Cinnamon rolls are one of the desserts that are sold in refrigerated tins that you can unwrap and bake. The use of refrigerated dough has caused the stigma associated when attempting to make dough. In reality, cinnamon rolls can be made very easily and by topping it off with a cream cheese frosting makes a fancy roll that melts in your mouth.

My friends, brave guinea pigs, have all claimed these as delicious and amazing. One went as far as stating these cinnamon rolls to be better than cookies and cupcakes. This recipe was taken off of Allrecipes.com, a 5 star recipe with over 4000 reviews!

Please don’t find the “kneading” aspect of this recipe discouraging. In fact, this dough is fairly easy to knead and didn’t stick to my hands at all. The dough is on the dry side but becomes pretty tiring to knead. I personally recommend using a dough hook on a kitchen mixer in order to reach the fully developed dough stage.

For the frosting, I find it easier to beat cold cream cheese directly from the fridge with softened butter. This combination prevents lumps rather than the traditional softened butter and softened cream cheese.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Dough

1 cup Warm Milk (110 Degrees F/45 Degrees C)
2 Eggs, room temperature
⅓ cup Margarine, melted
4 ½ cups Bread Flour
1 tsp Salt
½ cup White Sugar
2 ½ tsp Bread Machine Yeast

Filling

1 cup Brown Sugar, packed
2 ½ Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
⅓ cup Butter, softened

Frosting

1 (3 ounce) Package Cream Cheese, softened
¼ cup Butter, softened
1 ½ cups Confectioners’ Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
⅛ tsp Salt

Directions:

1. Mix wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients. Knead. Let rise in bowl approximately 1 hour.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with ⅓ cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough, making a long roll, and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan or arrange on a cookie sheet so that the rolls are almost touching each other. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, ¼ cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.