Rainy Day Cinnamon Rolls

Woke up to a crisp overcast Sunday morning--my absolute favorite kind of day. The ideal weather has no hint of afternoon sunshine or warmth, just beautiful clouds that envelope me in their grayish hue. It  also happens to be general conference weekend: a weekend held dear to my heart due to the fact that my mother would always make delicious home made cinnamon rolls for the occasion. So, in the spirit of my wonderful mommy I made my own cinnamon rolls--which are actually really difficult because I SUCK AT YEAST. I always kill my yeast. Anyway, here is my recipe for the most mouth-watering, fluffy, delicious cinnamon rolls you can imagine.

Warning: These are huge and gooey and magical. I can only eat about one or two before I've absolutely had enough; they are that good. 

Side-note: The original recipe was written down in an extremely confounding manner (which led to me adding an extra cup of sugar to the dough...) so I re-wrote it for easier deciphering.

INGREDIENTS

Rolls
3 1/2 c. Warm water
6 Tbsp. yeast
1 c. Oil
3/4 c. Sugar (for the dough)
3 beaten eggs
1 Tbsp. salt
10 1/2 c. Flour
2 cubes butter (but not for the dough. Don't put this in the dough.)
2 c. Sugar (NOT FOR THE DOUGH)
4 tsp. cinnamon
Non-stick spray
String or doubled thread

Frosting
Butter
Powdered sugar
Milk
Vanilla extract

*orange rinds/real orange juice optional

INSTRUCTIONS
Rolls
1. Mix water, yeast, oil, and 3/4 cup sugar together. Let stand for 15 min. 

     Note: Mix the yeast with bath-tub warm water. Not boiling, not luke warm. Bath-water. 

2. Add eggs, salt and flour. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle flour on clean countertop. Divide dough in half. Roll out to size and shape of large cookie baking sheet.
4. Mix 1 c. Sugar with 1-2 tsp. cinnamon in a small bowl. Spread 1 cube of butter on dough. (I used less) Sprinkle cinnamon mixture evenly over dough.
5. Roll up dough and pinch seam closed. Mark 12 sections with knife, then cut with string or doubled thread. This part is so fun. Place rolls on non-stick spray coated baking sheet. Don't bother trying to space them out, they will just mush together in a giant pile anyway.
6. Repeat butter smearing, cinnamon sprinkling, roll rolling and cutting steps with other half of dough.
7. Set oven to 400° and let rolls rise for 10 min. while oven is preheating (or until they look like they've risen enough. If you've killed your yeast they will be super flat). When oven is heated, bake for 15-20 min.
8. Let cool almost completely before frosting.

Frosting: 
1. Mix ingredients together to get the desired consistency (less milk and vanilla for thicker frosting, more milk for thinner frosting or more like icing). I like to make it really thin like a glaze. 

Also, when I split the dough into two halves, I used one part to make cinnamon rolls and the other part to make orange rolls. Just grate some of the rinds and squeeze some of the orange juice into the frosting. Soooo good. 

Anyway, these are the best cinnamon rolls ever. They turned out wonderfully, even though I accidentally added an extra cup of sugar to the dough. Perfect for a stay inside and cuddle cloudy day.