Cinnamon Rolls Are My New Addiction

Yes... they are. Really, these cinnamon rolls turned my world upside down. Everything I thought I knew about cinnamon rolls flew out the window and my world was left in delicious culinary shambles... at least for a few moments anyway.

The Cinnamon Roll Saga

Part I
It was just an ordinary Friday evening. I was browsing through Pioneer Woman's stash of delectable recipes when I came upon the culprit - one diabolical recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls on steroids. (No, I am not exaggerating... but thank you for caring.) Not realizing the semi-supernatural powers of these sweeties, I obtained a copy of the recipe to take home for further consideration and possibly a weekend cooking experiment. Little did I know, these babies were sneaking their way into my home to invade my recipe book for the next 50 years.

Part II
Just an ordinary Saturday morning, 0900 hours (-ish), I woke with a sudden urge to whip up a batch of the from-scratch cinnamon rolls. Maybe I could have them ready in time to wake up Blake! Like a perfectly timed alarm clock, the scent of warm cinnamon rolls would lazily draft its way into the bedroom and into his handsome little nose. Great Idea!  I was ready to roll! Methodically, I began filling the counter top with all the necessary ingredients. Flour, sugar, vanilla, butter, milk... milk?... Milk, where are you? Like a pink salmon swimming upstream in a fury, I had hit a road block and had come to a screeching halt. Not a problem, I will run to the store and grab the milk. I won't worry that I have no make up on because I will go incognito!  No one will recognize me before 10 am in my holey jeans and old t-shirt.

Part III
Thirty minutes later, I arrive at my kitchen with a few grocery bags of items I realized I "needed" along the way and I was back on task. With the milk on the counter alongside my litany of ingredients, I began reading through the recipe. Time passed quickly as I warmed the sugar, milk, and oil, and then added it to the yeast and flour. A large glass bowl soon was filled with a lovely mixture of sweet yeast bread and left to rise. By this time, the hours had run away from me. I realized it was 11 o'clock and my sweet husband was still sound asleep, exhausted as he was from a late night of video games during his weekend of freedom. My plan was not coming together quite as well as I had hoped. That wafting of cinnamon goodness was not going to sweep through his nostrils for another couple of hours and by that time, lunch would be calling him to some manly man's food. So I woke him up and we made a plan for our day while the bread rose and rose and rose.

Part IV
After lunch and a few short errands, I finally made it back to the rising bread and rolled it into long rolls of creamy butter, sugar and cinnamon perfection. Then I rolled, cut and piled into nearby pie pans - 6 to be exact- and covered them for later use, freezing, refrigerating, and gifting. By this point, you must be thinking, how can something this tedious and time consuming be worth the wait and work? Oh, my friend, I once was a doubter, just like yourself, until Sunday morning came and the cinnamon roll goodness I had been preparing for all Saturday drifted over my lips to greet my taste buds with an Oh-so-sweet and glazed Melt-in-my-mouth "Hello"! Yes, they are that good! Addictive doesn't begin to describe my delight in these cute fluffy sweet rolls.

The Secret (SHH!).... 

The Best Cinnamon Rolls Recipe I have Ever Encountered

Friends, don't be scared or shy!  Everyone has their first encounter with yeast in baking at some point. You can't avoid this milestone for the rest of your life! It really is not as much work as it is just waiting for the dough to rise. Meanwhile, you have time for reading, playing, watching, eating, cleaning, snooping, laughing, and all the things you love the most.  Then this good sweet shareable addiction will be yours in truth- a bond that will never be broken between us. Please make them for yourself, your friends, your families. The world will thank you. Cinnamon roll lovers unite! Cinnamon Roll Dreams to All and To All a Good Night.