough excitement for now, let's keep some for Sunday! I made these cinnamon rolls out of the blue. I woke up early one morning, and as I updated myself in the blogging world, I fell upon some delicious looking Cinnamon Rolls. I always have this fear of working with yeast for some reason, but I thought, what the heck! They were supposed to be knock-off Cinnabons but I found them to have turned out 10 times better!

Cinnabon Knock-Off Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from Tartelette

Makes 12 rolls

For the dough:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1/4 oz. size or 1 pkg.)

1 cup warm milk (105 to 110 degrees F)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix together the sugar, butter, salt and eggs in a mixer bowl. Then add the flour and milk (with yeast) and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball using your hands lightly dusted with flour. Put it in a clean bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size (I left it for about an hour and 20 minutes).

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it until it is approximately 21 inches long and 16 inches wide, about 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and position rack in the middle of the oven.

For the filling:

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the softened butter evenly over the surface of the dough (I didn't use it all) and sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the surface.

Form the rolls:

Working carefully from the top (a 21-inch side), roll the dough down to the bottom edge. Cut the rolled dough into 12 slices of equal thickness (about 1 3/4 inches slices) and place 6 at a time, evenly spaced, in 2 lightly greased baking pans. Let the rolls rise again until doubled in size (about 30 minutes). Bake for 10 minutes or until golden on top.

For the icing:

Adapted from Michael Smith

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp cream (or more depending on the consistency you like, I added more to make it runny)

1 cup powdered sugar

Stir together all the ingredients for the icing and when the rolls have completely cooled, drizzle the icing over them.