Hi hi! I hope you all are having a fabulous Monday after a long holiday weekend. We had such a great time. It was so much fun to host Thanksgiving this year. Somehow I never got really stressed (which if you know me is an actual miracle) and I just really enjoyed all the cooking and baking. I will definitely do it again and feel like I learned a lot this first go around. Then on Friday I got up early and went to the mall for some Black Friday shopping. It was such a blast and John and Arabella even joined for a bit. Then over the weekend we decorated for Christmas and went to a Christmas market. It was the perfect way to spend the holiday and definitely brought lots of amazing memories and joy to begin creating some new family traditions.
Speaking of traditions, one of my favorite traditions I grew up with was having homemade cinnamon rolls on the morning of Thanksgiving. Since I was pretty busy cooking on Thanksgiving, I opted to make these over the weekend instead and it was perfect because it ended up being a rainy Sunday morning, making them feel even more special and cozy.
If you have been following me for some time, you know that I have made these in the past, but I have never shared them in detail for you guys, so I thought today I would post the recipe for you all to enjoy. They are so yummy and the taste brings so many wonderful memories for me.
**FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM**
In order to get started you will need Ready Dough from the freezer section at the grocery store. I find this by the bread. You will want to keep it in the freezer until you are ready to use. Once you are ready to use it you will need to pull it out THE NIGHT BEFORE to let it thaw and rise. I just pull mine out when I am about to go to bed. It will probably explode from the bag and that is perfectly fine and a good thing. Means it is ready to go!
Now that your dough is ready, you will want to grease a baking pan and turn your oven on to 350. I just use Pam and spray it really good. Next, you will need a surface to work on. I use a plastic cutting board sprinkled with some flour so my dough doesn’t stick. Once that is ready I pull my dough out of the packaging and place it on the cutting board. If you have a rolling pin, this works best to get it all rolled out, but you can also use your hands. If I use my hands I put some butter on them so the dough doesn’t stick to me, otherwise I put some butter on my rolling pin. You will want it to be the size of about an entire large cutting board. If it is smaller, that is okay, you just might need a smaller pan because the rolls need to be nestled all closely together.
Once it is all rolled out, you will want to cover it with butter. This part I use my fingers for and I like to use margarine because it is softer, but if you use regular butter you will just want to soften it a bit. Cover the entire thing with butter. Then I cover it in brown sugar. You want a reasonable layer (see below). I used about half a small bag. Then I sprinkled sugar over and cinnamon.
After that, you will roll it in to a log and cut into slices. I would say about 1/2 an inch thick or 1 1/2 fingers. The thicker you make them the less you will have and be aware they can drip into your oven, so just keep that in mind. Place each one into the pan and like I mentioned before, make sure they are nestled nice and close. Some of the sugar mixture will fall out, which is fine. We will use that later.
Once your pan is full and they are all nestled closely, sprinkle the sugar mixture that fell out on top. I like to add a little extra brown sugar and cinnamon here too. Then, let them rise for about 15 minutes.
After that, I place them in the over. Mine baked for about 35 minutes. Depending on your oven this might be less or a bit more, but they will be a very light golden yellow on top. When they are done, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART – you will remove them and immediately FLIP THEM OUT onto a foil lined cookie sheet. If you don’t flip them the sugar mix will harden and you won’t be able to remove them, so make sure to slip them out. So yes, you remove and flip the pan over so the bottom is now on the top on the cookie sheet.
Nowwwww, you can enjoy 🙂
**SEE RECIPE BELOW**
I like to dip mine in butter personally. If you are eating them a little later, put them in the microwave for about 20 seconds!
I hope you guys liked this recipe and please let me know if you try it. It is so simple and yummy and will definitely impress kids, friends, and family. It is a perfect tradition to begin or to help you enjoy the season a little more without making something complicated.
xoxo,
Melissa
