Sticky Weekend Breakfast

ok, so I know I went on and on yesterday about healthy food, but I really want to share a seemingly complicated, but really simple technique with you. (I promise I'll get back to healthy food ASAP!)

Yes! It's cinnamon rolls!! And making your own is WAY healthier than buying one from a bakery or cinnabon - even if they do smell delicious! I recipe I used was from my favorite, Alton Brown. And this recipe is really nice, because you make the cinnamon rolls the night before, let them sit in the refrigerator over night, and then in the morning you bake and enjoy! These make your kitchen smell DELICIOUS too!

So, go get your recipe, ingredients, and I'll show you step-by-step what to do! It might look scary, but I promise, its super simple!

First step, start by whipping your eggs, sugar, butter, and buttermilk in your favorite stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Once it's evenly combined, add your flour, salt, and yeast. Mix very briefly with the whisk attachment, and then to the dough hook on your stand mixer.

The dough hook looks like this:

Once your dough hook is in, mix the dough for 5 minutes on low speed. After 5 minutes, the dough should be clearing the sides and bottom of the bowl. If the dough looks a little sticky, add a bit more flour. Once your dough is soft, but not too sticky, knead it my hand on your counter for a minute. After that, it should look like this:

Lightly oil the dough, and place it in a bowl to proof. (As shown above). Cover with plastic wrap, and let the dough sit in a corner for a few hours until its doubled in size. Like this:

Next comes the fun part! Take your dough on a lightly floured surface, and pound it down with your knuckles. The idea is to get as many of the air bubbles out of the dough as possible. (The "air" is actually the CO2 that the yeast produced!)

 Oh, and make sure you have your filling combined. Mix the melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until it looks crumbly and delicious, similar to this:

Now roll out your dough into a rectangle-ish shape (it doesn't have to be perfect). And keep your filling at the ready! PS: The filling is WAY better than anything you would get elsewhere. Only 1.5 tablespoons of butter for 12 cinnamon rolls?!?! I'll take that any-day!

Now, is your dough rolled out?

Good! Now brush the dough with melted butter. I used a mere 1 Tablespoon over the entire sheet!

Next, take your delicious cinnamon sugar mixture and evenly spread it out over the dough, so it looks like this:

Now, start rolling your giant piece a dough into a log. Roll the dough starting from the long side away from you, like this:

Once in a nice long log, cut the dough into even quarters like this: (and trim up the edges that don't have any sugar in them)

Now, cut each "mini log" evenly into thirds, so they look like cinnamon rolls! Once they are all cut, spread them evenly out onto your baking dish.

They look sooo good already and you can't even eat them! Now, cover this pan in plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, cook cinnamon rolls according to the recipe instructions, and voila! 

You have warm, homemade cinnamon rolls! Ice and devour!