Homemade Cinnamon Rolls {Lundi Little Lovelies}

I don't know what cooking or baking went on in your childhood, but my mom was always in the kitchen.  While I was growing up, we had a home cooked meal at the dinner table as a family almost every single night.  So naturally, Mom developed a lot of cooking traditions for our family.  There are so many recipes of hers that I have that are associated with special events and memories.  And I treasure all of them.

One in particular, is Mom's homemade cinnamon rolls.  These are divine!  And to me, they are not only a delicious morning treat, they are a trip back in time to every Christmas morning I've ever had.  Since before I can remember, Mom's Christmas morning tradition has been to have hot cinnamon rolls and sausage balls for breakfast.  The order of events varied from year to year, but we would always wake up at the crack of dawn, open presents, and sit around the table eating cinnamon rolls and sausage balls.  So this recipe is particularly special to me even when you set aside the fact that the cinnamon rolls are just to die for!

For a teensy bit more back story, I asked my mom where she got this recipe, and she said that it is adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from way back in the day.  I've checked my updated Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that my mom bought me a few years ago, and either they changed the recipe, or my mom did quite a bit of adapting.

Oh, and if you're wondering why a couple of mine look a little funny, that's because I chopped up some apple and added it to some of the rolls too.  Yummy!

So, without further delay... Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!

 Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 egg
4 tablespoons margarine, softened
3 1/3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/8 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Margarine

Directions:

1. If you have a bread maker, put all of the ingredients in the pan as your bread maker prefers (just check a similar recipe for order of ingredients) and program it for dough.  This is how I make mine, because it takes a lot less work.
2. If you do not have a bread maker (go buy one!), add yeast to 2 cups of bread flour in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add warmed milk, egg, and softened margarine, and mix thoroughly for 2 minutes.
4. Add the 1/3 cup sugar, the rest of the bread flour, and salt, and mix thoroughly.
5. Knead dough on a floured surface.
6. Place into a greased bowl and cover with a cloth.  Let it rise for 1 hour in a draft-free area.
7. When the dough is finished rising, divide it in half.
8. Roll each half into a rectangle (approximately 15 inches by 10 inches) on a lightly floured surface.
9. Spread margarine liberally over the dough.  The more the better in my opinion.
10. For the filling:  combine the 1/8 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.  I always add a little extra cinnamon because we all know how addicted to it I am!
11. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered dough.
12. Starting at the long side, roll the dough up tightly.
13. Cut off the very ends of the dough, then cut into 12 slices and place in a greased glass baking dish.
14. Cover and let rise for one hour.
15. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until slightly browning on top.

Now, before we continue, I know what you're thinking... I'm supposed to wake up THREE HOURS before I want breakfast to make these things?!  Heck no!  BUT WAIT!  Here's the trick my mom always uses, and now I do too.  I do steps 1-13 the night before.  Once you've got the cinnamon rolls in the pan and all ready for the last rise, cover them tightly with plastic wrap and store them in the fridge.  The next morning, pull them out, take off the plastic wrap and cover them with a towel to let them rise before baking.  I always put them on the stove and preheat the oven so that they get a little extra heat from that.  It makes everything so much easier the morning you want to eat them!

Lastly, I like my cinnamon rolls with a little icing, so I came up with this cream cheese drizzle to put on top of them!

Ingredients:
2-3 ounces cream cheese, softened (I always use 1/3 less fat)
Several drops vanilla
1/8 cup milk
Powdered sugar

 Directions:

1. Combine the softened cream cheese, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl.
2. Add powdered sugar about a 1/4 cup at a time until you get a consistency you like.  I like mine thick enough to pipe on and hold its shape, but you can make it really runny to just plop on top of your rolls too.  This one's really up to you!

Enjoy!!!