Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

For Christmas this year I decided to try my hand at homemade cinnamon rolls.  I've never made them before but have always wanted to try it.

I LOVE pioneer woman and have heard amazing things about her cinnamon rolls but I was worried making the dough would take a while.  So I found this "cheater" recipe that uses frozen roll dough.  I made them a few days before Christmas.  Since my family was in town I knew they would love them for breakfast.

So I rolled out my dough, spread the butter and mixture of sugar and cinnamon.  I rolled them tightly like the instructions said but as I was placing them in the pan I thought "wow, these are REALLY big".  Then I realized that I rolled them from the short end instead of the long end!  Opps!  These things made Grands cinnamon rolls look small.  The most important thing was they tasted amazing!!!

The first day I made them I used the icing on the recipe but the second day I used pioneer woman's and it was fabulous.  I would definitely use her icing next time. These were SO good and yummy.  I've been thinking about them the last few days.  I need to make them again soon and freeze some for later.

So here is the recipe:

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

(recipe from www.deepsouthdish.com)

Ingredients:
- 1 package of frozen dinner rolls or 1 loaf of frozen bread dough (like Rhodes), thawed to room temperature
- 1/2 cup of melted butter
- 1 cup of sugar with 2 heaping tablespoons of cinnamon

Directions:
Sprinkle a bit of flour onto the counter, and gently knead the thawed dough together to form one ball.  Flatten and using a rolling pin, roll into a long rectangle, moving the dough around to make sure it doesn't stick.  Pour the melted butter over the surface of the dough and using your hand, smear it all over the dough, almost to the edges.

Sprinkle the dough generously with cinnamon sugar mixture and roll into a long roll as tightly as possible.  Cut that into half them cut each half evenly into slices about 1-2 inches thick.

Place the rolls in a well buttered cake pan, cover very loosely with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, and put in warm spot to rise.

Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned.