Unbelievable Cinnamon Rolls From Scratch

First of all let me say Happy New Year.  I hope the year ahead of you is better than the one behind.

For about a year now I've been wanting to make cinnamon rolls from scratch.  The ones that come in a can are good.  The fresh baked ones at the mall are great.  But I had a crazy feeling that home baked would be even better.  The thing that held me back all this time was the prospect of having a million left over or having to take them somewhere and serving them less than perfectly fresh.

Dough made, topped, rolled, cut and set out to rise.

One weekend my brother in law was in town and I decided this was the chance I'd been waiting for.  I cracked open Artisan Breads Every Day and set to work.  Because of Reinhart's method these take a good while.  The dough is prepared and then set to rise in the fridge over night.  In the morning it comes out a full three hours before it's ready to bake.  This may seem like a lot of work, and it is.  I wasn't about to prepare them for breakfast so we had them very early in the afternoon.  It was worth every bit of work.

Rolls risen and ready to go into the oven.

It turns out I need more work at rolling out dough into a rectangle.  Haha, mine was more of a rectangular-ish amoeba.  The recipe says the yield is 24 but I got a few more HUGE cinnamon rolls than that.  We each had one, and then another the next day.  I put some in the fridge and the hubby and I had one a night for a few days.  I gave 4 to my sister and I still have 4 in my freezer!  It made A LOT!

All baked and ready to frost.  You wouldn't believe how good they smelled.

I made them with the cream cheese frosting rather than the white fondant glaze, in part because I love cream cheese frosting but also because I had an extra package in my fridge from my birthday cake.  I think that next time I might make them as sticky buns, just to give that a try.

Ready to eat!  Soft and gooey and delicious!

And now, to get my 2011 off to a good start, I'm going to reorganize my cabinets!  If I'm not exhausted by that endeavor and if I'm feeling brave enough I might reorganize my pantry too.  What am I getting myself into?  Wish me luck.

Enjoy.

*Because I borrowed this recipe and did not alter it (in other words, because it does not belong to me) I will not be posting the recipe.  Please refer to Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday pages 140 - 144.